Associate Director - System Strategy

The Associate Director for Systems Strategy serves as an authority for systems strategy, architecture, and modernization supporting the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office. This role defines and advances the long-term technical direction for systems that enable compliant, secure, and scalable delivery of financial aid and scholarship services across the university.

Operating at a strategic level, the Associate Director addresses highly complex, ambiguous, and novel problems where no established solutions exist. The position establishes future-state architecture, system governance, and data standards; evaluates and selects technologies; and leads cross-functional initiatives that shape institutional systems capabilities and risk posture. Decisions made in this role have sustained, university-wide impact on compliance, operational resilience, and student experience.

This position exercises broad discretion and original judgment, synthesizing regulatory requirements, emerging technologies, and institutional priorities into cohesive system strategies.

• Establishes, owns, and executes a multi-year systems strategy for Financial Aid and Scholarships in collaboration with OIT and aligned with institutional priorities and Enrollment Services’ digital transformation roadmap
• Collaboratively evaluates, selects, and recommends enterprise technologies, platforms, and architectural approaches to enhance operational efficiency, scalability, and student experience
• Designs, implements, and enforces a systems governance framework to ensure alignment, accountability, and consistency across Financial Aid, Scholarships, OIT, and campus partners
• Serves as a senior advisor to Financial Aid leadership on systems modernization, regulatory risk, data stewardship, and long-term sustainability
• Proactively monitors federal, technological, and institutional trends and translates them into strategic system initiatives and readiness plans

• Owns the design, evolution, and optimization of systems architecture, ensuring seamless interoperability among the University SIS, Financial Aid systems, Salesforce, and related platforms. This is done in collaboration with OIT and aligned with university technology standards.
• Directs Financial Aid and Scholarships integration strategy, including APIs, automation, workflows, and data exchanges, in partnership with OIT and vendors
• Establishes Financial Aid and Scholarship standards for system configuration, documentation, performance metrics, and lifecycle management
• Implements technical solutions supporting scholarship management, aid packaging, compliance tracking, and reporting on an institutional scale
• Ensures data integrity, security, business continuity, and disaster recovery through deliberate architecture and redundancy planning

• Leads high-impact system implementations, upgrades, and modernization initiatives from concept through post-implementation evaluation
• Exercises full ownership of project scope, timelines, dependencies, and outcomes for complex, cross-functional initiatives
• Directs the evaluation, piloting, and adoption of automation, analytics, and digital communication tools that improve accuracy, efficiency, and service delivery
• Liaison with OIT Portfolio Director who is responsible for vendor strategy, including RFP development, contract negotiation input, performance management, and service level accountability
• Champions a culture of continuous improvement through data-driven analysis and proactive innovation

• Provides mentorship and professional guidance to systems staff, strengthening technical expertise, project leadership, and analytical capacity
• Cultivates a culture of accountability, innovation, and cross-functional collaboration within the systems team
• Represents Financial Aid and Scholarships as the authoritative systems voice on institutional technology committees and governance bodies
• Ensures the development and delivery of training…