Associate Director of Financial Aid Operations

Associate Director of Financial Aid Operations Job Summary

The Office of Financial Aid at the University of San Francisco is committed to removing financial barriers to higher education through exceptional student experience and advanced technical analysis. We continue to advocate for educational affordability through a myriad of avenues and evaluations of diverse federal, state, and other financial aid programs. Within this context, the Associate Director of Financial Aid Operations serves a critical role, providing direction, planning, and coordination over key areas in the Financial Aid Office.

The successful candidate will have strong leadership and organizational and technical skills, as well as the ability to prioritize competing needs and effectively manage change and unanticipated challenges.

The Associate Director of Operations will provide oversight and strategic direction for the Financial Aid Office processing operations. They will be responsible for building a strong, integrated service approach to ensure accurate and timely processing of financial aid funds, responses to customer inquiries with regard to student accounts, financial aid, and enrollment information; managing the delivery of information and integrated customer service to a diverse client base comprised of current and prospective undergraduate, graduate, and professional students and their families;

ensuring a consistent and high level customer service experience across all service points (in person, phone, email); and ensure that staff are knowledgeable about and competent in delivering policies, procedures, practices, products, and services.

• Serve as a key member of the Office Leadership Team. Actively contribute to office and staff growth and development, and act as lead for aspects of department operations, processing, and customer service in the absence of the director. Represent the Financial Aid Office at state, regional, and national conferences and training events.
• Work together with the Student Accounts team to ensure Financial Aid participation in student support initiatives and to assist with retention efforts.
• Provide leadership and direction to the financial aid processing team; set short- and long-term goals for the team and motivate staff to achieve them.
• Maintains knowledge of federal and state regulations, and university policies related to financial aid programs to ensure the proper processing and documentation of awards.
• Oversee the year-end reconciliation of the Cal Grant Program.
• Ensure timely processing of verification cases working with staff to ensure knowledge, accuracy and efficiency; coordinating caseloads amongst staff.
• Research applicable U.S. Department of Education directive and/or Internal Revenue Service publications for the proper handling and resolution of student files.
• Communicates accurate processing timelines for loan processing of federal, PLUS and private loans to the front-end team to ensure accurate turnaround times are reported to students and families. Processing that falls below the processing goal would be reported to the Director.
• Monitors tableau dashboards to determine financial aid outreach (email and phone campaigns) needed to ensure timely submission of student documentation.
• Monitors customer reviews for financial aid and ensures that bad reviews are addressed at the student and employee level (when appropriate). Escalations will be sent to the Director of Financial Aid as needed.
• Provide excellent customer service through the use of the queuing system and correspondence through e‑mail, phone calls, and face‑to‑face interactions with students, parents, faculty, staff, and other university stakeholders.
• Works in collaboration with SEM’s Veteran Enrollment Services team; serves as primary contact for VA students and campus constituents.
• Provide seamless transfers for students needing assistance in other areas within the Strategic Enrollment Management or elsewhere within the University.
• Assist with the development and implementation of financial aid counseling strategies to increase enrollment, retention, and graduation rates across the institution.
• Work…