Academic Technology Service Director

Job Summary:

Dedicated to the enabling of technology solutions and overall strategy for SMU's Simmons School of Education, the Academic Technology Service Director directly partners in designing, delivering, supporting and continually advancing technology solutions required to advance the instruction, research, learning and vision of the college as required and defined by Simmons' faculty members, academic units and senior leadership. This position will serve as the primary, strategic "face of OIT" within the Simmons community, and work to ensure that especially faculty technology needs and projects are fulfilled. The academic technology services director will work as an embedded community member and partner to identify, to support, to grow, and to be accountable for providing all technology solutions desired by and meaningful to the academic unit's community members.

Essential Functions:

• Maintains on-going strategic planning vision and documentation for the Simmons School. Partners with high-level Simmons Dean or Associate Dean and with the Simmons Technology Advisory Council (TAC) to identify and prioritize the unit's short/mid/long-term strategic technology needs and road map Delivers regular metrics and "progress reports" on state of Simmons' academic technology.
• Serves as technology change agent to Simmons. Assists Simmons community manage technology changes relating to hardware and software solutions, cloud services, classroom technologies, audio/video standards, learning management systems, etc. by providing regular communications, workshops, one-on-one coaching appointments to academic unit faculty members, departments and leadership.
• Keeps abreast of the health and stability of campus IT desktop support and classroom technology service issues impacting the academic unit, facilitates communication and service-level improvements as necessary. Identifies opportunities to improve and integrate more efficient operations, support times and collaborations between OIT and academic unit.
• Serves the academic unit's faculty members, students, departments and leadership as required. Provides influence, expertise, and resourcefulness in identifying and integrating innovative technology solutions that meet unit-specific pedagogical, research and program needs. Provides consultation to faculty members and students to support technology usage that advances the academic mission.
• Manages localized technology solutions team of student employees or other Simmons technology personnel, dedicated to providing technology solutions relating to the creation of digital solutions throughout the Simmons School (primarily through consultation and management of video and audio recording and 3D printing technologies). Deploys/assigns/consults Simmons and OIT team members to meet or manage faculty member or student technology project and needs throughout Simmons.
• Provides primary support to Simmons faculty for getting started with and for building out new courses utilizing academic technology platforms such as the SMU course management system (Canvas). Helps promote common learning management and eLearning system usage and basic instructional design consultation relevant to Simmons faculty and Simmons needs. Collaborates with SMU Center for Teaching Excellence/Continuing Education as appropriate and communicates all decisions and actions to the TAC.
• Supports, facilitates, and provides leadership, coaching and guidance to Simmons community in the use of both standard and innovative technology tools and solutions that help faculty members and students achieve both personal and academic goals and desired learning and business outcomes.
• Serves entire University community as part of OIT's Academic Technology Services team. Assists Academic Technology team members as a cross-functional shared resource that can partner with or backup other academic team members as required. Reinforces and utilizes shared service capabilities available through SMU's other seven colleges, arranging for access and collaboration when sharing is necessary or possible. Collaborates with Academic Technology team as assigned.
• Serves to summarize, translate and adapt (in verbal and written form) technology information (changes, new technologies, problems, policies, etc) to highly dynamic, diverse and non-traditional faculty community with enthusiasm, patience and empathy. Anticipates technology needs and problems for Simmons community and helps overall SMU IT organization better integrate service solutions and service-levels before problems arise.
• Learns new applications, technologies, and skills through hands-on experimentation and direct application and provides mentoring, training, coaching and assistance to faculty members and students within the academic unit. Also performs other duties as assigned relevant to Simmons' community needs and events.

Qualifications Education and Experience:

Bachelor's degree required, Master's or higher preferred with emphasis on education, human development or applicable technologies. 3 years' experience in higher-education required.

Type of work experience: Experience with instructional technology and solid understanding of and appreciation for higher education preferred. Experience with Canvas LMS is required. Experience in advanced usage of Apple and Windows platforms for teaching and research is required. Ambition for continuous improvement and maintaining a high personal performance standard is required. Coaching and teaching abilities are required. Critical thinking and problem solving skills required. Experience identifying, designing, creating and supporting digital solutions required by all modes of instruction is required.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Strong written and verbal communication skills required, coupled with equally strong interpersonal skills and a track record of strong customer service. Candidate must demonstrate strong ability to solve problems, as well as organize and manage projects on-budget and on-time. Candidate is required to have strong organizational and planning skills, attention to detail and experience managing projects with coordinated teams and resources.

Other Knowledge, Skills & Abilities: Advanced experience with Apple and Windows hardware and software technologies is required. Knowledge of digital media production technologies and of the instructional and research process is required. Solid understanding of and appreciation for higher education is required. Experience of both qualitative and quantitative research processes is preferred. Experience creating on-line videos or tutorials is preferred.

Software Skills: Experience with digital audio, video, photographic, and web technology creation tools is required (Adobe Creative Cloud suite, non-linear video editors [Premier, Final Cut Pro, Media Composer, iMovie], digital audio editors [Garageband, ProTools, Logic, Audacity], web-publishing platforms [Wordpress, blog tools, etc.]). Knowledge of cultural technology trends, products, apps, and platforms as potential academic solutions is required. Experience with GIS is preferred.

Physical/Environmental Demands:

• Bend, Stand, Crawl
• Climb, Kneel
• Walk for long distances
• Reach above shoulders
• Handle objects (dexterity)
• Carry/lift 25lbs
• Sit for long periods of time

This position is open until filled.