Associate Director of Technology

The Financial Aid Office strives to enable all admitted students to take advantage of the opportunities at Stanford through one of the most generous financial aid programs in the nation. We are a dynamic team of dedicated professionals committed to serving all students, both undergraduate and graduate, and their families. We maximize use of technology to provide funding, tools and information necessary to meet educational expenses for all students. We ensure that institutional, governmental and private funds are administered in compliance with the highest standards of fiscal responsibility.  

The Financial Aid Office (FAO) seeks an Associate Director of Technology to provide specific requirements and/or design solutions for business information systems and incorporate new technical systems to improve work-flow, production, efficiency and effectiveness.

Your responsibilities include:

• Analyzing new business requirements, assisting with feasibility of enhancement requests, system functionality, current system use and user needs; e.g., engaging the user community (400+ existing users across campus) to understand business needs and differences between schools. Proposing new functionality when appropriate. Documenting user needs in functional specifications and ensuring proposed solutions meet user needs. Communicating with the user community about any new functionality.

• Reviewing, researching and evaluating software to determine its usefulness and appropriateness as related to existing or proposed business systems; assisting or developing preliminary and detailed system design documentation; e.g., may get involved in evaluating software for providing training solutions.

• Performing testing of new systems, upgrades and patching of existing systems; planning, conducting and documenting results of testing; e.g., conducting regression testing when Oracle delivers software patches (quarterly), tools upgrades, and upgrades for the LifeRay (Axess) portal. Coordinating with Application Support to ensure no interruptions to graduate student funding.

• Developing instructional materials, training and job aids. Training staff on new functionality and document procedures. Editing and maintaining existing online training, creating new training opportunities, both in person and online, creating web resources and job aids. With the GFS Redesign which went live in March 2018 a series of online courses were made available via Stars. Those courses will require ongoing support. Additional courses are planned. Additionally, the https://gfs.stanford.edu website was redesigned at the same time and a series of job aids are planned.

• Advising users requiring assistance in solving complex problems or issues regarding management and business systems; e.g., providing Tier 2 support for the 400+ users of the GFS system in coordination with the IT Help desk which provides Tier1 support. Issues around graduate funding are often complex requiring detailed knowledge of system capabilities and policy.

• Analyzing data and providing data sets to users for analysis. May include development of operational and analytical reports for end users. Creating reports to meet operational needs for the financial aid program. Coordinating testing of GFS operational reports published in the University’s BI tool and organizing updates when necessary. The existing reports often need to be tested when changes happen in the system. The Analyst will work with the DM&R team to develop new reports and updates existing reports.

• Liaising with external vendors or partners in support of business systems, which may include system development, implementation and/or operations. The Analyst will have partners in AS and in departments across campus.

• Coordinating communications with the user community. Maintaining the Bulletin Board and Calendar in the new GFS Center in Axess. Communicating with users through a mailing list that has over 1,000 subscribers.

*Other duties may also be assigned.

To be successful in this position, you will bring:

• Knowledge of computer system capabilities, business processes, and work flow.

• Experience with enterprise applications and understanding of database driven applications

• Strong understanding of the software development life cycle.

• Knowledge of principles and techniques used in conducting management studies and in systems analysis.

• Current knowledge of rapidly changing computer technology.

• Skill in conducting interviews and facilitating group meetings.

• Skill in developing and conducting training programs.

• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, including the ability to bridge functional and technical resources by communicating effectively with individuals of varying systems expertise and business needs.

• Strong listening, negotiation and conflict resolution skills.

• Ability to design and document complex business systems.

• Proven problem solving and analytical thinking and ability to approach problems logically and systematically.

In addition, preferred requirements include:

• A Bachelor’s degree and five years of relevant experience or a combination of education and relevant experience.

*Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodation to any employee with a disability who requires accommodation to perform the essential functions of his or her job.

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