Director, Application Services - Aquinas College, Michigan (On site)

Ellucian Company L.P.; Grand Rapids (MI); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Flexible time off

401k match

Parental leave

Telemedicine

Wellness programs

Education assistance

Job summary

Ellucian is seeking a Director of Applications Services to work onsite at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. You will lead the daily support, evolution, and optimization of the Colleague ERP and other enterprise systems to drive college-wide success.

The ideal candidate will manage staff, collaborate with campus departments, and deliver projects on time while maintaining high standards for quality and service. Expect strong leadership and a focus on reliable, scalable information systems.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3–5 years of experience in higher education IT leadership.
• Proven ability to manage IT staff and complex projects.
• Strong understanding of enterprise applications in higher education.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership for enterprise applications at the college.
• Oversee daily support, evolution, and optimization of ERP systems.
• Manage onsite and remote teams with clear accountability.
• Partner with campus stakeholders to align IT services with goals.
• Ensure project delivery on time, within scope, and with quality.
• Develop change management and communication plans for implementations.

Skills

Leadership

Project management

Staff management

Communication

IT leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Colleague ERP

Banner ERP

Job description

About Ellucian

Ellucian powers innovation for higher education, partnering with approximately 3,000 customers across 50 countries, serving more than 21 million students. Ellucian's AI-powered platform, trained on the richest dataset available in higher education, drives efficiency, personalized experiences, and strengthened engagement for all students, faculty and staff. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. These solutions and services span the entire student lifecycle, including data-rich tools for student recruitment, enrollment, and retention to workforce analytics, fundraising, and alumni engagement. Ellucian's innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners and user community of more than 45,000 provides best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes.

About the Opportunity

Ellucian is seeking to hire a Director of Applications Services to work onsite at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Aquinas College, an inclusive educational community rooted in the Catholic and Dominican tradition, provides a liberal arts education with a global perspective. Aquinas provides residential undergraduate education to nearly 1200 students.

The Enterprise Applications Director's main objective is to drive college success by the daily support and ongoing evolution and optimization of Ellucian Colleague ERP system (technical and functional) and other enterprise application systems at the college. The ideal candidate must be able to manage staff and deal effectively with staff leadership and support, including meeting regularly to discuss the progress of work, resolve problems, and ensure that standards for quality and quantity of work are met. Services are delivered in a combination of on-site staff and remote staff that have a matrix reporting structure.

Where you will make an impact

• Providing strong leadership and management of the information technology staff including meeting regularly to review progress of work, resolution of problems, and ensure that standards for quality and quantity of work are met.
• Management of services for both onsite and remote delivery teams.
• Acting as a strong leader providing good customer relationship skills and presence in managing client the client’s ongoing evolution of its modernization efforts
• Consulting with management and reviewing project proposals to determine goals, time frame, funding limitations, procedures for accomplishing administrative computing projects, staffing requirements, and allotment of resources.
• Effectively managing projects and resources using strong project management skills to articulate project demands, recommend priorities to support groups and committees, and provide frequent project updates while adhering to established timelines.
• Developing and optimizing Colleague and associated administrative systems change management, communication planning, testing procedures, and programming documentation.
• Providing client liaison and technical support for administrative applications including system configuration and usage guidance to the administrative user community.
• Supporting departmental staff and administration with the identification, evaluation, selection, support and maintenance of systems solutions.
• Providing systems analysis, problem solving support, and necessary programming support to provide efficient and effective use of administrative information systems in support of Client’s goals and objectives.
• Providing maintenance, appropriate use, production and problem-solving support, and ad-hoc reporting support.
• Implementing quality assurance methodologies for change management and problem management.
• Meeting with users and staff to determine the impact of proposed changes in software for users.
• Assisting with the evaluation of third-party software and hardware to determine usefulness and compatibility with existing technology.
• Planning and managing data storage and archival operations and solutions.

What you will bring

• 3-5 years of experience in higher education enviroment
• Detailed Project Management skills.
• Solid functional and technical knowledge of Colleague or Banner.
• Higher education experience in an IT management role.
• Experience managing IT personnel both on site & remote.
• Capable of prioritizing and managing incoming project requests and break/fix tickets.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Experience working with support groups, various college departments, and committees.
• Ability to navigate and prioritize conflicting or changing requirements.
• Varied and strong technical background including the implementation of higher education or business management systems.

What makes #Ellucianlife

• Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision
• Flexible time off
• Thrive Flex Lifestyle Account (LSA) that allows you to contribute towards your health, financial or learning interests
• 401k w/ match & BrightPlan - to help you save for the future
• Parental Leave
• 5 charitable days to support the community that supports us
• Telemedicine
• Wellness
  • Headspace Care (mental health)
  • Wellbeats (virtual fitness classes)
• RethinkCare & Wellthy– caregiver support
• Diversity and inclusion programs which provide access to internal employee resource groups
• Employee referral bonuses to encourage the addition of great new people to the team
• We Foster a learning culture with:
  • Education Assistance Program
  • Professional development opportunities
  • LinkedIn Learning

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