Director, Integration and Process Innovation

Emerson College; Peninsula (OH); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Emerson College is seeking a Director of Integration and Process Innovation to lead strategic technology initiatives across data integration, process automation, and AI-powered solutions. You will own the full lifecycle from requirements to deployment, partnering with academic and business units including TechMedia, Enrollment, Finance, and HR to drive efficiency and transformative experiences.

The role demands exceptional communication, strategic thinking, and hands-on expertise in API, AI/ML,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Business Administration, or related fields; required.
• 10 years of experience in enterprise systems, data analytics, and technical leadership.
• 1+ years of experience leading a technical team.
• 2+ years developing AI customer applications or AI architecture (Bots, RAG, Agentic AI).

Responsibilities

• Lead IT enterprise system development planning aligned with college initiatives.
• Oversee integration platforms and end-to-end lifecycle testing.
• Guide data governance, security, and change management practices.
• Partner with PMO and stakeholders to define and deliver IT projects.
• Drive AI-enabled development and rapid prototyping with cross-functional teams.

Skills

API integration

RESTful API

Data analytics

AI/ML

Project leadership

Workday integration

Snowflake

Oracle

GIT

Security

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Master's degree preferred

Tools

Workday

Snowflake

Oracle

GIT

Tomcat

Job description

Director of Integration and Process Innovation

Join our community and experience Emerson College! Reporting to the AVP of Enterprise Data & Solutions, the Director of Integration and Process Innovation is the strategic technology leader responsible for driving transformative solutions in data integration, process efficiency and cutting-edge AI applications. To align with the College's strategic initiatives and business needs, the Director establishes critical partnerships across academic and business units including TechMedia, Campus Life, Enrollment, Academic Affairs, Alumni operations, Finance, and Human Resources. The role owns the full solution lifecycle - from technical assessment and business requirement gathering to project proposal generation, solution development, and deployment - ensuring results that drive efficiency and create a transformative user experience. Success is defined by building strong customer relationships, enforcing cross-departmental collaboration, and proactively identifying technology gaps to create strategic business opportunities. Exceptional communication, strategic thinking, and advanced technical skills in web service API, AI, data analytics, and business analysis are essential for this role.

Strategic Leadership & Planning

Lead the IT enterprise system development planning and execution, guaranteeing that the infrastructure and solution support business growth, enhance user experience and align with critical college initiatives. Prepare for and transform the team to implement emerging technologies to deliver innovative solutions, optimize business operations through automation and expand strategic opportunities. Elevate team expertise in emerging technologies (e.g., API, AI/ML) and direct campus-wide adoption programs, including training and ongoing support. Lead the development and deployment of AI-assisted applications and chatbots across core platforms (Workday, Google, Snowflake, NotebookLM etc.). Lead the development of technical and business proposals (SOWs, execution plans like the AI Development Plan) to define project objectives, deliverables, execution priorities, and required platforms (e.g., Vertex AI, Snowflake Cortex, software & tools) for enterprise systems strategic initiatives.

Enterprise Platform & Integration Management

Oversee the performance, operation and maintenance of all core enterprise development and integration platforms (e.g., Workday, SnapLogic, Oracle, GIT and Tomcat Oracle, Snowflake), and architectural and platform transition impacted by the technology shift and demand such as AI Assist with Workday Student implementation and the support of the existing HR and Finance integrations, Workday Release testing, ensuring successful execution of integration development and end-to-end lifecycle testing. Organize and support semi-annual Workday release tests and adoption related to integration and support of business functional tests. Participate in Workday Support Committee meetings on regular bases, contributing to meeting agenda and follow through action items. Guarantee continuous operation and performance across all platforms, ensuring timely resolution of data integrity, user support and application performance issues are promptly resolved. Drive the cross-functional collaboration with IR/BI, Infrastructure, security, and User Services to ensure the rapid resolution of all critical platform, user account and technical incidents. Lead the architecture and development of all core integrations (including API web services, Workday Studio and Extend) to ensure reliable, high-volume data exchange between Workday, Snowflake and 3rd party campus systems. Govern platform resiliency and business continuity by partnering with Infrastructure to rigorously test the IT Disaster Recovery plan. Develop and maintain the strategy for IT software and process inventory and documentation, clarifying supporting responsibilities and orchestrating cross-training to ensure team knowledge redundancy. Drive rapid, AI-assisted development (e.g., vibe coding and Agentic AI) and system design to solve key business problems, ensuring all solutions meet enterprise security and code review standards while promoting fast, iterative prototyping. Lead the transition of Oracle to Snowflake conversion and its underlying tables and business layer logics to support integrations and application development. Lead the migration from SnapLogic to the new open-source platform leveraging AI technology. Implement seamless pipelines integrating Workday and 3rd party applications with Snowflake as the Institute's single data source of truth.

Data Management & Governance

Follow the Data Governance process in partnering with Security and IR/BI, implementing a sound secure data sharing and access practice in Snowflake and in Google drive. Govern the team's compliance with the IT Change Management Protocol. Manage the team's AI development, strategy, enforce AI development standard, protocol, and the auditing process execution.

Project & Team Delivery

Partner with Project Management Office (PMO) and business stakeholders to define, plan and deploy IT strategic projects, ensuring high quality deliverables that meet the business objectives and adhere to the project management framework. Direct team-managed projects, ensuring adherence to the PMO standards, and proactively managing resource allocation to mitigate project dependency and capacity risks. Drive process re-engineering and automation initiatives by leading platform research (AI partnership or solution provider), documenting technical specifications, business cases, and negotiating cost/resource planning for business cases. Collaborate with Business System Analysts and PMO to identify functional gaps and clear business objectives and requirements for data integration, AI innovation and digital form projects.

Operational Support & Performance

Cultivate a high-performing, collaborative team culture, including setting, managing, and conducting performance reviews to ensure accountability and the achievement of team and individual goals. Prioritize and monitor Enterprise systems production support tickets and daily team activities, guaranteeing fast issues resolution, application, user account, and data issues to minimize business interruption. Direct incident response efforts, involving appropriate Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to drive resolution and taking ownership of the final incident report delivery. Set and manage team and individual performance goals, monitoring process through frequent reviews and motivation to ensure goals are achieved. Perform other duties as assigned to meet evolving departmental and institutional needs.

QUALIFICATIONS

Qualifications are deemed required or preferred and represent what is needed to effectively perform the job.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Business Administration, or related technical/business fields, combined with work experiences and education required.
• Master's Degree in IT or a business-related field preferred.
• 10 years of experience in progressive experience in enterprise systems, application development, integration, data analytics and key technical role or team leadership required.
• 1+ years of experience leading a technical team required.
• 2+ years of experience developing AI customer applications or AI architecture such as developing Bots, RAG, Agentic AI and Machine Learning required.
• Prior experience as a Business Analyst, Project Manager or in a formal Data Analyst function preferred.
• Specific expertise in Workday (HCM, Finance or Student) required.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

May be representative, but not all-inclusive, of those knowledge, skills, and abilities commonly associated with the job.

Technical Expertise (Required)

Deep, hands-on expertise in enterprise integration and data technologies including: Integration/API: RESTful API, JSON, XML, Tomcat, GIT, and modern API web services and end point integrations. AI/ML: Deep understanding and demonstrable experience in applying Generative AI technologies (e.g., LLMs conversational AI) and advanced patterns like Retrieval-Argumented Generation (RAG), vibe coding and Agentic Systems to develop and deploy strategic business solutions. Data/Platform: Oracle, PL/SQL, Snowflake, ETL, and knowledge of the Workday object model and reporting/integration capabilities. Cloud Architecture: Substantial experience with Cloud, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) delivery models. Strong knowledge of IT security best practices and Change Management protocols to ensure production stability.

Functional & Analytics Skills (Required)

Advanced technical design, data mapping and data analytical skills. Experienced in the full business analysis lifecycle, including documenting business processes, collection functional requirements, and creating clear process design specification and workflow diagram. Proven ability to manage large-scale, complex projects and advocate for project management processes and methodologies across the team and with business stakeholders. Strong business acumen across academic and administrative functions (e.g., student records, advising, finance and human resources)

Leadership & Behavioral Competencies (Required)

Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with the ability to clearly express complex technical concepts, proposals and conclusions to both technical and non-technical audiences, including presenting to all levels of the organization. Strategic thinking and a results-driven mindset, demonstrating a high level of poise, focus, and creativity to solve technical and business problems in high-stress situations. A self-starter with strong organizational skills, capable of working independently, managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment, and paying close attention to details. Ability to learn and adaptability, demonstrating a quick ability to learn and adopt new technologies and skills rapidly. Strong growth potential to effectively manage and lead a technical team.

PHYSICAL ABILITIES

Activities commonly associated with the performance of the functions of this job. The physical demands described below are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this