Financial Aid Operations & Student Experience Lead

Texas Wesleyan University

Fort Worth (TX)

On-site

USD 85,000 - 110,000

Full time

4 days ago

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Job summary

Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth seeks an Assistant Director of Financial Aid to lead daily operations and staff within Student Financial Services. The role supervises three Financial Aid Advisors and one SFS Coordinator, ensuring compliant administration of federal, state, and institutional aid while delivering hospitality-based service.

The position collaborates across SFS and the University to improve processes, enrollment support, and the student experience, providing leadership

Qualifications

Requires a Bachelor’s degree and experience in financial aid administration.
Knowledge of federal and state programs, regulations, and processes.
Experience leading projects, coordinating work, or supervising staff.
Experience counseling students and resolving complex service concerns.

Responsibilities

Lead daily Financial Aid operations, establish priorities, monitor workload and quality.
Supervise three Financial Aid Advisors and one SFS Coordinator through clear expectations, feedback, accountability, cross-training, and professional development.
Promote a collaborative, student-centered culture grounded in professionalism, empathy, ownership, continuous improvement, and the University’s values.
Provide office leadership and make administrative and operational decisions within delegated authority.
Ensure students and families receive welcoming, accurate, accessible, and action-oriented guidance throughout the financial aid process.
Model active listening, empathy, case ownership, timely follow-up, warm handoffs, and effective resolution of complex or escalated concerns.
Develop proactive outreach for students with incomplete requirements, eligibility issues, approaching deadlines, borrowing concerns, or financial barriers.
Use feedback and service trends to improve communications, procedures, technology, and self-service resources, and represent Financial Aid at campus events and presentations.
Oversee the review, awarding, revision, disbursement, and reconciliation of federal, state, institutional, and private aid in accordance with applicable requirements and University policy.
Monitor FAFSA and ISIR processing, verification, conflicting information, packaging, Pell Grants, Direct Loans, state aid, institutional aid, professional judgment, SAP , and related eligibility matters.
Resolve complex processing issues and exceptions, and support Return of Title IV Funds, enrollment-related eligibility reviews, reconciliation, and other assigned compliance functions.
Monitor regulatory changes and coordinate implementation, documentation, communication, and staff training.
Support audits, program reviews, compliance monitoring, regulatory inquiries, internal controls, and timely escalation of risks.
Develop accurate, accessible, student-friendly communications and coordinated outreach regarding requirements, deadlines, awards, borrowing, academic progress, and available support.
Ensure communications use plain language, consistent messaging, clear ownership, and specific next steps while protecting privacy.
Support financial literacy and wellness programming and maintain current Financial Aid website and publication content.
Collaborate with campus partners on outreach that supports recruitment, enrollment, persistence, and completion.
Maintain procedures, calendars, reports, quality-control tools, and documentation required for consistent operations and reporting.
Partner with SFS leadership and business analysts on systems, reporting, issue resolution, and implementation of operational and regulatory changes.
Use data to monitor workload, timeliness, quality, unresolved requirements, and student outcomes; recommend corrective and process‑improvement actions.
Strengthen internal controls, data integrity, service handoffs, and cross-functional coordination with campus partners.
Manage competing priorities, protect confidential information, maintain professional knowledge, and perform other duties as assigned.