Assistant/Associate Director, Admissions & Systems

About the University

Western Washington University, with over 15,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western has additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles, and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master's-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

Western Washington University is committed to achieving excellence through advancing inclusive success, increasing our Washington impact, and focusing on transformational education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship, research, and creative activity. Western's greatest strength is the outstanding students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae who make up its community. Western supports an inclusive governance structure for all and provides a learning and working environment in which everyone can thrive. In pursuit of this excellence, individual employees are expected to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships amongst diverse populations including staff, faculty, administration, student, and external constituents. Further, individual employees are expected to have the ability to operationalize sustainability concepts (economic, societal, environmental) into all aspects of performing their job duties.

About the Department

The division of Enrollment and Student Services and the Office of Admissions support Western's mission, which states that together with our students, staff, and faculty, we are committed to making a positive impact in the state and the world with a shared focus on academic excellence and inclusive achievement. We encourage applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, and other candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and with diverse experiences interested in this opportunity.

The mission of WWU's Office of Admissions is to identify, attract, admit, and help enroll today’s brightest scholars and most promising future leaders. We will counsel and evaluate prospective students as individuals with unique strengths, needs, and paths as we build an increasingly diverse, talented, and dynamic student body.

About the Position

Reporting to the Director of Admissions, the Assistant/Associate Director, Admissions & Systems oversees the entire range of technology functions of the Office of Admissions (with the exception of web design and development). The position manages systems and operations that support critical areas of recruitment, applications, enrollment, and communications. This position cultivates and supports strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders in order to maximize on the opportunities and address the challenges associated with integrating technical systems. Opportunities exist through the adoption of best practices, maximization of efficiencies, streamlining of processes, and enhancement of staff skills. The position's work will have a direct impact on the recruitment-to-enrollment continuum of prospective students of various types—dual enrollment high school, first-year (freshmen), transfer, domestic, international, post-baccalaureate, and location-based programs, as well as (at the associate director level) for certificate, graduate, and returning students.

(for Associate Director) The team member will also participate in university-wide enrollment work, supporting the Strategic Enrollment Management planning process, working with leadership in Enrollment Management, and assisting in the development of the university's enrollment plan. This position will also work collaboratively with systems and data professionals from across the Enrollment Management unit to implement tactics and strategies to further the university's effort to reaching its enrollment goals.

Position Duties / Responsibilities

Lead the planning, development, integration, and deployment of technological products, strategies and tactics (50%)

• Manage admissions and recruitment related development, implementation and coordination of systems, including Slate, Banner, Data Transfer, Hyland OnBase, College Board's Student Search Service, National Student Clearinghouse, and other tools and products essential to student recruitment and enrollment.
• Oversee operations and testing of system processing in Admissions. Consult and work with system users and Enterprise Application Services (EAS) to evaluate, schedule production implementation of each new release, monitor and verify success of installation, overseeing the testing and debugging as needed.
• Lead maintenance and testing of Banner processes and upgrades related to admissions, scholarship awards, articulation of transfer credits.
• Oversee and coordinate in-office and cross campus training efforts related to admissions data (e.g. Departmental liaisons, Honors Program, University Residences, Enterprise Application Systems).
• Consult and work with system users, Enterprise Application Systems (EAS), Enterprise Infrastructure Services (EIS) and Administrative Computing Services (ACS) to evaluate, design and implement local modifications to the vendor code, schedule production implementation of each new release; monitor, verify the success of each installation.
• Develop project scope for new systems implementations in coordination with the Project Management Office and collaborate in the planning, scheduling, task assignment, staff coverage, and project progress monitoring to ensure completion.
• Write database queries to retrieve data from Banner, Slate, data warehouse tables to provide statistical data and inform reporting for tactical operations (e.g. workflow progress reports; error reports) as well as strategic enrollment management (e.g. longitudinal admissions funnel; territory management).
• Identify third-party vendors to support fulfillment of enrollment goals; write proposals and identify budget requirements.
• Serve as Admissions' point-person to communicate with software vendors and partners.
• Actively research general technology and industry-specific trends.

Data Custodianship and Training (20%)

• Serve as a data custodian for undergraduate admissions which includes access and security administration for Banner, Slate, NolijWeb, DataTransfer, College Board and undergraduate admissions, inquiry and prospect data warehouse tables.
• Assist in analysis and development of scholarship and waiver allocations and awarding plan annually with the Office of Admissions scholarship committee (comprised of Associate VP of Enrollment Management, Executive Director of Financial Aid, Associate Director of Admissions, and Management Analyst 4).
• Analyze current procedures and standards; recommend new or revised procedures compatible with design of related systems. Ensure that applications or modifications are consistent with the overall direction and goals of the university, meet regulatory requirements and compatible with other university applications.
• Coordinate in-office and cross-campus training efforts related to admissions data (e.g. departmental admissions liaisons, Student Outreach Services, New Student Programs, etc.).

Supervision and Leadership (15%)

• Provide leadership to Admissions and University partners who support technology projects related to recruitment and enrollment, including: informing of trends; identifying needs; recommending solutions; supporting project management of systems integrations.
• Supervise, direct, and support to three Systems Team staff: - IT App Development-Journey - Management Analyst 4 - Program Specialist 2
• Facilitate weekly Systems Team status update meetings and meet with team members individually as needed to meet goals.
• Serve on the Admissions Administrative Team, Admissions Planning Team, Enterprise Application Services/Student Stakeholders, and additional groups as needed.
• Represent Admissions and the University on various institution-wide and state-wide technology initiatives related to data collection, dissemination, and reporting.

Enrollment Management (for Associate Director) (10%)

• Participate in university-wide enrollment planning work, specifically with the Strategic Enrollment Management planning committees and councils.
• Provide data analysis and systems support for university enrollment planning work.
• Collaborate with systems professionals across the Enrollment Management unit
• Serve as a resource to others within the Division and University as it relates to technologies associated with student recruitment and enrollment.

Other Duties as Assigned (5%)

• Serve as backup to direct reports, completing requests as needed.
• Participate in university events and celebrations.
• Attend conferences and community events on behalf of WWU, as may be requested.

For Required Qualifications, Conditions of Employment, and to Apply, visit WWU's job site here: https://hr.wwu.edu/careers-staff?job=501945

Remote work option available for Washington-based candidates/employees