Director of Enterprise Solutions

WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Position Information

Position Title:
Director of Enterprise Solutions

Department:
Information Technology Office

Location:
Office of Information Technology

Grade:
Exempt - 840

Position Status:
Administrative Exempt Positions

Position Description:
As part of the WPI Information Technology Division's overall commitment to students, faculty, and staff, this position directs the IT Division's Enterprise Solutions Group in fulfilling our Unified Digital Campus (UDC) and Administrative Computing Initiatives, provides forward-looking strategic guidance, and maintains ongoing operations. The Director plays a pivotal leadership role in working with the WPI Enterprise Architect (EA) and business unit staff to jointly architect, design, develop, and deliver technology solutions that meet strategic and tactical business and operational requirements and serves as a proactive change agent for the institution.

-Lead and manage the IT-based Enterprise Solutions Group (ESG; staff of ~10) consisting of business and systems analysts, application specialists, DBAs, and software developers.
-Use project management methodologies to successfully manage a complex portfolio of IT projects while delivering outcomes within scope and statements of work, on schedule, with acceptable quality, and within staffing and resource constraints.
-Provide vision and contributions to the evolution of WPI's enterprise architecture and the goals of the Unified Digital Campus project (Banner redeployment; distribution of stewardship and responsibility for business data, processes and reporting to the educational and business units; institutional intelligence planning; project governance framework; enterprise architecture approach to the management of technology).
-Become the Banner application expert so that he/she can understand and match academic and business needs with Banner functionality across a diverse group of stakeholders: Development and Alumni Affairs, Marketing and Communications, Human Resources, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Finance and Operations, and Enrollment Management.
-Actively participate in the specification, design, architecture, implementation, testing and validation and approval of projects (initiatives) as a member of the Administrative Working Group, Data Access Working Group, Data Stewardship Working Group and other governance committees as appropriate.
-Work with the WPI Enterprise Architect, UDC Project Manager, Project Sponsors, Information Analysts, the CIO and others to establish and execute project plans that meet IT governance objectives. Provide timely progress and status reports and work to resolve resource or design issues/conflicts among business process owners.
-Ensure the Enterprise Solutions Group provides superior customer service in a collaborative, collegial, and team-oriented environment. Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess project/initiative performance as well as group and individual performance. Encourage further skill and professional development of our staff. Reward individual and team performance.
-Take personal responsibility for a set of initiatives/projects which are a subset of the overall IT portfolio to build trusting and long-term relationships with key stakeholders.
-Use excellent verbal and written communication skills to collaboratively negotiate, prioritize, and sequence initiatives and keep all parties informed of progress.
-Lead the evaluation, selection and successful implementation of third-party hosted or in-house solutions, integration and data exchange strategies, reporting tools, and other software related technologies.
-Lead change management initiatives to affect cultural change regarding the use of Banner, other UDC/EA technologies, and the project management approach to getting work done.
-Develop, establish, and maintain a broad set of relationships across the institution and with internal and external partners, key suppliers /vendors.

Requirements:
-Manage the resultant product/service lifecycle, from strategic planning to tactical activities including ongoing operations, maintenance activities, and version/upgrade/patch releases.
-Establish and maintain development and project best practices and standards.
-Perform HR management of the IT ESG including performance management, salary administration and benchmarking, recruitment, retention, contractor/vendor management.
-Share responsibility for operational uptime of mission critical enterprise systems and other applications with our group of IT systems administrators.
-Keep abreast of new technology developments and make recommendations of upcoming operational opportunities that could benefit from the implementation of new technologies.
-Other duties as assigned

GENERAL
-Bachelor's degree in technical or management discipline or equivalent experience; Master Degree preferred.
-10+ years in ERP or software development; experience in higher education is preferred.
-8+ years of demonstrated success in program/project management of teams executing project portfolios (expectation at WPI is 40+ simultaneous initiatives, 25+ people involved, and significant complexity). PMI certification is preferred.
-Self-motivated individual with polished interpersonal and communications skills (written, verbal, negotiation). Super organizational skills, high energy, perseverance, outstanding leadership, management, and project management skills.
-Proficiency with MS Project, Primavera or equivalent is required. MS Office suite expertise.

TECHNICAL SKILLS
-Extensive knowledge of technologies, administrative information systems, business processes, and enterprise software. SunGardHE/Banner and Oracle experience is preferred.
-Expertise with information analysis and display tools, e.g., Oracle Discoverer, Argos, Cognos, or equivalent.
-Expertise in the use and application of project management software to model, track, and predict performance of a portfolio of projects.
-Expertise with applications, systems, and database architecture/design/implementation including SQL database experience (SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 or other), ODS, EDS, portals and workflow. Emerging technologies (SOA, CRM, .Net, AJAX, etc.) is a plus.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
-A passion for outstanding customer service directed at collaboratively working with information analysts, business-unit users, etc. to meet critical business needs that support our mission.
-Ability to thrive in a mixed, line and matrix-oriented, project management driven environment.
-Outstanding verbal and written skills with the ability to effectively communicate process and technical issues to technical and non-technical audiences. Ability to communicate at varying levels of technical detail with all divisions, executives, vendors, in one-on-one and groups situations.
-Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with managers and employees of the academic and business units, along with working with external partners/suppliers and internal constituents.
-Ability to respond to frequent requests from multiple constituents (internal and external) in a customer-friendly way to prioritize work to meet ad hoc, non-initiative driven work requests.

LEADERSHIP and MANAGEMENT
-Strong leadership, management, and organizational skills with a high comfort level in non-hierarchical and matrix environments.
-Ability to create a project management driven culture, ensuring accountability, resolving issues/conflict, reporting status, etc. while nurturing and mentoring professional staff.
-Ability to envision the future, create vision, and to evaluate and adapt new technologies to meet needs; ability to articulate vision in front of a variety of audiences.
-Proven ability to build and lead a team. Excellent role model.

Closing Date: Open Until Filled

To apply, please visit: wpi.peopleadmin.com/applicants/Central?quickFind=50663

To enrich education through diversity, WPI is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer.

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