Edtech.com's Summary

Arizona State University is hiring an Associate Director to lead the ASU Degree Planner initiative within the Student Success Innovations team. The role involves managing a small team, bridging communication between stakeholders and development teams, defining and prioritizing product requirements, and ensuring delivery aligns with academic and operational standards.

Highlights

Lead the Degree Planner platform's product vision and strategy aligned with institutional goals.
Manage requirements documentation, prioritize backlog, and make authoritative decisions on scope and delivery.
Engage with university partners including Provost Office, Enterprise Technology, academic colleges, and Registrar to gather requirements and align strategies.
Oversee development team collaboration ensuring developers receive clear, developer-ready functional specifications.
Provide day-to-day leadership and mentoring to a small team of business analysts and contributors.
Coordinate project plans, track milestones, and manage risks and issues ensuring timely and accurate deliverables.
Require knowledge of degree audit systems, curriculum management platforms, and higher education academic policies.
Must demonstrate experience in product ownership, vendor management, Agile methodologies, and cross-functional project coordination.
Minimum qualification: Bachelor's degree with 5 years relevant experience including 2 years managerial; Master's degree preferred.
Salary range: $95,000 - $105,000 per year, depending on experience.

Associate Director Full Description

Job Profile:Administrative Operations Manager 2

Job Family:Administrative Operations

Time Type:Full time

Max Pay - Depends on experience:$105,000.00 USD Annual

Apply before 11:59 PM Arizona time the day before the posted End Date.

Minimum Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree and five (5) years of experience appropriate to the area of assignment/field including two (2) years managerial experience; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience and/or training from which comparable knowledge, skills and abilities have been achieved.

Job Profile Summary:
Manages the intermediate to complex operations of a department within the division. Monitors budget, implements strategic priorities, and prepares reports for senior management.

Job Description:

Position Salary Range: $95,000 - $105,000 per year; Depending on experience

Arizona State University's Student Success Innovations (SSI), Office of the University Provost is seeking an Associate Director to serve as the strategic lead for the ASU Degree Planner initiative. The Degree Planner is an interactive tool in development that helps students map their academic journey, track degree progress and see how choices in their active and "what-if" plans affect their graduation timeline. It brings together earned credits, courses in progress, planned courses, personal preferences, and system integrations with PeopleSoft and DARS for a more comprehensive degree planning experience.
This position provides day-to-day direction to a small internal team that includes business analysis , while maintaining primary accountability for the relationship with the development team. This role will function as a bridge between stakeholders and the technical teams, both internal analysts and any contracted developers responsible for platform delivery. The Associate Director must be conversant in technical concepts to evaluate the feasibility of proposed solutions, communicate with development teams with clarity and precision, and ensure that functional requirements produced by the analyst team are developer-ready rather than requiring downstream interpretation.
Given the institutional complexity and visibility of this initiative, the ideal candidate will bring deep knowledge of curriculum, academic policy, and higher education administration, combined with significant hands-on experience collaborating with technical teams. This role serves as the functional practice lead for the Business Analyst team, setting standards for requirements documentation, process mapping, and stakeholder elicitation, and actively coaching analysts at all experience levels to strengthen both their craft and their professional judgment.
Reporting to the Senior Director for Strategy and Implementation, the Associate Director will work in close collaboration with senior leaders to establish and communicate the product vision, define and prioritize functional requirements, and provide decision-making guidance on scope, design, and delivery milestones. The Associate Director will ensure that the Business Analyst team produces the clear, timely, and authoritative documentation and guidance that contracted developers need to build a degree planning solution meeting ASU's academic, operational, and technical standards.

Essential Duties:

Product Leadership & Strategic Direction

Serves as the functional lead for the Degree Planner platform, establishing and communicating a clear product vision aligned with institutional student success goals and the strategic direction of the Provost's Office.
Defines, prioritizes, and maintains the product backlog in collaboration with internal stakeholders; makes authoritative decisions on scope, functionality, and delivery sequencing.
Partners with senior leadership to align platform direction with broader academic enterprise priorities and institutional policy.
Monitors industry trends, peer institution practices, and vendor landscape to inform ongoing product strategy and keep the platform competitive and academically sound.

Stakeholder Engagement & Institutional Partnership

Engages regularly with key university partners, including Office of the University Provost, Enterprise Technology (ET), academic colleges, EdPlus, University Registrar Services, and academic colleges, to surface requirements, build consensus, and ensure the platform's capabilities meet institutional needs.
Serves as the primary internal point of contact for Degree Planner stakeholders, translating institutional requirements and academic policy into actionable product direction.
Facilitates governance conversations and cross-functional working sessions, bringing together academic, operational, and technical perspectives to support well-informed decision-making.
Presents product updates, roadmap decisions, and milestone reports to senior leadership in formats appropriate to executive and academic audiences.

Development Team Collaboration & Requirements Management

Ensures developers have clear, complete, and timely functional guidance to build effectively.
Oversees requirements definition and traceability throughout the development lifecycle, ensuring all functional specifications are documented, prioritized, and connected to delivery milestones and acceptance criteria.
Reviews and approves functional requirements produced by the internal analyst team before delivery to developers; ensures consistency, accuracy, and institutional appropriateness across all requirement deliverables.
Identifies and escalates scope risks, delivery conflicts, and design concerns in a timely manner; leads resolution in collaboration with the development team and internal leadership.

Team Leadership & Internal Direction

Provides day-to-day direction to a small internal Degree Planner team, including business analysts and other assigned contributors.
Sets expectations for team deliverables, coordinates work across team members and ensures alignment with product priorities and project timelines.
Mentors and supports the professional development of assigned staff; models high standards for requirements documentation, stakeholder communication, and analytical rigor.
Leads practices within the BA team by establishing and implementing standard processes for requirements elicitation, documentation, and validation
Introduces and reinforces structured methodologies such as use case development, process mapping, and facilitating working sessions that model effective analytical techniques for staff at all experience levels.
Collaborates with the Senior Director and Provost's Office leadership to staff the team appropriately and escalate resource or capacity concerns.

Project & Delivery Management

Maintains oversight of the Degree Planner project plan, tracking milestones, managing risks and issues, and ensuring deliverables are completed accurately and on schedule.
Partners closely with the Degree Planner Project Manager as a primary working relationship, aligning on priorities, sequencing, and delivery cadence.
Partners closely with the technical Product Manager to ensure functional and technical workstreams remain coordinated and mutually informed.
Coordinates across multiple concurrent workstreams, including requirements development, development sprints, testing cycles, and stakeholder review, to maintain delivery momentum.
Produces clear project status communications and decision documentation for internal leadership and partner stakeholders.
Works with Enterprise Technology and other institutional partners as needed to document infrastructure requirements, integration standards, application requirements, decisions made, and implementation considerations.

Desired Qualifications:

Deep working knowledge of degree audit systems, curriculum management platforms, or degree planning tools (e.g., DegreeWorks, Stellic, or comparable platforms) in a large university environment.
Knowledge of ASU's academic policies, organizational structure, and student success infrastructure.
Demonstrated ability to communicate fluently across the business-technical boundary, including participation in technical scoping conversations, sprint reviews, and developer walkthroughs with enough IT fluency to evaluate proposed solutions and surface feasibility concerns before they become delivery problems.
Familiarity with core technical concepts relevant to enterprise platform delivery, including API-based integrations, data model relationships, business logic configuration, and system-to-system data flow, sufficient to provide informed direction to development teams and validate that technical approaches meet functional intent.
Demonstrated experience serving as a product owner or functional lead on a complex enterprise software implementation in a higher education context.
Demonstrated experience managing the relationship with an external development vendor or contracted technical team, including requirements delivery and delivery milestone oversight.
Demonstrated experience leading or providing direction to a team of business analysts, project managers, or technical contributors.
Demonstrated ability to engage executive and senior academic leadership with clarity, authority, and institutional credibility.
Experience with Agile or iterative software delivery methodologies, including sprint planning, backlog grooming, and UAT coordination.
Experience coordinating complex, multi-stakeholder projects across academic, operational, and technology divisions.
Experience working with or alongside Enterprise Technology, Registrar, or institutional data governance functions.
Ability to quickly change priorities and resolve competing demands across internal and external stakeholders.
Master's degree in higher education administration, information technology, business administration, or a related field preferred.

Working Environment:

Activities are performed in an environmentally controlled office setting subject to flexible and hybrid work arrangements.
Activities include sustained use of computer workstations for document preparation, virtual meetings, and system review.
Required to travel moderate distances on campus and between campuses as needed for meetings and stakeholder engagement.

Department Statement:

Student Success Innovations (SSI) within the Office of the University Provost advances ASU's student success mission by leading the strategic management of enterprise platforms, including Salesforce, E2E Advising, Mogli SMS, Degree Planner, and others, that support advising, communication, and academic planning at scale. SSI provides functional ownership of these platforms in partnership with Enterprise Technology, academic colleges, and institutional partners across the university.

The Office of the University Provost provides leadership to all ASU campuses and academic programs, fostering global distinction in teaching, research, and service to the community. Learn more at provost.asu.edu.

Driving Requirement:Driving is not required for this position.

Location:Campus: Tempe

Funding:No Federal Funding

Instructions to Apply:

Current employees, student workers seeking staff opportunities, and students applying for student worker positions must apply directly through the Workday Jobs Hub.

Please use the link below to log in using single sign-on.

https://www.myworkday.com/asu/d/inst/1$9925/9925$24574.htmld

To be considered, your application must include all of the following attachments:

Cover letter
Resume or CV

Multiple documents may be uploaded in the attachments section. Alternatively, applicants may combine all required materials into a single PDF for submission. Please ensure uploaded documents are clearly labeled and include your name.

Please ensure your resume includes all employment information in month and year format, for example 6/04 to 8/14, along with job title, job duties, and employer name for each position. Your resume should clearly demonstrate how your experience and background meet the minimum and desired qualifications for this position. Incomplete applications or missing required materials may not be considered.

Important: Do not withdraw your application to make edits. Once an application is withdrawn, it cannot be edited, reactivated, or replaced with a new submission. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact The Office of Human Resources Talent Acquisition before the posting close date.

Graduate Assistant, Intern and part-time positions are counted as half time for experience equivalency, meaning one year equals six months of experience.

Only electronic applications will be accepted for this position. By submitting an application, you confirm that the information provided is accurate and complete.

ASU Statement:

Arizona State University is a new model for American higher education, an unprecedented combination of academic excellence, entrepreneurial energy and broad access. This New American University is a single, unified institution comprising four differentiated campuses positively impacting the economic, social, cultural and environmental health of the communities it serves. Its research is inspired by real world application blurring the boundaries that traditionally separate academic disciplines. ASU serves more than 100,000 students in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, the nation's fifth largest city. ASU champions inclusive excellence, and welcomes students from all fifty states and more than one hundred nations across the globe.

ASU is a tobacco-free university. For details visit https://wellness.asu.edu/explore-wellness/body/alcohol-and-drugs/tobacco

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by law.

Notice of Availability of the ASU Annual Security and Fire Safety Report:

In compliance with federal law, ASU prepares an annual report on campus security and fire safety programs and resources. ASU's Annual Security and Fire Safety Report is available online at https://www.asu.edu/police/PDFs/ASU-Clery-Report.pdf. You may request a hard copy of the report by contacting the ASU Police Department at 480-965-3456.

Relocation Assistance - For information about schools, housing child resources, neighborhoods, hospitals, community events, and taxes, visit https://cfo.asu.edu/az-resources.

Employment Verification Statement:

ASU conducts pre-employment screening which may include verification of work history, academic credentials, licenses, and certifications.

Background Check Statement:

ASU conducts pre-employment screening for all positions which includes a criminal background check, verification of work history, academic credentials, licenses, and certifications. Employment is contingent upon successful passing of the background check.

Fingerprint Check Statement:This position is considered safety/security sensitive and will include a fingerprint check. Employment is contingent upon successful passing of the fingerprint check.

Original Job Description