[Hiring] Director of Academic Technology @Southern New Hampshire University

Role Description

The Director of Academic Technology will report to the Assistant Vice President Academic Technology. You will lead a team of professional staff who manage the delivery of academic technology solutions to Global Campus Academics, to support the online program portfolio. You will oversee a team responsible for partnering with the business on technology-driven solutions and services such as:

• Course roll out
• Continuous delivery release management
• Optimization of the learning management system (LMS), Brightspace
• LTI integration testing for technology solutions deployed at scale
• Collaborating with D2L on their long-term roadmap for Brightspace

You will support current technology environments and implement new solutions to support product health and customer experience programs and help define the university's technology roadmap. You will support the evaluation, testing, and transition to new technology systems to support a consumer-grade technology experience. You will establish strategies that support university programs and implement and operationalize solutions that directly support those strategies.

You will manage partner collaboration on integrations and new technologies to gain greater impact with student success and efficiency in online courses and daily operations. You will oversee functional testing on platform upgrades and integrations upstream and downstream from the LMS. You will work with members of the Global Campus Academics and Customer Experience teams, and IT Operations.

You will work 100% remotely from any of our approved working states within the US. #LI-Remote

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in IT service delivery management, operations management, or product management within complex, enterprise technology environments.
• 4+ years of experience managing direct reports, including performance management, coaching, and employee development, preferably within cross-functional or matrixed organizations.
• Experience managing product or platform roadmaps, coordinating product development or continuous delivery.
• Experience leading strategic engagement with vendor partners to align on shared roadmaps or platform direction.
• Experience supporting, testing, and delivering learning environments or complex, customer-facing platforms deployed at scale, including responsibility for functional testing, user acceptance testing, and integration validation.
• Expertise with D2L Brightspace or other learning management systems.
• Experience with LTI and other industry standard integration protocols.
• Experience managing data collection and analysis workflows.

Requirements

• Lead team providing direct support and leadership on optimization of the learning management system, coordination of core university processes such as course roll and grade pass-back, and execution of day-to-day operations of the learning management system that directly support the Global Campus online portfolio.
• Cultivate a strong relationship with D2L support staff and product leadership to enable effective vendor collaboration on support issues and short- and long-term roadmap conversations.
• Collaborate with Global Campus stakeholders and other SNHU departments to continuously refine our LMS platform strategy.
• Provide internal technical consulting services in support of university initiatives and strategies.
• Provide Brightspace subject matter expertise, able to effectively advocate for SNHU's highest priorities.
• Consult and provide guidance around how academic technology can best serve pilots and small-scale initiatives.
• Partner with internal and vendor data teams to continually improve the use of data in the academic technology ecosystem.
• Continuously refine stakeholder communication practices to ensure visibility and engagement on team roadmap and sprint release notes.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to guide user experience optimization, integration enhancements, and testing and innovation efforts in the LMS.
• Provide leadership on LMS customization and integration efforts, including Banner-Brightspace integration components.
• Lead the Academic Technology Solution Delivery team and drive results and excellent service to the scaled academic technology portfolio.
• Translate technology strategies and requirements into tactical implementations.
• Collaborate with CX, NLS, faculty support team and the development team in ITS around the ideation, testing, and deployment of custom extensions of Brightspace.
• Support managers and product owners responsible for critical university processes.
• Promote the effective use of existing technologies to improve operational processes and student support.
• Represent university needs to learning technology vendors.
• Manage extensive functional testing and user acceptance testing in a wide range of learning environments.
• Oversee the execution of testing and continual refinement of test plans for learning environments.
• Work with stakeholders to support needs analysis and testing of new technologies and integrations.
• Provide expert technical support, consulting, and training to SNHU Global Campus staff.
• Collaborate with other LMS and learning ecosystem leadership to ensure effective communication around system issues.
• Ensure that both projects and operational work are organized, prioritized, aligned, and executed.
• Track and communicate with stakeholders the status of technology-related projects.
• Identify opportunities to deepen or expand team subject matter expertise and skillsets.
• Attendance, punctuality, and reliability are essential functions of this role.
• Other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Benefits

• High-quality, low-deductible medical insurance
• Low to no-cost dental and vision plans
• 5 weeks of paid time off (plus almost a dozen paid holidays)
• Employer-funded retirement
• Free tuition program
• Parental leave
• Mental health and wellbeing resources