Associate Director

Job Overview

Administrative Operations Manager 2, Time Type: Full time, Max Pay: $95,000 - $105,000 per year (depending on experience).

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 equivalent combination of education, experience, or training.

Job Description

• Manages the intermediate to complex operations of a department within the division, monitors budget, implements strategic priorities, and prepares reports for senior management.
• Assists Arizona State University’s Student Success Innovations (SSI), Office of the University Provost, in leading the ASU Degree Planner initiative. Provides day‑to‑day direction to a small internal team and serves as the bridge between stakeholders and the technical team.
• Conveys technical concepts, evaluates feasibility of proposed solutions, and ensures functional requirements are developer‑ready.
• Coaches business analysts, sets requirements documentation standards, and leads functional practice within the team.
• Collaborates with senior leaders to establish product vision, define and prioritize functional requirements, and guide scope, design, and delivery milestones.

Essential Duties

Product Leadership & Strategic Direction

• Serves as the functional lead for the Degree Planner platform, establishing a clear product vision aligned with institutional goals.
• Defines, prioritizes, and maintains the product backlog and makes authoritative decisions on scope and delivery sequencing.
• Partners with senior leadership to align platform direction with broader academic enterprise priorities.
• Monitors industry trends, peer practices, and vendor landscape to inform ongoing product strategy.

Stakeholder Engagement & Institutional Partnership

• Engages regularly with key university partners to surface requirements, build consensus, and ensure the platform meets institutional needs.
• Acts as the primary internal point of contact for stakeholders, translating academic policy into actionable product direction.
• Facilitates governance conversations and cross‑functional working sessions.
• Presents product updates, roadmap decisions, and milestone reports to senior leadership.

Development Team Collaboration & Requirements Management

• Ensures developers have clear, complete, and timely functional guidance.
• Oversees requirements definition and traceability throughout the development lifecycle.
• Reviews and approves functional requirements produced by the internal analyst team before delivery.
• Identifies and escalates scope risks, delivery conflicts, and design concerns, leading resolution in collaboration with the development team and leadership.

Team Leadership & Internal Direction

• Provides day‑to‑day direction to a small internal team and coordinates work across members.
• Mentors staff, models high standards for documentation and communication, and supports professional development.
• Establishes and implements standard processes for requirements elicitation, documentation, and validation.
• Introduces structured methodologies such as use case development, process mapping, and effective analytical techniques.
• Collaborates with leadership to staff the team appropriately and address resource needs.

Project & Delivery Management

• Maintains oversight of the project plan, tracks milestones, manages risks and issues, and ensures timely deliverables.
• Partners closely with the Project Manager and Product Manager to align priorities and delivery cadence.
• Coordinates across concurrent workstreams to maintain delivery momentum.
• Produces clear project status communications and decision documentation.
• Works with institutional partners to document infrastructure, integration, and implementation requirements.

Desired Qualifications

• Deep working knowledge of degree‑audit or degree‑planning systems in a large university environment.
• Knowledge of ASU academic policies, organizational structure, and student success infrastructure.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate across the business‑technical boundary and participate in technical scoping.
• Familiarity with APIs, data models, business logic, and system‑to‑system integration.
• Experience as a product owner or functional lead on a complex enterprise software implementation.
• Experience managing external development vendor relationships and delivery oversight.
• Experience leading or providing direction to business analysts or technical contributors.
• Ability to engage executive and senior academic leadership with clarity and authority.
• Experience with Agile or iterative software delivery methodologies.
• Experience coordinating complex, multi‑stakeholder projects across academic, operational, and technology divisions.
• Experience working with or alongside Enterprise Technology, Registrar, or data governance functions.
• Ability to quickly change priorities and resolve competing demands across stakeholders.
• Master’s degree in higher education administration, information technology, business administration, or related field preferred.

Working Environment

• Office setting with flexible and hybrid work arrangements.
• Requires sustained computer use for document preparation, virtual meetings, and system review.
• Requires moderate travel on and between campuses for meetings and stakeholder engagement.

Location

Campus: Tempe

Driving Requirement

Driving is not required for this position.

Funding

No Federal Funding.

Equal Opportunity Statement

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.