Director, Compliance & Data Reporting Solution Delivery

National Student Clearinghouse • Herndon, VA

1d • $150,000 - $190,000 • Remote

About The Position

By joining the National Student Clearinghouse, you can be sure that the work you do now will help shape the future of education and the workforce in the U.S. As the trusted source for higher education data since 1993, the Clearinghouse is the leading provider of transcript and data exchange services, automated enrollment and degree verifications, learner insights and research, and compliance solutions for schools, businesses, and learners nationwide. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Clearinghouse works with nearly 3,600 postsecondary institutions to meet their compliance needs and with thousands of high schools and districts to provide continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics about their alumni. In addition, the Research Center publications inform policymakers and business leaders about student educational pathways. Using our unique combination of data, analytics, and software to drive our mission, security and privacy is paramount. Join us as we continue to invest in our talent and new advanced technologies to unlock the power of data on behalf of all learners. About the Role: The Director of Compliance and Data Reporting Solution Delivery is responsible for overseeing the development, implementation, and ongoing enhancement of enterprise-wide compliance and data reporting initiatives and strategic projects. This role ensures that Clearinghouse compliance data reporting programs and projects are executed punctually, within established parameters, and in accordance with regulatory standards and organizational objectives. The Director collaborates with senior leadership, cross-functional teams, and external stakeholders to promote operational excellence, mitigate risks, and advance strategic transformation throughout Compliance and Data Operations. This role collaborates extensively with Financial Aid Services and technology teams to implement critical enhancements to current solutions and spearhead the development of innovative services. These efforts are designed to optimize data management and reporting, secure and expand data flows, and drive increased revenue so that the Clearinghouse may better fulfill its mission to our institutions and all learners. Currently, this is a remote-first position, and this position may be required to periodically work on-site at our office and the frequency would depend on the department/division's requirements. Therefore, candidates must either reside within a reasonable distance to commute to our office or be willing to travel to our office in Herndon, when required.

Requirements

• Bachelors degree in Business, Social Sciences, or related studies. A combination of education and experience including military service will also be considered.
• 10 years of directly related experience in a leadership capacity, overseeing and managing large scale program management, end-to-end, of enterprise-wide compliance and data reporting initiatives.
• 10 years of experience with federal education regulations, data reporting, and technology-driven process improvement initiatives.
• 5 years of direct project management and/or program management experience in education technology and/or compliance management, as it relates to the U.S. Department of Educations Office of Federal Student Aid and/or educational institutions in Title IV programs.
• 5 years of experience with the scaled agile framework model.
• 5 years of experience directly supervising multi-disciplinary teams in all aspects of complex, cross-functional, large-scale projects, delivering high-quality data reporting services in a fast paced and highly competitive environment.
• 3 years of experience in leading the design and delivery of federal regulatory solutions.
• 3 years of experience creating comprehensive plans, business cases, and budgets that forecast staffing, resources, training, and other internal and external organizational needs.
• 3 years of experience creating and delivering briefings and executive and strategic updates to executive leadership.
• Experience: Moving platforms and technology toward high-quality, interoperable datasets.
• Working at or with postsecondary institutions serving as the primary point of contact for comprehensive compliance or regulatory related deliverables.
• With data governance, data interoperability, and data stewardship.
• Managing project and program delivery through value stream orientations.
• Proven ability to effectively, and often simultaneously, communicate at a detailed operational and technical level, and at the strategic level.
• Proven ability to balance both internal and external stakeholders including federal and state agencies, institutions, and other education entities.
• Demonstrated clear understanding of the education compliance space.
• Demonstrated data-driven strategic delivery of competing technical priorities and projects.
• Expected to be methodical about the problem-solving process: Effectively identify the problem by gathering information, find and evaluate alternatives, select and implement best alternative, and monitor and evaluate results.
• Positive and professional attitude with the demonstrated ability to adapt and work in a fast-paced environment, on a team, and achieve results in a team environment.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and lead a team in a positive and professional manner with a proven track record of facilitating cross-departmental issue identification, problem solving, and resolution.
• Highly customer centric, service oriented with the ability to understand, execute, and meet customer's expectations.
• Detail-oriented with exceptional analytical skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with experience presenting to all levels of stakeholders.
• Ability to effectively and efficiently influence program team members to come to consensus on decisions to drive program forward, managing diverse personalities.
• Proficient use of Microsoft Project, Microsoft Office Suite, and other collaboration tools.
• Demonstrates the Clearinghouses core competencies: customer focus, optimizes work processes, communicates effectively, collaborates, and is open and authentic..
• Must live within a commutable distance to Herndon, VA or in one of the Clearinghouse's approved States for hiring purposes. Refer to our HR Policies Page, located on our Careers site at https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/careers/human-resource-policies/ , for more details.
• Must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. We do not intend to sponsor external applicants for work visas, and may consider sponsorship only if no qualified candidates can be found who are authorized to work without sponsorship.
• Must be at least 18 years old.

Nice To Haves

• Masters degree, preferred.
• Desired experience in: Agile processes and implementations including SCRUM and SAFe.
• Quantitative market requirements gathering.
• Administrative processes and digital credentials in the education institution.
• Knowledge of the features/benefits of Clearinghouse services.

Responsibilities

• Compliance Program Management: Serve as a subject-matter-expert and convening point for the operationalization of compliance and data reporting services at the Clearinghouse. Develop and maintain comprehensive frameworks to support compliance monitoring, audit preparedness, and the management of regulatory changes. Collaborate with Legal, Data Operations, and IT departments to ensure alignment with federal, state, and institutional regulations (including Title IV, NSLDS, FVT-GE, STATS, and workforce reporting requirements). Lead the execution of the development and deployment of innovative compliance solutions, accountability tools, and enhanced data reporting systems. Ensure programs and projects are delivered on time, within scope, and aligned with organizational objectives by coordinating cross-functional teams, establishing clear milestones, monitoring progress, and proactively managing risks throughout the project lifecycle.
• Strategic Leadership & Decision-Making: Direct the planning, execution, and delivery of key compliance and data reporting initiatives, encompassing regulatory implementation, process optimization, and technology integration. Implement program and project management frameworks, tools, and best practices specifically designed for compliance and data operations. Lead cross-functional teams with an emphasis on accountability, defined metrics, and punctual achievement of project and solution objectives. Oversee the prioritization of projects, strategic allocation of resources, and comprehensive risk management for all compliance-related programs and initiatives. Review trends, anticipate future needs, and create a vision of possibilities for sustainable value and opportunities. Sees the big picture, constantly imagines future scenarios, and creates strategies to sustain competitive advantage. Understand how compliance and data reporting solutions fit within the broader education-to-workforce ecosystem and drive the data reporting needs and sustainability of the Clearinghouse. Lead by example with a high level of emotional intelligence and demonstrate a positive and intellectually curious demeanor about the Clearinghouses mission, vision, values, and opportunities for the Clearinghouse to provide value to the education community and learners. Communicate the vision and strategy to staff in a clear, relatable, and optimistic manner. Demonstrates and instills our cultural values and transparent communication philosophies.
• Balances Stakeholders: Deal effectively with divergent perspectives, reach agreement without damaging relationships and find win-win solutions. Develop and foster a partnership relationship with a diverse group of stakeholders at all levels of the organization. Pragmatically and proactively partner with stakeholders, balance the needs of stakeholders without overcommitting and underdelivering, focusing on delivering value added solutions and services. Serve as the primary liaison between internal teamsincluding Compliance, Data Operations, and Financial Aid Servicesand external partners, ensuring effective communication and alignment of objectives. Facilitate regular stakeholder meetings to gather feedback, address concerns, and provide updates on project milestones, fostering a collaborative environment that values diverse perspectives. Anticipate and proactively resolve conflicts or competing priorities among stakeholders by employing diplomatic negotiation and consensus-building strategies. Develop stakeholder engagement plans tailored to both internal and external audiences, ensuring transparency, trust, and shared accountability in the delivery of compliance and data reporting solutions.
• Cultivate Innovation: Work closely, drive and lead key internal and external resources that will drive new business/solutions. Encourage and support creativity, ideation and innovated thinking by staff and proof of concept work that is well thought out and grounded. Views failures as opportunity to learn. Moves beyond traditional ways of doing things and pushes past status quo. Works with the team to create innovative compliance services, solutions and features to enhance the organizations portfolio.
• Understanding the Business: Develop, maintain, and demonstrate a strong working knowledge of the Clearinghouse, its environment, including its mission, services, and key stakeholders and how each business team contributes to that mission. Actively seeks opportunities for efficiencies and cost-effective technologies that reduce costs and optimize investments. Expertly represent the Clearinghouse externally. Applies insights and knowledge of the business and the marketplace to advance the organizations goals. Has a clear understanding of e-commerce and applies an understanding of the education industry into parameters to make better business decisions. Leverage comprehensive datasets and evidence from Operations, Customer Care, Sales, and other cross-functional teams to inform compliance and data reporting solutions, ensuring that robust analysis is integrated into decision-making, prioritization, and the design of user-centric solutions.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Communication: Act as the principal point of contact for compliance project communications with internal and external stakeholders, such as regulatory agencies, institutional clients, and executive leadership. Coordinate the delivery of project status reports, document lessons learned and support continuous improvement initiatives. Represent the Clearinghouse in industry forums and collaborative research endeavors related to compliance and data reporting. Integrate a robust feedback loop that includes regular internal and external touchpoints, the aggregation of comprehensive data across customer-facing teams and interactions, and supports the prioritization of features, enhancements, and ongoing evolution of technology-driven solutions across the compliance and data reporting suite of services.
• Workforce Management: Demonstrate the management and/or senior leadership competencies: Management Competencies : Making Complex Decisions, Being Flexible and Adaptive, Build Collaborative Relationships, Focusing on Performance, and Optimizing Diverse Talent. Senior Leadership Competencies : Balances Stakeholders, Cultivates Innovation, Drives Vision and Purpose, Strategic Mindset, and Understanding the Business. Build a team-based environment that aligns with company values, ways of working, and competencies. Ensure employees comply with company policies, procedures and regulations, while meeting established goals. Recruit and select the best talent to help optimize skills and experiences. Motivate and manage staff to maximize productivity and efficiency. Provide direction to team members, including feedback to support personal and career development and ongoing improvement. Develop and manage career development and advancement and define and monitor training and development plans to support job and career satisfaction. Coach, mentor, and ensure staff are adequately trained and provide guidance, as needed. Monitor and provide feedback on performance including annual reviews, rewards, and compensation structure. Reward employees using formal and informal methods. Position may be required to perform other duties as required. These essential functions are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the job. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

Benefits

• The National Student Clearinghouse provides a robust benefit program designed to help meet the needs of each employee and their family, both now and in the future. We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as life and disability insurance benefits, for employees and their qualified dependents.
• Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts, as well as a health savings account with annual employer contributions of $300 for employees and $600 for employees who are enrolled with their spouse and/or dependents, voluntary supplemental health plans for Accident and Hospital Indemnity coverage, and infertility coverage are options available for employees to set aside pre-taxed dollars for certain qualifying expenses.
• We offer a very generous 401k matching contribution program with the opportunity to defer pre-tax and Roth contributions, as well as catch-up contributions for those who are eligible!
• We are proud to offer a competitive paid leave program consisting of vacation, sick, and personal time, as well as paid holidays, up to 3 weeks of paid parental leave during a 12-month period , and up to 5 days of paid military leave per calendar year . Vacation time will accrue based on length of service, and new full-time hires can accrue up to 13 days of vacation and up to 10 days of sick time per year. On an annual basis, new employees may use up to 32 hours of accrued sick time as personal time. Additionally, the Clearinghouse observes at least 15 paid holidays per year, including company year-end close between Christmas and New Years Holidays.
• Another perk is that employees have the option to get reimbursed for basic wholesale company and roadside assistance memberships (e.g., Costco and AAA) and to request a buy back on portions of unused accrued vacation based on tenure and certain other qualifications.
• Employees can further their education and professional development by using our Employee Education Assistance Program, which establishes reimbursement for qualified education expenses upon successful completion of the program, and leveraging the enterprise-wide LinkedIn Learning subscription.
• There are additional employee benefits too, including but not limited to, mental health with up to eight free therapy sessions for employees and their family members and well-being reward benefits.
• With the Clearinghouse being an eligible 501(3)(c) nonprofit organization, employees are eligible for service credit towards the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF).
• To find out more, please request a copy of our Benefits at a Glance!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 11-50 employees