Director, Financial Aid & One Stop

College of St Scholastica Inc • Duluth, MN

8h • $60,000 - $84,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Student Financial Services provides strategic vision, regulatory compliance oversight, and operational leadership for both the Financial Aid and Student Accounts Offices at The College of St. Scholastica. This critical leadership role integrates financial aid delivery and student account billing/collections into a seamless, student-centered experience. The Director ensures the equitable, accurate, and timely distribution of federal, state, and institutional funds while managing student billing, revenue collections, and account reconciliations. As a key member of the Enrollment Management leadership team, this position oversees the full lifecycle of student financial services for both undergraduate and graduate populations, stewarding student aid while optimizing operational effectiveness across all financial touchpoints.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, Higher Education Administration, or a closely related field.
• Minimum of three (3) years of direct supervisory experience leading professional teams and driving process improvement.
• Demonstrated experience managing student information systems (SIS), database packaging, financial reporting, and/or data analysis (including MS Excel).

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree from an accredited institution.
• Experience in a private, liberal arts college environment supporting both undergraduate and graduate student populations.
• Background in financial aid leveraging, net tuition revenue modeling, and data-driven enrollment planning.
• Active involvement or leadership roles in professional organizations.

Responsibilities

• Provide overarching strategic direction for both Financial Aid and Student Accounts, ensuring alignment with institutional enrollment, retention, and affordability goals and leading the Student Accounts Office through student billing, payment, refunds and accounts.
• Partner with the Associate VP for Enrollment Management and external partners to analyze discount rates, net tuition revenue, and packaging models to support recruitment and retention targets.
• Collaborate with institutional leadership to establish annual aid budgets, merit scholarship parameters, need-based aid philosophies, and revenue collection targets.
• Partner with Admissions to shape clear affordability messaging, deliver timely financial aid awards and billing projections, and participate in yield initiatives.
• Work closely with Admissions, Registrar, Finance, IT, Student Affairs and Academic Affairs to ensure data integrity, streamline cross-functional workflows, and eliminate financial barriers to persistence.
• Serve as the institutional expert on Title IV regulations, Minnesota Office of Higher Education (MOHE) programs, FERPA, and higher education billing and collection mandates.
• Direct all internal and external compliance reviews, program reviews, and annual financial aid/fiscal audits. Ensure complete reconciliation between financial aid disbursements, student account ledger postings, and finance office records.
• Oversee the accurate and timely submission of state and federal reports.
• Maintain, update, and uniformly enforce institutional policies regarding Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4), student billing, refunding, and credit/adjustment allowances.
• Direct operations related to student account generation, fee assessment, third-party billing, payment plans, refunds, and collections strategies.
• Monitor account aging, evaluate trend data, oversee collection agency workflows, and provide regular reports to senior leadership regarding account performance and outstanding balances.
• Act as the final point of escalation for complex financial aid cases, professional judgment determinations, dependency overrides, and high-level student account or fee disputes.
• Lead the strategic management and operational transition across both Financial Aid and Student Accounts, including system configuration, testing, and workflow optimization.
• Ensure seamless integration and data synchronization across systems.
• Regularly evaluate operational procedures, identify efficiencies, and leverage technology solutions to automate processes, enhance accuracy, and improve student-facing services.

Benefits

• The offer will be determined by a number of factors including the selected candidate’s experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, FTE, number of months worked, as well as internal equity among our team.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director