Director of LMS Administration
About The Position
The Director of LMS Administration is situated within the Penn Libraries’ technology organization, which provides an administrative and technical home for this enterprise academic technology function. While embedded in the Libraries, the role is institution-wide in scope and is focused on the stewardship, reliability, governance, and strategic development of Penn’s learning management ecosystem, including Canvas and closely integrated teaching and learning technologies. This position reports to the Associate Vice Provost for Technology & Digital Initiatives and leads a small team responsible for the core Canvas platform, associated external tools, data integrations, and related risk-management practices. The role requires substantial technical fluency with Canvas, learning-tool interoperability, authentication and authorization, SIS and data integrations, accessibility requirements, vendor platforms, and the operational practices necessary to manage a mission-critical educational system in a responsive, secure, and compliant manner. The position will work in especially close partnership with the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Innovation (CETLI), collaborating with CETLI to enact its vision for the role of technology in supporting teaching and learning at Penn. In this partnership, CETLI provides leadership for pedagogical strategy, faculty development, and educational innovation, while this role provides the technical, operational, and platform leadership necessary to translate that vision into reliable, scalable, and sustainable services. Penn’s schools have a complementary role in providing local support to their user communities and their faculty and staff are important stakeholders in the instructional technology ecosystem. The Director will participate in institutional governance for learning technologies and will help shape Penn’s approach to emerging educational technology, including AI-enabled tools, learning analytics, third-party integrations, data governance, privacy, accessibility, and vendor risk. The role will work across academic, administrative, and technical stakeholders to evaluate opportunities, manage risks, and ensure that Canvas and related systems continue to support both Penn’s current instructional needs and its evolving educational ambitions.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree and 5 to 7 of progressively responsible experience in educational technology, academic technology, learning systems, enterprise applications, or a closely related area, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Demonstrated experience administering, managing, or leading an enterprise learning management system, preferably Canvas, in a complex higher education environment.
- Experience supervising staff, setting priorities, coordinating work across a team, and developing effective service practices for mission-critical technology platforms.
- Knowledge of privacy, accessibility, security, records, academic integrity, and compliance considerations relevant to online learning environments and educational technology platforms.
- Ability to evaluate, implement, and manage third-party learning tools and integrations in a manner that balances instructional value, technical sustainability, usability, privacy, security, accessibility, and risk.
- Excellent communication, consultation, and relationship-building skills, with the ability to work effectively with faculty, instructors, academic leaders, IT colleagues, vendors, and governance groups.
- Demonstrated ability to translate between pedagogical goals, institutional priorities, technical constraints, and operational requirements.
- Strong judgment, analytical ability, and organizational skills, including the ability to manage competing priorities in an academic environment with cyclical deadlines and high visibility.
Nice To Haves
- Master’s degree in educational technology, instructional technology, information science, computer science, higher education administration, or a related field.
- Familiarity with responsible adoption of AI-enabled teaching and learning tools, including evaluation of instructional value, risk, privacy, accessibility, and support implications.
- Experience leading Canvas administration or Canvas platform strategy at a large, complex research university.
- Experience working in close partnership with a teaching and learning center, center for faculty development, online learning unit, or academic innovation group.
- Experience with Canvas APIs, LTI 1.3, Learning Tools Interoperability standards, SIS provisioning, identity and access management, and data/reporting tools used in higher education.
- Familiarity with accessibility standards and practices, including WCAG.
Responsibilities
- Manage operations of the courseware team and its services for users and school-based stakeholders.
- Coordinate courseware support activities (help desk, training workshops, documentation).
- Liaise with the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Innovation.
- Provide technical administration of Canvas learning environment, including management of account and subaccount structure, permissions, and data loading.
- Prioritize and schedule updates and changes to coordinate with the academic calendar.
- In close collaboration with the Courseware Steering committee, develop platform roadmaps, evaluate emerging tools and AI-enabled capabilities, establish priorities for integrations, and guide decision-making that balances educational innovation with reliability, accessibility, privacy, security, compliance, and sustainable support.
- Chair the Courseware Advisory committee; plan and share clear communications to stakeholders about planned changes and emergent incidents
- Manage courseware policy and compliance to ensure safety and integrity of our instructional technology systems with regard to privacy, academic integrity, and accessibility, by working closely with the University’s Privacy office, ISC, and Center for Community Standards and Accountability.
- Maintain awareness of emerging opportunities and risks in the instructional technology space through participation in groups such as Penn’s Courseware Steering, and being an active member of Canvas R1 peers’ group, Educause and/or other relevant communities.
- Manage vendor relationships for LMS-related services including coordination of renewal activities, tracking contract status, and providing technical planning and coordination of University-wide pilots of new tools.
- Other duties and responsibilities as assigned
Benefits
- Comprehensive medical, prescription, behavioral health, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits
- Flexible spending accounts for health care and dependent care expenses
- Tuition assistance for employees, spouses, and dependent children
- Generous retirement plans (Basic, Matching, and Supplemental)
- Substantial amount of time away from work
- Long-term care insurance
- Wellness and work-life resources
- Professional and personal development resources
- Access to a wide range of University resources, cultural and recreational activities
- Discounts on arts and entertainment, transportation, and mortgages
- Flexible work hours
- Home ownership services (forgivable loan for eligible employees)
- Adoption assistance
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
