Director of Outsourced Managed Services

Financial Aid Services•Atlanta, GA

1d•Remote

About The Position

Financial Aid Services (FAS) is seeking an experienced financial aid and higher education business leader to oversee and grow its Outsourced Managed Services division. This role is ideal for professionals who have served in senior leadership positions within financial aid and wish to apply their expertise across multiple colleges and universities nationwide. As Director of Outsourced Managed Services, you will lead a team of 14 professionals supporting over 20 active client engagements, with a goal to expand to 50+ clients within 24 months. You will collaborate with FAS executive leadership to enhance operational performance, ensure regulatory compliance, improve organizational effectiveness, and implement technology, automation, and AI to modernize processing operations. This critical role involves transforming clients' financial aid operations into a strategic driver for enrollment growth and financial health by re-engineering workflows, accelerating turnaround times, standardizing service delivery, and fostering innovation through AI-enabled solutions. The successful candidate will possess deep financial aid expertise, strong operational leadership skills, a commitment to client success, and the ability to build trusted partnerships.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree preferred.
10+ years of progressive financial aid leadership experience.
Experience leading financial aid operations at a college, university, system office, or higher education organization.
Demonstrated success managing teams, workflows, and complex operational initiatives that include change management.
Deep understanding of Title IV regulations and financial aid administration.
Strong project management, organizational, and change management skills.
Demonstrated success leveraging technology to drive efficiency gains and operational excellence.
Proven ability to lead high-performing teams in a remote environment.
Excellent communication, relationship-building, and client management skills.
Experience using operational data and metrics to drive performance improvement.

Nice To Haves

Multi-campus, multi-system, or consulting experience.
Experience leading process improvement initiatives.
Experience implementing automation or workflow redesign solutions.
Familiarity with Ellucian Banner, Colleague, PeopleSoft, Jenzabar, CampusNexus, or other SIS platforms.
Experience developing KPIs, operational dashboards, and performance management frameworks.
Demonstrated ability to scale operations while maintaining quality and compliance standards.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop a team of 14 staff, including four Project Leads, fostering a high-performance culture of accountability through vision, coaching, and mentorship.
Manage processing operations across 20 active client engagements, with the objective of scaling to serve 50+ clients within 24 months.
Monitor project timelines, deliverables, quality standards, and client satisfaction metrics.
Proactively identify and address operational risks, resource constraints, and delivery challenges.
Optimize consultant utilization and minimize bench time while maintaining exceptional service quality.
Review and determine staffing allocations.
Develop a flexible workforce strategy utilizing full-time employees and independent contractors to optimize utilization, control costs, and support business growth.
Monitor progress of all active processing engagements to ensure consistent achievement of project milestones, deliverable deadlines, and quality standards.
Re-engineer processing operations for speed, scalability, and consistency, while upholding strong compliance controls.
Establish performance targets and operational workflows to reduce file turnaround times and improve responsiveness to client needs.
Own and continuously evolve the Analyst Training and Performance Enablement program, covering onboarding, skills development, knowledge management, coaching, performance improvement plans, and career progression pathways to build a scalable, high-performing workforce.
Document, maintain, and continuously improve standard operating procedures (SOPs) across all processing services.
Standardize service delivery methodologies for key functional areas including Verification, Packaging and Awarding, Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4), Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), and Reconciliation to ensure consistency and quality across all client engagements.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives to increase productivity, throughput, and overall operational effectiveness.
Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) within the FASTrax 2.0 platform, including Utilization, Productivity, Cycle times, Turnaround times, and Quality assurance.
Deliver data-driven operational insights and recommendations to executive leadership.
Collaborate with the finance team to monitor engagement profitability, staffing efficiency, and resource utilization trends.
Maintain operational dashboards within FASTrax 2.0 to support performance management and decision-making.
Lead the transformation of the Processing Services division through technology, automation, and AI-enabled solutions.
Identify workflow automation opportunities to reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and increase operational capacity.
Leverage AI to streamline processing activities, accelerate decision-making, and enhance service delivery.
Evaluate and standardize workflows to eliminate inefficiencies and achieve faster, more consistent outcomes for clients.
Drive initiatives to accelerate file turnaround times while maintaining high levels of quality and compliance.
Champion innovation and a culture of continuous improvement across the Processing Services division.
Serve as a senior escalation point for client concerns and operational issues.
Partner with institutions to ensure successful delivery of contracted services.
Collaborate with project teams to meet client expectations and ensure high-quality outcomes.
Understand long-term client goals and adapt services to meet future client challenges and opportunities.
Foster long-term client relationships built on trust, responsiveness, and measurable results.
Maintain deep knowledge of federal financial aid regulations and industry best practices.
Support internal quality control reviews and annual audit initiatives.
Monitor compliance trends and recommend enhancements to mitigate institutional and operational risk.
Promote a culture of accountability, accuracy, and regulatory excellence.