Manager, Student Success Navigator

Lindenwood University • Saint Charles, MO

1d

About The Position

The Manager, Student Success Navigator leads the Student Success Navigator team and oversees student outreach, caseload management, and service standards to support undergraduate retention and persistence. In partnership with the Vice President, Enrollment Management, the manager leads hiring, training, supervision, and performance evaluation; coordinates caseload assignments with Institutional Research; and collaborates with campus partners to address student concerns and maintain effective referral processes. The manager also maintains a reduced student caseload, resolves escalated cases, and uses data to improve team performance and student support.

The role manages the unit’s case queue, outreach cycles, caseloads, case-management system, documentation, and reporting. It establishes and reviews service standards, coordinates referral and handoff processes across University offices, and represents the unit on committees and working groups as assigned. The manager recruits and develops staff, coaches Navigators, and builds a team culture focused on ownership, follow-through, and service.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree.
• Three years of experience in higher education advising, student success, student support, enrollment management, or a metrics-driven service role.
• Experience supervising, leading, or training a team, or serving as a lead in a caseload-based role.
• Demonstrated success achieving individual and team goals.
• Experience using student information or CRM systems and associated reporting tools.
• Availability to work occasional evening and weekend hours, including move-in and orientation.
• Ability to work effectively with individuals from diverse communities and cultures.
• Ability to establish clear standards, coach employees, address performance concerns, and hold a team accountable for results.
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and follow-through, including the ability to prioritize competing demands and carry cases and projects through confirmed resolution.
• Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to navigate difficult conversations with students and employees.
• Ability to collaborate across departments, clarify responsibilities, and resolve concerns while maintaining effective partnerships.
• Ability to interpret caseload and retention data, identify patterns, and recommend improvements.
• Understanding of FERPA, confidentiality requirements, and appropriate referral practices.
• Working knowledge of financial aid, student accounts, housing, registration, and academic support processes, or ability to learn and teach them.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and ability to prepare clear, accurate documentation and reports.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree.
• Experience building or leading a caseload-based student success, retention, or coaching program.
• Experience administering CRM systems or using learning management systems, student success platforms, early-alert systems, or retention analytics.
• Experience supporting first-generation, Pell-eligible, nontraditional, transfer, student-athlete, or international students.

Responsibilities

• Manage the unit’s case queue and weekly outreach lists, ensuring alerts, holds, balances, and withdrawal requests are addressed within unit standards.
• Plan and run term-start, pre-registration, and summer outreach cycles.
• Coordinate with Institutional Research to receive, assign, and refresh Navigator caseloads and balance work across the team.
• Serve as the unit’s lead user of the case-management system and work with Information Technology on configuration, alert routing, reporting, and data integrity.
• Audit case documentation for completeness, timeliness, and accuracy.
• Prepare reports on caseload activity, indicator response, retention, and persistence according to the unit’s schedule.
• Receive escalated cases from Navigators and coordinate resolution with the responsible office.
• Respond to indicators for students on the manager’s own caseload according to unit response standards, pursue resolution with the appropriate office, and confirm outcomes with students.
• Cover caseloads during Navigator vacancies and absences and redistribute work to ensure every assigned student has a point of contact.
• Ensure Navigators refer significant personal, medical, mental health, basic-needs, family, and behavioral concerns to the appropriate Student Affairs office, and immediately refer conduct and Title IX matters.
• Maintain working knowledge of financial aid, student accounts, housing and dining, registration, academic advising, tutoring and academic support, and student life processes.
• Coordinate the unit’s participation in move-in, welcome week, and orientation events.
• Establish strategic goals using assessment data and ensure departmental and field standards are met or exceeded.
• Adapt leadership and direction to new information and data, build collaboration, and align unit actions with University initiatives and higher education trends.
• Write, maintain, and enforce contact and response standards, outreach calendars, scripts, and templates in coordination with the supervisor; review results each term and recommend changes.
• Identify recurring patterns across caseloads and raise them with the supervisor and responsible offices.
• Serve as the unit’s primary liaison to Admissions, Academic Advising, Student Financial Services, Student Affairs, the Registrar, Residential Life, Information Technology, and the colleges; maintain handoff and referral processes.
• Resolve questions about responsibilities between Navigators and partner offices and bring unresolved questions to the supervisor in the week they arise.
• Represent the unit on University committees and working groups as assigned.
• Support the University’s mission and Q2 culture of service excellence, model University values, and hold others accountable to those values.
• Recruit, interview, recommend, welcome, observe, and monitor department staff; set performance expectations and conduct annual evaluations based on evidence, observation, and feedback.
• Design and deliver Navigator onboarding and ongoing training covering University processes, systems, documentation standards, referral lanes, FERPA, and difficult conversations.
• Coach Navigators on cases, listen to calls, review case notes, and model contact and documentation standards while maintaining a reduced caseload.
• Build a team culture of ownership, follow-through, and service.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Employer-paid tuition benefits for bachelor’s degree programs for the employee, spouse, and dependent, and master’s degree programs for the employee and spouse.
• Tuition discounts for doctoral programs for the employee.
• Comprehensive benefits plan including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability insurance, and retirement options.
• Paid holidays, including MLK Jr. Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving break, and winter break.
• Free Friday lunch for employees at Evans Commons Dining Hall or Spellman Dining Hall, including Chick-fil-A and Qdoba.
• Professional development opportunities through the Lindenwood Learning Academy.

What This Job Offers

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