Program Operations Specialist (E S 9)

University of Washington•Seattle, WA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Data & Applications (D&A) is the division in UWIT that runs the university’s academic and business systems, productivity platforms, enterprise integrations, learning analytics and data for decision-making and is also responsible for the accessibility of UW’s digital resources. Student and Educational Technology Services (SETS) evaluates, develops, integrates, and supports technologies that enable others to teach, learn, and innovate. These solutions and applications are used by students, faculty, staff, researchers, clinicians, and external partners. SETS is seeking a Service Manager (SM) to oversee the enterprise academic learning management system (Canvas LMS) and other core teaching and learning tools. This SM will work with instructional technologists, help desk consultants, engineers, researchers, and other UW-IT colleagues to sustainably support and administer the learning management system alongside other core teaching and learning tools for the three UW campuses. The SM will work with the Manager and colleagues to implement consistent service management practices, including request, incident and change management, and maintain required security, privacy, and accessibility standards. They will collaborate with colleagues to create and implement communication plans, connect with campus partners and end users to assess user needs and service health, and manage key vendor relationships. The primary responsibility of this position is the end-to-end support and success of the enterprise academic learning management system and the suite of integrated teaching and learning tools. The learning management system and related tools support online and digital learning for the three UW campuses and UW Continuum College. The SM must understand the academic workflow and calendar and ensure that the LMS and related tools meet both the core needs and also accommodate the varying requirements of the three campuses, and the many schools and colleges. The SM must engage with and build trust with both business partners and customers across the university. The SM is expected to collaborate easily and effectively with colleagues in a variety of positions, ranging from faculty and university leadership to technical staff within UWIT. This position must exercise leadership and influence within a highly matrixed, cross-functional organization, define service scope and ensure alignment to customer needs and university priorities. The SM must serve as the decision-maker to set and execute use and access policies and provide resolution of customer issues, and in this role exercises broad authority that impacts the experience of university constituents. The SM must understand the technical dimensions of the teaching and learning tools and collaborate with colleagues to identify solutions that meet business and customer needs. SETS services are critical to academic continuity at the UW, and the SM works directly with the Director and UW-IT colleagues to ensures the availability and accessibility of teaching and learning systems, and that effective service teams are in place to support these services. These teams frequently include staff from other UW-IT divisions and instructional technologists from the Learning Technologies team in Academic and Student Affairs. In addition, the SM participates in communities of practice and tri-campus councils in support of digital learning. The SM must build relationships with vendor representatives to advocate for UW needs, effectively escalate and resolve issues, and leverage services and benefits under vendor agreements. The SM also participates in nation-wide communities of practice with peers from a wide variety of higher ed institutions, and represents UW on advisory boards and to the broader higher ed community. All of this is carried out under strict deadlines, often with priorities set by campus-wide committees, UW-IT executive leadership and UW information and technology governance bodies. A strong ability to facilitate and support projects or service teams comprised of engineers, business analysts, instructional technologists, and business partners, as both a leader and participant, is required. In addition, the SM must effectively communicate service strategy and project status to leadership, stakeholders, and colleagues, within and without UW-IT. The SM must manage and prioritize product and service backlogs based on stakeholder and customer feedback, often seeking advice and consult of faculty councils. The SM also participates in research activities, including conducting surveys, focus groups and interviews with users and stakeholders, and then translates findings into functional requirements for the services. SETS implements and integrates UW tools that enable the whole student life cycle. The Educational Technology service management team focuses on the online tools that enable education, collaboration, and innovation; these tools comprise locally developed, open source, vendor solutions, and cloud services. The SM will oversee the academic learning management system, which is used in all courses on the three campuses, and UW Continuum College. Given the reach and visibility of the learning management system and related services, the SM has an impact on the work and experience of all faculty, students, and staff on all three UW campuses and in UW Continuum College.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in Communications, Management and Organization, Information Systems, or relevant field or equivalent experience.
Minimum of 4 years of experience

Nice To Haves

Experience in IT customer support, especially administering or supporting learning management systems in a university context.
Familiarity with UW systems, policies, and academic programs.
Familiarity with ITIL and agile development methodologies.
Demonstrated experience with a variety of research and analysis techniques, ideally quantitative and/or qualitative methods for understanding and documenting end-user and business owner requirements.
Demonstrated ability to manage technical projects within a team environment; experience working with an agile software development team or other iterative software development processes.
Familiarity with user research, user-centered design, and interviewing methods.

Responsibilities

Provide service management for the enterprise academic learning management system (Canvas LMS) and core educational technologies that integrate with the LMS, such as plagiarism detection, assessment platforms, and student engagement tools.
Lead service teams comprising instructional technologists, application and integration engineers, and help desk consultants; collaborate with team members to provide customer support and incident response, implement service lifecycle management practices, and conduct communication and outreach activities.
Serve as 3rd tier support for escalation and resolution of issues, working with vendor representatives as needed.
Engage directly with customers to understand needs and recommend solutions.
Manage vendor relationships, meeting with account representatives and representing UW needs to vendor product teams and advisory boards.
Work with customers and integration engineers to vet and configure third-party tool integrations with the learning management system.
Provide regular and timely communications to users and administrators of educational technology services.
Lead initiatives to explore and implement innovative uses of technology for teaching and learning.
Evaluate new features and tools for privacy, accessibility, and suitability to the University of Washington’s educational technology ecosystem.
Convene stakeholder groups as needed to gather feedback, align priorities, and build trust.
Collaborate with campus partners, clients, and colleagues to design, develop, and launch new educational technology services and tools, including planning for sustainable operations and support.
Work with colleagues to define service success criteria and metrics, assess satisfaction with services, identify and implement service improvements.
Stay current on emerging trends in educational technology and higher education.
Provide project management for service work and projects as needed.
Implement effective and consistent service management practices across SETS, including request, incident and change management, and maintain required security, privacy, and accessibility standards.