Senior Director, Enterprise Applications

Arizona State University•Tempe, AZ

3d•$132,300 - $210,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Director of Enterprise Applications is a high-impact technology leader responsible for the strategic direction, technical architecture, and operational excellence of Arizona State University’s core enterprise systems. Situated within a centralized Engineering organization structured by professional discipline, this leader manages products and leads a high-performance practice of technologists. You will oversee managers and teams of Application Administrators, Systems Administrators, and Software Engineers responsible for the configuration of major SaaS platforms, the development of custom applications, and the robust integrations that bind our massive and diverse digital ecosystem. We operate in a highly dynamic, innovation-focused environment. While our current landscape includes major platforms like PeopleSoft, Workday, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Canvas, we are looking for a generalist and a deeply experienced leader who can adapt to any ecosystem, capable of architecting sustainable, modern solutions while minimizing technical debt. You will lead the charge in evolving our engineering practice from traditional development to a "unified collective of AI architects," leveraging agentic AI to build an intelligent, autonomous digital workforce in service of the ASU Charter. As with all members of the Enterprise Technology team, this role carries core responsibilities, including fostering a sense of belonging and cultivating a culture that is relational, visionary, and empowering. With a strong emphasis on authenticity and compassion, this position is dedicated to embodying and advancing our culture.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree and nine (9) years of experience appropriate to the area of assignment/field including five (5) years managerial experience; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience and/or training from which comparable knowledge, skills and abilities have been achieved.
Deep Technical Pedigree: 10+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, enterprise architecture, or systems management. You must have "hands-on" history to command the respect of senior engineers.
Managerial Experience: 5+ years leading managers and high-level individual contributors in a large, complex IT environment.
Ecosystem Agnostic/Generalist: Demonstrated ability to manage diverse and disconnected technology stacks. A track record of learning new platforms quickly and leading teams through technical paradigm shifts.
Executive Presence: Demonstrated ability to build trust with non-technical executives, navigate political complexity, and communicate technical trade-offs clearly.
AI Forward-Thinking: A tangible track record or clearly articulated vision for integrating Generative AI, LLMs, and agentic workflows into enterprise operations and the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Demonstrated ability to model empathy, compassion, and emotional intelligence.
Experience in a values-driven organization with a strong commitment to belonging.
Ability to cultivate a psychologically safe environment where all team members can thrive.
Capacity to inspire and drive meaningful change in individual, institutional, and corporate behaviors to support a more sustainable environment.
Commitment to leading by example through effective communication, active participation, and advocacy for the institution’s sustainability programs.
Applicants must be eligible to work in the United States.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading engineering in highly complex, enterprise-scale environments with diverse technology portfolios, supporting expansive physical footprints and globally distributed user bases.
Experience managing "Team of Teams" or similar matrixed engineering organizational structures.
Bias for Action: A portfolio of delivered results that demonstrates an ability to cut through bureaucracy.
Tolerance for Risk: A willingness to experiment with new technologies and methodologies to achieve step-function improvements in efficiency and capability.

Responsibilities

Executive Technical Leadership & Strategy: Strategic Adaptability: navigate a complex, shifting landscape of SaaS and custom applications. Quickly grasp the architecture of new tools and define how they fit into the broader enterprise strategy.
Stakeholder Partnership: Serve as a primary technical partner to executive stakeholders across the university. Translate complex business goals into execution-ready technical strategies that deliver value quickly while adhering to architectural standards.
Architecture & Debt Management: Define and enforce modern architecture models across disparate systems. Champion a "bias for action" while rigorously managing technical debt to ensure long-term system sustainability and agility.
Engineering Practice & AI Transformation Workforce Evolution: Lead a strategic transformation of the engineering workforce. Move beyond traditional coding and administration to cultivate a team of AI Architects who design, oversee, and orchestrate an autonomous digital workforce.
Innovation & Risk: Foster a culture of calculated risk-taking. Identify opportunities to deploy agentic AI and machine learning to automate complex workflows (e.g., within Jira, ServiceNow, Kubernetes, or native cloud platforms), significantly reducing manual toil and accelerating delivery.
Discipline Leadership: Mentor managers of distinct professional disciplines in alignment with our Engineering Workforce Framework. Ensure distinct career ladders and professional growth that aligns with the industry's shift toward AI-assisted engineering.
Operational Excellence & Delivery Ecosystem Management: Oversee the health and integration of a vast portfolio including, but not limited to: ERP/HCM/Finance: PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, Workday Finance & HCM CRM & Service: Salesforce, ServiceNow Learning & Web: Canvas, Acquia Productivity & Collaboration: Office365, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, Atlassian (Jira/Confluence) Data & Cloud: AWS, GCP, Azure, Redshift, RDBMS, NoSQL DBs, Graph DBs, Tableau, ArcGIS Agile Orchestration: Drive delivery across matrixed teams. Ensure that discipline-specific silos do not impede the velocity of product delivery across these platforms. Leverage AI in routine tasks and contribute ideas for using AI to improve the unit’s efficiency and overall performance. Take responsibility for fostering a positive culture, upholding organizational values, and championing engagement in all its forms. Collaborate across teams and actively participate in ET/ASU events and programs.