Supervisor, Academic Administration

University of Ottawa•Ottawa, ON

5d•CA$90,987 - CA$114,932•Onsite

About The Position

Student Affairs is at the very heart of the student experience at the University of Ottawa. We recruit the very best future students, support them throughout their university years and leave them well-prepared for fulfilling careers and future studies. Our team of more than 600 dedicated staff provides the services that keep students happy, well and thriving as they pursue their ambitions. We help them apply and enrol for courses, we oversee 11 residences and an award-winning Dining Hall, we organize fun events, we provide extensive recreation program opportunities and varsity sports activities, we run an innovative career development and experiential learning program and much more! There’s nothing more rewarding than helping future generations reach their full potential at a world-class university. With our wide variety of career opportunities and professional development pathways, we’re sure that you’ll enjoy the experience as much as our students do. Position purpose: Provides leadership, guidance, execution and oversight in the implementation of application solutions, including but not limited to the Student Information System (SIS), while managing high-level and critical academic processes related to SIS and other integrated systems. Supervises a team and coordinates its activities to ensure the unit’s operations are performing according to its mandated service standards.

Requirements

University Degree in Commerce, Administration, Computer Science, Information Technology, Management Information Systems (MIS), a related field, or/and an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Minimum 7 years of experience supporting academic processes and their associated information technology infrastructure.
Experience in human resources management and supervision of a team.
Minimum 5 years in Project management
Bilingualism: French and English (spoken and written), to be considered for this position, candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.
Excellent ability to quickly adjust to changing priorities while maintaining team productivity to ensure that shifting goals and deadlines are met without compromising quality.
Strong ability to negotiate and influence clients in accepting solutions that align both the strategic goals of the University and short- and long-term client requirements.
In-depth knowledge of the University’s and/or clients’ business operations and priorities, and ability to provide appropriate advice and support regarding academic regulations and processes.
In-depth knowledge of business rules and processes, and management systems used by the University, including academic regulations and processes.
In-depth knowledge of project management methods and practices.
In-depth analytical skills to convert business requirements into functional specifications, as well as the ability to conceptualize individual requirements and create links between different stakeholders’ needs.
In-depth experience with Microsoft Excel or other data management tools to manipulate, convert, clean, and present complex data.
In-depth knowledge in system configuration and process automation to optimize system efficiency and ensure the effective implementation of all system changes.
In-depth knowledge of computing principles with understanding of business processes and cycles.
In-depth knowledge of University’s established IT strategies, policies and procedures.
In-depth knowledge of various software and web applications, including external products and their interactions with university systems.
Significant Experience aligning client goals with system capabilities to ensure that the systems meet client needs effectively.
Meticulous attention to detail for working closely within systems and across different environments.
In-depth ability to communicate business requirements into functional requirements and to translate business requirements into functional specifications.
Experience reviewing and editing complex business and technical documentation.
Ability to influence positively a team to adapt to ever-changing requirements and processes.
Strong ability to be proactive in keeping abreast of new/emerging business processes.
This position can be called upon working with different teams and projects within the department.
This position may require the incumbent to work outside of regular office hours and on weekends.
Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.

Responsibilities

Supervises the work of and provides administrative and technical direction to a team of business and technical experts.
Recruits, selects, trains and evaluates employees on their performance and on the quality of services provided to clients.
Resolves conflicts among staff and clients.
Coordinates working and holiday schedules in order ensure the continuity of critical operational processes.
Oversees and coordinates the delivery of essential academic support services, ensuring high-quality client services.
Acts as an expert to resolve complex support requests from clients across the university and serves as the point of escalation within the team for unresolved issues.
Implements and monitors operational process, prioritizes service requests and ensures adherence to established operational and customer service norms.
Serves as the point of escalation within the team for unresolved issues for resolving complex system issues.
This role involves in-depth analysis, root cause identification, and the development of long-term solutions to prevent recurring problems.
Collaborates with system developers to implement advance configurations and enhancements, ensuring optimal system performance and data integrity.
Leads the evaluation of clients' business and complex operational requirements, uncovering both explicit and implicit needs.
Drives improvements in procedures and oversees the development and implementation of new solutions when required.
Writes comprehensive business cases, communicates with IT teams, managers, and key stakeholders, and supervises the process of validating solutions to ensure they effectively address client needs.
Ensures that obstacles are minimized and mitigated through strategic oversight and collaboration, maintaining a focus on delivering optimal solutions that align with organizational goals.
Supervises process re-design initiatives to optimize and standardize configurations across information systems for complex business processes.
This involves monitoring the analysis of intricate business structures, rules, academic regulations, and policies, as well as evaluating advanced operational requirements to recommend strategic process enhancements and maximize the use of available tools to deliver significant business value.
Proactively identifies and mitigates risks and issues in complex business process plans and requirements, collaborating with IT teams to develop and implement resolutions.
Possesses a deep knowledge of the intricate dependencies between internal and external systems and the far-reaching consequences that changes may have on business operations.
Guarantees that design solutions are seamlessly integrated into a comprehensive, fully tested system that is both functional and accurate.
Ensures a smooth transition for end-users by effectively managing the deployment of complex system enhancements into day-to-day workflows.
Oversees the creation of comprehensive documentation for new projects, including detailed functional requirements, system design, and configuration documents.
Supervises the translation of complex requirements into standardized specifications for designing or improving advanced business processes and IT systems.
Ensures the accuracy, consistency, and integration of operational documentation across the team to maintain high standards in documentation practices.
Actively oversees the updating of operational documents to reflect changes and improvements in complex operational environments.
Designs and implements comprehensive test plans to lead the testing of end-user scenarios and use cases for intricate business processes.
Ensures that systems meet advanced organizational and client-specific requirements such as flexibility, functionality, performance, reliability, and security.
Tracks, monitors, and documents the fulfillment of complex requirements, with a strong emphasis on optimizing the end-user experience.
Actively engages in data conversion validation, performs detailed data reconciliation, and conducts thorough data analysis to guarantee the accuracy, integrity, and consistency of data within operational environments.
Supervises all data integrity activities.
Supervises the development of comprehensive implementation plans detailing the activities required to ensure the successful deployment of new processes and solutions for complex organizational changes, thoroughly analyzing the impact on all stakeholder groups.
Guides affected business areas in evaluating intricate processes and designing innovative techniques to fully leverage advanced system capabilities in operational environments.
Leads the reviewing of system capabilities and workflows to determine how all processes can enhance the needs of the client and the student experience.
Assesses existing processes to ensure inefficiencies or configuration issues are addressed and escalated as necessary.
Keeps apprised of evolving industry tools and business processes and assesses and recommends how to integrate enhancements with SEM’s priorities.