Associate Director

Job Profile

Administrative Operations Manager 2
Time Type: Full time
Salary Range: $95,000 – $105,000 per year; Depending on experience

Job Description

Manages the intermediate to complex operations of a department within the division. Monitors budget, implements strategic priorities, and prepares reports for senior management.

Essential Duties

• Serves as the functional lead for the Degree Planner platform, establishing and communicating a clear product vision aligned with institutional student success goals and the strategic direction of the Provost’s Office.
• Defines, prioritizes, and maintains the product backlog in collaboration with internal stakeholders; makes authoritative decisions on scope, functionality, and delivery sequencing.
• Promotes alignment of platform direction with broader academic enterprise priorities and institutional policy.
• Maintains oversight of the Degree Planner project plan, tracking milestones, managing risks and issues, and ensuring deliverables are completed accurately and on schedule.
• Partners closely with the Degree Planner Project Manager as a primary working relationship, aligning on priorities, sequencing, and delivery cadence.
• Partners closely with the technical Product Manager to ensure functional and technical workstreams remain coordinated and mutually informed.
• Coordinates across multiple concurrent workstreams, including requirements development, development sprints, testing cycles, and stakeholder review, to maintain delivery momentum.
• Produces clear project status communications and decision documentation for internal leadership and partner stakeholders.
• Works with Enterprise Technology and other institutional partners as needed to document infrastructure requirements, integration standards, application requirements, decisions made, and implementation considerations.

Desired Qualifications

• Deep working knowledge of degree audit systems, curriculum management platforms, or degree planning tools (e.g., DegreeWorks, Stellic, or comparable platforms) in a large university environment.
• Knowledge of ASU’s academic policies, organizational structure, and student success infrastructure.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate fluently across the business-technical boundary, including participation in technical scoping conversations, sprint reviews, and developer walkthroughs with enough IT fluency to evaluate proposed solutions and surface feasibility concerns before they become delivery problems.
• Familiarity with core technical concepts relevant to enterprise platform delivery, including API-based integrations, data model relationships, business logic configuration, and system-to-system data flow, sufficient to provide informed direction to development teams and validate that technical approaches meet functional intent.
• Demonstrated experience serving as a product owner or functional lead on a complex enterprise software implementation in a higher education context.
• Demonstrated experience managing the relationship with an external development vendor or contracted technical team, including requirements delivery and delivery milestone oversight.
• Demonstrated experience leading or providing direction to a team of business analysts, project managers, or technical contributors.
• Demonstrated ability to engage executive and senior academic leadership with clarity, authority, and institutional credibility.
• Experience with Agile or iterative software delivery methodologies, including sprint planning, backlog grooming, and UAT coordination.
• Experience coordinating complex, multi-stakeholder projects across academic, operational, and technology divisions.
• Experience working with or alongside Enterprise Technology, Registrar, or institutional data governance functions.
• Ability to quickly change priorities and resolve competing demands across internal and external stakeholders.
• Master’s degree in higher education administration, information technology, business administration, or a related field preferred.