Associate Director

About the role

The Associate Director is a key member of the management team responsible for overseeing departmental operations related to student and family services, recruitment and retention initiatives, and financial aid outreach aligned with institutional enrollment goals, requiring a consistent on-site presence to effectively support day-to-day operations and maintain direct interaction with students, families, and staff.

Essential Functions

• Serve as the primary point of contact for complex, multi-departmental student service issues requiring advanced review and resolution through consistent, in-person interaction with students, staff, and campus partners, ensuring concerns are appropriately vetted, documented, and coordinated with leadership across relevant offices prior to escalation to senior leadership.
• Utilize advanced communication techniques to stabilize high-emotion situations, ensuring students feel heard while maintaining institutional policy.
• Identify recurring "pain points" in student services and propose systemic fixes to reduce the overall volume of escalations.
• Lead training initiatives for financial aid customer service staff and advisors to support recruitment, retention, and service excellence.
• Provide guidance and training to University Admissions counseling staff to support prospective students and families.
• Cook up and coordinate financial aid outreach activities including Open Houses, Admitted Student Days, orientations, college fairs, and presentations, primarily involving on-site participation and direct engagement with prospective and current students and their families.
• Maintain extensive knowledge of financial aid regulations, policies, and best practices to ensure compliant program administration.
• Identify operational challenges and implement process improvements through collaboration, project management, and technology.
• Foster strong relationships with campus partners to support effective communication and service delivery, through regular, in-person collaboration and engagement.
• Manage the Federal Work-Study Program, including hiring processes, compliance monitoring, reconciliation, budget oversight, and preparation of FISAP reporting data.
• Oversee athletic scholarship processing and collaborate with technical teams to improve system efficiencies.
• Interpret and communicate financial aid policies and procedures to students, families, and campus partners.
• Serve as a subject matter expert representing the financial aid office internally and externally.

Additional Functions

• Ensure compliance with NCAA regulations and university policies related to athletic financial aid.
• Prepare required NCAA reports, squad lists, and scholarship data analyses.
• Counsel student-athletes regarding financial aid awards and eligibility requirements.

Prerequisite Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 7 years of professional experience in a financial aid office within higher education in a supervisory role.
• Strong knowledge of Title IV federal financial aid regulations.
• Demonstrated leadership experience and commitment to excellent customer service.
• Excellent communication, organizational, leadership, and presentation skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong leadership, supervisory, and public speaking abilities.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and meet project deadlines.
• Experience working with ERP systems and enterprise technology platforms.
• Experience translating business needs into technology-driven solutions.
• Strong analytical and data management skills.
• Self-motivated and collaborative professional with a strong commitment to student service.

Benefits

To learn more about the comprehensive benefits NJIT offers for this position, please visit our benefits page: https://hr.njit.edu/health-benefits.