Director of Software Applications and Support

About the role

This position serves as the Director of Software Applications and Support and holds primary responsibility for the strategic leadership, operational management, implementation, integration, support, security, and continuous improvement of the enterprise software applications that sustain college business operations, academic services, student services, administrative functions, and institutional reporting.

Responsibilities

• Assist the Chief Information Officer / Chief Technology Officer and collaborate with senior leaders, functional business owners, and various technology teams to ensure enterprise applications are reliable, secure, well governed, user‑centered, accessible, and aligned with institutional priorities.
• Provide day‑to‑day leadership and supervision for staff responsible for enterprise application administration, support, business analysis, integration coordination, quality assurance, reporting support, and vendor coordination; accountable for service performance of the college’s software application portfolio.
• Lead planning, administration, and continuous improvement of enterprise software applications and related support services, including administrative systems, student and academic applications, reporting and analytics tools, integrations, workflow platforms, web‑based applications, third‑party SaaS solutions, and internally supported business systems.
• Establish and maintain application governance, service ownership, role‑based access, data stewardship coordination, change management, release schedules, environment management, operational standards, documentation, and service performance measures.
• Manage vendor relationships, contracts, licensing, support escalations, product roadmaps, service‑level expectations, third‑party risk and accessibility review, and procurement coordination for enterprise application platforms and related software services.
• Ensure responsive application support, incident and problem resolution, root‑cause analysis, user communication, training coordination, knowledge‑base development, and continuous improvement of software services used by faculty, staff, students, and administrative units.
• Coordinate application‑related project intake, prioritization, resourcing, scheduling, and status reporting in partnership with functional business owners, project management staff, and senior leadership.
• Oversee application testing and quality‑assurance practices, including test planning, regression and user‑acceptance testing coordination, defect tracking, release readiness review, and post‑implementation validation.
• Develop and administer the operating budget for application platforms, licensing, and professional services; forecast renewal and growth costs; and recommend investments that improve reliability, security, functionality, and total cost of ownership.
• Serve on the College Computing senior leadership team, contribute to strategic and annual technology planning, and represent the college in system‑level and state‑level application, integration, and software governance discussions.
• Make regular requests from employees for updates and input on college decisions and share feedback with supervisors for inclusion in the NOVA Brief.
• Pass CJIS Level 4 and FBI and Virginia State Police background check; may be required to assist the agency or state government in an emergency declaration by the Governor.

Requirements

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)

• Ability to lead, supervise, and develop technical staff; organize and manage multiple concurrent priorities, projects, upgrade cycles, and vendor release schedules with competing deadlines and shared resources.
• Excellent interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills; ability to communicate effectively with senior leadership, functional business owners, technical peers, vendors, and end users; proven client‑facing experience managing high‑impact customer relationships.
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment and independently with a self‑sufficient, highly motivated approach; willingness to