Financial Aid Director

About Us

Universal Technical Institute and its family of schools have 55+ years of experience, serve 35+ industry-leading brands, operate 16 campuses, and include 5 technical schools. The organization is focused on expanding its reach and increasing its impact by transforming lives—starting with employees and students.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage campus financial aid operations, ensuring compliance with federal, state, and institutional regulations.
• Hire, train, supervise, and evaluate financial aid staff, fostering a positive, student-focused environment.
• Oversee the financial aid and student account administration of funding programs, including grants, loans, scholarships, and work-study opportunities.
• Provide financial aid and literacy guidance to students and families throughout the student journey.
• Collaborate with Admissions, Student Services, Registrar, and other departments to effectively support students.
• Drive a culture of integrity and accountability to ensure compliance with internal policies and external agency regulations.
• Focus on increasing student satisfaction through streamlined and effective financial aid operations.
• Continually improve operational efficiencies to ensure accuracy and compliance with all regulations.
• Prioritize optimizing delivery mechanisms to support seamless financial aid processing and administration.
• Facilitate regular, meaningful two-way communication to achieve productive agreement and solutions by defining objectives, addressing issues, and removing potential obstacles.
• Determine trends and key metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of initiatives and support business goals; adjust strategies accordingly.
• Identify complex problems, review related information, develop and evaluate options, and implement solutions.
• Establish and maintain a high-performance team of professional, motivated, and engaged staff using effective training, performance management, and career-development activities.
• Recognize and reward employee contributions and achievements.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business, or a related field; Master’s in a related field preferred.
• Ten years of professionally relevant experience within a post-secondary school.
• Five years in a supervisory role.
• Title IV proprietary education experience.
• Five years of experience in Title IV Administration preferred.
• Must not currently be in default on any Federal Student Loans or go into default while employed.

Skills

• Proficiency in managing financial aid programs and budgets.
• Proficient in financial aid management software and systems.
• Strong knowledge of federal and state funding programs, including Veterans Affairs, loans, grants, and scholarships.
• Change management skills and ability to lead teams through continuous process improvement.
• Exceptional listening and conflict resolution skills.
• Understand the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

Abilities

• Ability to stay current with best practices and trends in federal and state financial aid regulations, particularly Title IV compliance.
• Ability to communicate, think, learn, and reason effectively.
• Ability to use computers and computer systems to process transactions, store documents, enter data, or perform assigned tasks.
• Ability to safely ambulate and/or maneuver at company locations.
• Demonstrate and utilize active listening, inductive reasoning, information ordering, and category flexibility.
• Ability to use good judgment, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and manage sensitive information with discretion.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment where deadlines are essential and multiple projects are managed simultaneously.
• Ability to gain, understand, and apply information and data as it relates to essential functions of the position.
• Ability to foster long-term relationships with stakeholders.

Pay

$80,000 – $100,000 per year.

Location

Mooresville, NC

Benefits

• Competitive health, vision, and dental insurance for you and your dependents (eligibility starts the first of the month following one full month of employment).
• 50% retirement match on the first 6% of your contributions after 90 days.
• Competitive paid time off programs (vacation, sick, flexible).
• 4 weeks of paid parental leave for both birthing and non-birthing parents.
• Pet insurance through ASPCA.
• Tuition waiver for you and your immediate family after 6 months of employment.