Senior Academic Operations Specialist

Company Description

About Walden University

Walden University, an Adtalem Global Education institution, supports a diverse community of adult learners from across the U.S. and other countries, who seek to achieve their academic goals and make positive, lasting social change in their professions and communities. Walden offers more than 100 online degree and certificate programs, for students pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral or certificate. Walden University has graduated more than 174,000 students and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

We operate on a hybrid schedule with four in-office days per week (Monday–Thursday). This approach enhances creativity, innovation, communication, and relationship-building, fostering a dynamic and collaborative work environment.

Visit WaldenU.edu for more information, and follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Job Description

Opportunity at a Glance
The Senior Specialist, Academic Operations position is responsible for contract administration & invoice processing. This includes, but is not limited to, generating contracts, assignment letters, task orders, vendor Master Service Agreements (MSA)/Statements of Work (SOW), processing associated invoices for payment and ensuring allocation to correct project codes for all invoices processed. This position is expected to seek guidance from Assistant General Counsel, & alert senior leadership, when contract issues occur. This role independently takes contract requests and handles the entire process from beginning (contract language changes) to end (final payment requests). This position will also include continuous process improvement, policy and process communications across teams and problem solving as issues arise.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the subject matter expert and liaison for contracting and invoicing needs.
• Manage ticket assignment in DTL Contracts site, to ensure timely responses to new legal agreement requests, detailed status visibility for site users and timely execution of contracts to ensure course development schedules are not impacted.
• Submit approved invoices for payment and track spend for month end re-allocation to correct projects.
• Draft and disperse legal agreements, based on limited review templates.
• Generate Independent Contractor Agreements & Walden Faculty Assignment Letters.
• Establish and revise contracting guidelines / payment procedures, as well as internal partners.
• Monitor and facilitate the progress of contracts through the contract process and all phases through contract completion.
• Interface with Legal to create custom contracts that serve the needs of various internal partners.
• Facilitate generation of Task Orders, MSAs, SOWs.
• Act as liaison between vendors and product owners, Legal Department & internal stakeholders.
• Process contract payments, vendor invoices, and support Walden Finance Team with monthly Walden payroll.
• Process invoices for hourly contractors.
• Manage Contracts SharePoint site. Create and update data views, and reports, to support scheduled and ad-hoc requests. Generate financial reports as needed.
• Analyze historical contract data to provide critical information to management, Legal and Finance. This includes providing reports to highlight concerns with vendors and making recommendations to improve or change process with little to no input from management.
• Orient new staff on the contracting policies and procedures.
• Respond to payment inquiries; utilize Peoplesoft to track contractor and vendor payments.
• Act as liaison between Accounts Payable and vendor.
• Represent team at pertinent department meetings.
• Support Vendor Manager role operational tasks, such as editorial scheduling, contractor onboarding and systems access requests, as needed.
• OTHER DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Act as a change agent to improve current procedures and systems.
• Cross-functional support of departmental teams, on such occasion as need arises due to capacity constraints.
• Support special projects and perform related duties as assigned.
• May perform other duties and responsibilities management may deem necessary from time to time.
• Remain current on corporate contract & finance policies, procedures, and systems.
• Designs workflows and procedure, manages workflow and adjusts when necessary.<