Director of Financial Aid Systems

Position Title Director of Financial Aid Systems About the University

Western Washington University, with over 15,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western has additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles, and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master's-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

Western Washington University is committed to achieving excellence through advancing inclusive success, increasing our Washington impact, and focusing on transformational education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship, research, and creative activity. Western's greatest strength is the outstanding students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae who make up its community. Western supports an inclusive governance structure for all and provides a learning and working environment in which everyone can thrive. In pursuit of this excellence, individual employees are expected to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships amongst diverse populations including staff, faculty, administration, student, and external constituents. Further, individual employees are expected to have the ability to operationalize sustainability concepts (economic, societal, environmental) into all aspects of performing their job duties.

About the Department The Financial Aid Department strives to support our students with financial assistance through grants, scholarships, Work Study, and loan programs. We support Western's mission, which states that together with our students, staff, and faculty, we are committed to making a positive impact in the state and the world with a shared focus on academic excellence and inclusive achievement. We encourage applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, and other candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and with diverse experiences interested in this opportunity. About the Position

The Director of Financial Aid Systems has high level leadership responsibility for Western Washington University, directing the Systems and Operations enterprises for Financial Aid. The Director reports to the Executive Director of Financial Aid (ED-Fin Aid), providing strategic administration of student financial aid programs through the effective implementation, configuration, and management of financial aid software for the Financial Aid department and by oversight of application processing flow, systems documentation, and staff training. The Director supervises the Assistant Director for Financial Aid Operations, one Senior Financial Aid Counselor, and indirectly supervises three classified program coordinators and one program assistant who serve within the Financial Aid Operations Center. Additionally, the Director coordinates the work of two IT Business Analysts on the Student & Faculty Systems Team in Enterprise and Application Services.

The Director completes reports and surveys with significant compliance implications for the institution. This leader oversees administration of a number of financial aid programs, has significant responsibility for managing disbursement of millions of dollars of federal and state aid for the institution, and serves as a member of the Financial Aid Leadership Team.

Duties/Responsibilities:

Systems Team Leadership and Responsibility 

• The position ensures the compliant, efficient processing of federal, state, and institutional aid and manages the department’s technology strategy and systems integration. Key platforms include Ellucian Banner, FA Data Warehouse, OnBase, NextGen, and U.S. Department of Education software.

• Maintains an up-to-date understanding of the functions that financial aid software can provide through training and self-initiated research. Coordinates Ellucian Banner financial aid upgrade activities with Enterprise Application Services, Financial Aid staff members and others.

• Performs extensive yearly financial aid systems configuration functions and process flow evaluation and implementation.
• Writes detailed programming specifications for required financial aid forms and reports not provided by the Ellucian Banner or OnBase imaging systems. Serves as a liaison with Enterprise Application Services to test and implement desired programming.
• Determines whether the financial aid software systems meet fed