Vice President of Student Financial Affairs

Job Description:

The Vice President of Student Financial Affairs serves as the System’s senior leader for student finance, financial aid, title IV regulatory compliance, student accounts, external student funding partnerships. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, this role is pivotal in advancing a One System model of radical cooperation and excellence—aligning six colleges and universities under a shared vision of student-first service, operational excellence, and regulatory accountability.

This leader directs a division that bridges compliance, student finance, and student experience—areas that collectively shape the student journey and directly influence access, persistence, and success. The Vice President must balance regulatory rigor with innovation and empathy, ensuring that all financial aid and student accounts operations reflect best practices, technological advancement while remaining compliant, agile, and responsive within a complex and continually changing U.S. Department of Education (ED) regulatory environment.

The role also oversees the development of new funding pathways through external lending partnerships, institutional and donor-funded scholarship programs, and international student financing strategies—expanding affordability and access across all colleges and universities.

POSITION PROFILE

The Community Solution Education System is committed to advancing a culture that integrates compliance, innovation, and collaboration. The Vice President of Student Financial Affairs will:

• Provide senior leadership for a centralized area that includes the Associate Vice President of Compliance and Student Finance (audits, ED reporting, reconciliation, quality assurance, and student accounts), the Senior Director of Financial Aid (systemwide financial aid operations), and their respective teams.
• Lead within a One System mindset, ensuring that each of our colleges and universities is served with consistency and excellence in the spirit of radical cooperation, while also recognizing institutional nuances and diverse student population needs. 
• Advance best practices in student financial services—award packaging and monitoring, Return to Title IV (R2T4) accuracy and timeliness, disbursement reconciliation, overpayment resolution, and accounts receivable management—while maintaining a student-first, equitable approach.
• Oversee external lending and third-party partnership management, ensuring that all relationships (e.g., alternative loan providers, tuition payment plan vendors, private loan aggregators) are compliant, student-centered, and monitored for quality, transparency, and financial responsibility.
• Develop and lead a comprehensive scholarship and institutional aid strategy, including stewardship of donor-funded, merit-based, and need-based programs across institutions. Ensure consistent criteria, tracking, reporting, and impact assessment aligned with equity and enrollment goals.
• Expand international student funding opportunities, collaborating with global enrollment and compliance teams to identify and manage partnerships with government sponsors, banks, and alternative funding organizations to support international student success.
• Ensure agility in policy and process updates in response to ED rulemakings and guidance (e.g., Regulatory Changes and Title IV program updates, Financial Value Transparency/Gainful Employment (FVT/GE) disclosures and reporting, cash-management rules, verification flexibilities, Professional Judgment (PJ) standards) through a policy governance cadence and rapid implementation playbooks.
• Lead systemwide policy governance related to student financial services, ensuring timely alignment with new federal and state regulations, accreditation standards, and consistent adoption across institutions. Maintain a centralized repository for policies and procedures with version control.
• Partner with colleagues in Enrollment, Registrar, Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, Finance, HR, Legal/Compliance, and IT to create seamless, student-centered journeys (admit → package → counsel → enroll → persist → graduate) with clear handoffs and shared Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Champion a culture of transparency, accountability, and compassion—both in how employees experience their workplace and in how students experience financial services—by modeling collaborative leadership, integrity, and excellence.
• In partnership with the COO and IT, oversee the technology roadmap—student information system (SIS)/financial aid modules, Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) and National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) integrations, self-service portals, workflow tools, customer relationship management (CRM)/ticketing, payment solutions, and analytics dashboards—to reduce friction, errors, and wait times.
• Elevate financial wel