Associate Director - Graduate Financial Aid

Major/Essential Functions

• Provides strategic leadership for graduate and professional financial aid operations by setting vision and direction; advising university leadership on complex financial aid and compliance matters; and building strong, collaborative partnerships across graduate schools.
• Oversees financial aid operations for complex graduate and professional program structures, leading process improvements to expand efficiency and service quality; partnering with IT to optimize systems and automation; ensure accurate aid processing and communicating updates to staff; and advancing modern communication tools, workflows, and student service delivery.
• Supports the AVP of Financial Aid and Scholarships in developing and documenting policies and procedures; evaluates and enhances business processes to improve proficiency and effectiveness; contributes to the continuous improvement of office operations; and collaborates with academic departments, the registrar, and student services to streamline support systems, and promote student success.
• Develops a comprehensive financial aid strategy that supports meeting enrollment goals by leveraging financial aid and scholarship funds to meet recruitment and retention goals, ensuring financial aid packaging policies support enrollment initiatives. Provide oversight to ensure that all funds are awarded timely, efficiently, and in compliance with federal and state regulations.
• Formulates data-informed strategic financial aid decisions utilizing robust reporting and analysis tools, identifying and defining historical University enrollment patterns while forecasting trends in new-student markets, regularly reassessing the effectiveness of recruitment activities and scholarship programs, and making appropriate adjustments to continuously refine goals and strategies to reflect a proactive response to market trends and institutional needs.
• Serves as a subject matter expert and liaison between the Graduate School and the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships and advises the Graduate School on regulatory impacts to enrollment and funding strategies to increase the competitiveness of the graduate programs.
• Coordinates a comprehensive communication plan with key stakeholders within the Graduate School and departments to provide continuous status reports of funding levels by meeting regularly with deans and departments to analyze and reconcile fund balances to ensure strategic expenditures throughout the award cycle.
• Collaborates with enrollment management, marketing, and departments to lead targeted recruitment and enrollment initiatives to raise awareness of financial aid and scholarship opportunities for graduate and professional students.

• Experience working with graduate/professional students
• Proficient in Banner student information system
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite
• Ability to perform need analyses and interpret financial reports
• Masters Degree
• Demonstrated supervisory and leadership experience
• Capable of working independently and making data-driven decisions
• Experience in strategic enrollment management planning and implementing change management
• Experience in a selective, complex, institution of higher education
• Experience in explaining, processing, and reviewing federal financial aid regulations

• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
• Ability to work as a leader in the office and member of the team