University Director of Financial Aid Strategy and Operations, Office of Student Financial Assistance

University Director of Financial Aid Strategy and Operations, Office of Student Financial Assistance

The Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) at The City University of New York (CUNY), located at the Central Office, serves as the central administrative hub for financial aid operations and provides guidance to financial aid offices across CUNY's 26 colleges and institutions throughout New York City. As a mission-critical department fundamental to delivering financial assistance, maintaining regulatory compliance, and ensuring uninterrupted student financial support, OSFA provides strategic oversight and administration of Federal, State, City, and institutional funding in compliance with government and institutional requirements, enabling access to higher education for over 219,000 students, and administers disbursements of over $1 billion in aid annually.

Beyond the standard multi-academic year processing of Title IV, NYS/NYC, and Institutional Aid, OSFA spearheads the implementation of evolving federal, state and city regulations, manages new awards and programs, and leads university-wide initiatives and technology implementations that directly impact student access and success across one of the nation's largest urban public university systems.

Reporting to the University Executive Director of Financial Aid, the University Director of Financial Aid Strategy and Operations, serves as a senior leader within OSFA, helping shape and advance University-wide priorities across financial aid operations, policy implementation, compliance, and systems services. The University Director serves as a primary liaison to campus financial aid offices, provides leadership and coordination of financial aid directives to OSFA's Deputy Directors and other senior staff, and partners with University leaders to strengthen the timely, accurate, and equitable delivery of student aid.

The University Director leads OSFA in the Executive Director's absence.

In addition to the job summary above and CUNY Title Overview below, other key duties include, but will not be limited to the following:

• Direct University-wide financial aid operational planning and policy implementation in partnership with the University Executive Director of Financial Aid, establishing priorities, consistent practices and compliance across campus financial aid offices.

• Lead the development of financial aid strategies that advance student access and enrollment goals, including aid communications, packaging approaches, processing workflows, and supporting systems and services.

• Provides day-to-day leadership, mentoring, and coordination to OSFA's Deputy Directors, Associate Directors and Financial Aid System Managers, aligning their work across complex financial aid programs, compliance, and systems services.

• Establish and oversee University-wide compliance practices in adherence to federal, state, city, and institutional aid requirements; assess and communicate implications of regulatory and legislative changes, guide campus implementation, resolve inconsistent policy interpretations and strengthen safeguards to reduce compliance and various risks.

• Direct financial aid audits, program reviews, and related corrective actions. Advise colleges during reviews, ensure unified and well-coordinated responses with University departments and external agencies, and oversee the resolution of findings.

• Oversee the quality and timely submission of University-wide financial aid data and reporting, including FISAP, NYSED reporting, audit responses, and other regulatory or management requests.

• Set priorities for financial aid systems and technology implementations and enhancements in collaboration with CUNY Computing and Information Services…