Manager of Academic Technology

Manager of Academic Technology

School of Management – Syracuse, NY

The Manager of Academic Technology leads the Whitman Service Desk, providing hands‑on support and technology services to faculty, students, and staff. Overseeing a service desk handling approximately 5,000 tickets per year, the Manager is the primary point of contact for faculty technology support and serves as the school’s technology liaison, learning new tools quickly, training and coaching faculty and staff, and connecting users to specialist resources.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for faculty and staff adopting and using technology tools.
• Rapidly learn new applications and platforms well enough to coach and train end users, in person, through written guides, and through recorded video, and deliver workshops as needed.
• Act as the connective layer between users and specialist resources, routing instructional‑design, learning‑management configuration, classroom, development, and automation needs to the correct team.
• Own faculty and staff hardware and software requests from intake through delivery: assess need, recommend solutions, place and track orders, record asset accurately, and maintain standard device baseline.
• Coordinate purchasing steps with the administrative assistant and manage vendor and warranty issues.
• Partner with the data analyst on aggregate asset reporting.
• Monitor the ticketing system for trends to identify recurring or high‑impact issues and devise preventative solutions that reduce service desk volume.
• Build and maintain self‑service resources such as a knowledge base and online scheduling/booking.
• Lead or contribute to service‑desk and unit technology initiatives and other position‑related duties as assigned.

Education and Experience

BA/BS required; MA/MS preferred. In lieu of a degree, 5+ years of relevant experience.

Skills and Knowledge

• Proven experience managing or working on a technology help desk or service desk.
• Demonstrated supervisory experience, including recruiting, training, scheduling, delegating, and managing performance of staff.
• Ability to learn new technologies quickly and to train and coach others.
• Experience supporting faculty and/or students with a learning management system (e.g., Blackboard) and other instructional and classroom technologies.
• Strong customer‑service orientation and sound judgment to resolve issues or appropriately elevate to specialist teams.
• Excellent time‑management skills with the ability to prioritize competing requests.
• Excellent written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills; ability to communicate with varying levels of technical literacy.
• Ability to create clear support documentation and training materials in written, video, or online formats.
• Proven ability to succeed in a collaborative, team‑based environment as an enthusiastic and flexible team member.

Syracuse University is an equal‑opportunity institution. The University prohibits discrimination and harassment based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender, national origin, citizenship, ethnicity, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law.