Student Financial Services Business Analyst

Suffolk University is a private, urban university located in the heart of downtown Boston. Our college green is the Boston Common and we are steps from dozens of historic sites including the Old State House, Faneuil Hall, City Hall and the Massachusetts State House. We have no real boundaries to our campus—Boston and Suffolk blend together.

Suffolk has been committed to creating an exceptional learning experience since 1906. Our vision is to be recognized as a dynamic institution that fosters engaged learning, rigorous scholarship, innovative thinking, and community collaboration across disciplines. We will ensure that Suffolk graduates are versatile and prepared for modern society and the new world market. We will provide rich curricula, experiential learning opportunities and professional mentoring through increased collaboration with alumni and community partners. We will recruit, mentor, and support a diverse faculty of teacher-scholars who are passionately committed to preparing our students to be leaders in the global community. We will inspire investment in a Suffolk community that is built on ethical, forward-thinking leadership, teamwork, and cooperation.

We compete for the best talent. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse community. We are actively seeking applicants from groups that might be under-represented because of race/color, gender, religion, real or perceived disability, national origin or LGBTQ status. As part of our commitment we encourage you to complete the demographic portion of the application in addition to submitting your cover letter and resume/CV as it will assist us in targeting our recruitment efforts.

Please note that Suffolk University conducts background checks as a condition of employment.

We are also committed to the well-being of our employees. Our terrific benefits package for benefits-eligible positions include, but are not limited to:

• Generous paid time-off programs and commitment to work-life balance
• Tuition free course benefits in the College of Arts and Sciences and in the Sawyer Business School for employees with additional tuition benefits for spouses, domestic partners, and children
• Top-notch well-being care available through Harvard Pilgrim Medical/Delta Dental and a Flexible Spending Account
• Pre-tax commuter benefit
• Employee Assistance Program that provides employees and their family members with initial assessment, referrals and short-term counseling for personal and work challenges
• Discounted home and auto insurance

Description

Suffolk University is pleased to announce a career opportunity as a Student Financial Services Business Analyst! Reporting to the Director of Student Financial Services (SFS), the Student Financial Services Business Analyst requires an experienced financial aid administrator with exceptional technical skills for all software used within the Student Financial Services Office. This position provides Colleague system expertise and has direct responsibility for ensuring that the department makes the most efficient and effective use of the Colleague system. In addition, this position will represent Student Financial Services in all phases of the Workday Student implementation. The analyst is responsible for, but is not limited to, system report writing, financial aid processing functions, review, planning, and implementation of upgrade testing, and ongoing departmental training software systems. S/he acts as the departmental liaison with Information Technology (ITS). The position allows for the possibility of flexible work arrangements, including some remote work.

Requirements: Bachelor’s degree and 3-5 experience with financial aid administration required. Strong technical skills, with a preference for familiarity with Ellucian’s Colleague software, are also mandatory.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

· Advises Student Financial Services on policies, procedures, and products to improve the efficiency, productivity, and compliance of the Student Services technology systems and modules.

· Using expert-level knowledge and ability assesses, evaluates, and implements the functionality of technologies supporting Student Financial Services and coordinates the automation of processes, data management, integration of data elements and tables among systems, running and building reports and queries.

· Serves as the lead in the setup, scribing, security, testing, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of the financial aid data within the University’s comprehensive student information system.

· Serves as the liaison between Student Financial Services end users and technical staff to perform business in-depth analysis to meet end-user needs, and to assure business process needs are identified, articulated, met, and supported through technology to the satisfaction of all business process stakeholders.

· Supports execution and development of day-to-day deliverables that enable the ongoing compliance needs related to state and federal legislation, IT policies and procedures, regulatory requirements, etc.

· Creates and implements testing and training protocols for Student Financial Services for new implementations, technical upgrades, and patches to assure functionality to end-user specifications.

· Assists Student Financial Services leadership in overseeing the integrity of all Student Financial Services systems and critical interfaces in and out of the University’s student information system.

· In conjunction with the Student Financial Services leadership ensure data integrity; data security; and compliance with all federal, state, and University policies.

· Participates in strategic meetings for the Student Financial Services; identifies and attends relevant conferences, user groups/networks, and professional development opportunities for Student Financial Services to develop and expand the institutional knowledge base for functional and technical topics.

· Manages all aspects of the Federal Direct Loan programs including disbursement, reconciliation, and compliance. Ensures data provided to the US Department of Education is accurate and timely.

· Assesses requirements and develops reports using supported reporting tools to provide ready access to information critical for processing, planning, and decision-making. Assists the Director in developing management reports monitoring progress towards achieving enrollment and financial goals.

· Creates and modifies departmental procedures, utilizing best practices to promote process improvement and full utilization of software systems.

· Develops documentation of systems processes to facilitate staff training and business continuity.

· Supervises Financial Aid Assistant within Student Financial Services. Assigns duties to Financial Aid Assistant to assist with all responsibilities listed above.

· Other duties as assigned

Suffolk University does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, genetic information, or status as a veteran in admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs, activities, or employment. Suffolk University is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. The University is dedicated to the goal of building a diverse and inclusive faculty and staff that reflect the broad range of human experience who contribute to the robust exchange of ideas on campus, and who are committed to teaching and working in a diverse environment. We strongly encourage applications from groups historically marginalized or underrepresented because of race/color, gender, religious creed, disability, national origin, veteran status or LGBTQ status. Suffolk University is especially interested in candidates who, through their training, service and experience, will contribute to the diversity and excellence of the University community.