IT Product Senior Specialist
The University of Chicago

Department

F&A ITS - Front-End Development

About the Department

IT Services collaborates with campus partners to support the mission of the University of Chicago through the consistent delivery of high-quality solutions and services.

• We provide secure, stable, and reliable infrastructure and applications to support the mission of the University.
• We support and enable faculty research and teaching with the effective use of technology.
• We simplify the technology experience for faculty, students, alumni, and staff, and we ensure technology is mobile-friendly and accessible.
• We identify, manage, and mitigate the technology risks of the University.

Job Summary

Working with the Digital Platform Senior Specialist and other partners in Digital Communications, this role establishes and supports enterprise applications and platforms that serve all of campus. This role brings enterprise software implementations from ideation to launch by facilitating the project processes and managing budgets. This includes stakeholder management, in some cases including senior leadership across campus, project planning, business analysis, requirements gathering, identifying solutions, leading implementation, operationalizing the product, budget and cost analysis and tracking. This position may involve having direct reports and/or managing vendors or contractors.

Responsibilities

• Partners with the Digital Platform Senior Specialist and other partners in Digital Communications to manage a set of digital communications technologies to ensure they meet campus needs. The two systems that are in scope immediately are website registry and campus event system. These systems enable campus wide communication and are complex.
• Translates the requirements that come from campus stakeholders into technical specifications that are executable by ITS or vendor resources.
• Strategic mindset with the ability to anticipate campus needs, and establishes and facilitates governance model with clear guidelines that allow ITS to prioritize large sets of stakeholder request.
• Identifies potential third-party technology solutions.
• Details vendor RFPs, leads the partner selection process, and finalizes licensing or project agreements.
• Manages vendor relationships on behalf of the University from definition to implementation and launch, and through operationalization.
• Platform expert and product champion for technologies like bulk email platforms, event calendaring systems, CRM tools, and enterprise CMS platforms.
• Detailed planning and prioritization of backlogs.
• Communicates within the IT team to provide deep understanding of the product objectives.
• Helps the team translate product concepts into user stories and other product deliverables.
• Manages project budgets to ensure all objectives are covered within approved financial commitments.
• Owns ongoing relationships with technology partners.
• Utilizes thorough understanding of business systems and industry requirements to translate business and user needs into system requirement specifications.
• Recommends process improvements in existing applications and revises existing system logic difficulties as necessary. Designs, develops, and implements new applications, systems architecture, network systems, and applications infrastructures.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

Education:
Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.
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Work Experience:
Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 5-7 years of work experience in a related job discipline.
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Certifications:

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Preferred Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor's degree or higher in an IT related field.

Experience:

• Background in higher education.
• 5 or more years of overall IT experience with technical understanding of how software implementations work.
• 4 years experience as business analyst or product owner in the enterprise software space.

Certifications:

• PMP or equivalent certification.

Technical Skills or Knowledge:

• Proficient in Product Ownership and Project Management in an IT environment.
• Identifying, procuring and operationalizing SaaS software solutions.
• Experience with RFI and RFP procurement processes.

Preferred Competencies

• Strategic mindset.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Collaborate with and achieve actionable results through others.
• Interact with all levels of the organization to conduct collaborative interactions for feature and user story refinement.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with stakeholders at various levels of the organization, including leadership, to establish consensus and deliver outcomes.
• Independently plan deliverables and coordinate with team members.
• Excellent organizational, project coordination, analytical, and interpersonal skills to develop, document and implement improvement processes.
• Establish strategic plans for technology platforms.

Working Conditions

• Standard office environment.
• Hybrid work environment.

Application Documents

• Resume/CV (required)

When applying, the document(s) MUSTbe uploaded via the My Experience page, in the section titled Application Documents of the application.

Job Family

Information Technology

Role Impact

Individual Contributor

FLSA Status

Exempt

Pay Frequency

Monthly

Scheduled Weekly Hours

37.5

Benefits Eligible

Yes

Drug Test Required

No

Health Screen Required

No

Motor Vehicle Record Inquiry Required

No

Posting Statement

Employees must comply with the University's COVID-19 vaccination requirements. More information about the requirements can be found on the University of Chicago Vaccination GoForward.

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity/Disabled/Veterans Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, status as an individual with a disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University's Notice of Nondiscrimination.

Staff Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call 773-702-5800 or submit a request via Applicant Inquiry Form.

We seek a diverse pool of applicants who wish to join an academic community that places the highest value on rigorous inquiry and encourages a diversity of perspectives, experiences, groups of individuals, and ideas to inform and stimulate intellectual challenge, engagement, and exchange.

All offers of employment are contingent upon a background check that includes a review of conviction history. A conviction does not automatically preclude University employment. Rather, the University considers conviction information on a case-by-case basis and assesses the nature of the offense, the circumstances surrounding it, the proximity in time of the conviction, and its relevance to the position.

The University of Chicago's Annual Security & Fire Safety Report (Report) provides information about University offices and programs that provide safety support, crime and fire statistics, emergency response and communications plans, and other policies and information. The Report can be accessed online at:http://securityreport.uchicago.edu.Paper copies of the Report are available, upon request, from the University of Chicago Police Department, 850 E. 61st Street, Chicago, IL 60637.

This job has expired.