Dir, Digital Ops & Campus Integration - ACCESS

About the Company - Follett Higher Education is a leading educational service provider and omnichannel retailer, providing students, faculty, staff, parents, and fans with the course materials, learning tools, and retail services needed to successfully support the collegiate journey. Follett Higher Education supports over 6 million students through its 1,100 physical and 1,750 eCommerce campus stores across North America.

About the Role - The Director of Digital Operations - ACCESS SUCCESS is responsible for the support, operations, development, execution, and growth of the key strategic program Follett ACCESS, which touches 350 campuses. This role is directly responsible for hiring, training, developing, and strategically leading a team of Digital Operations Managers and Retail Support Teams, ensuring account management and program success of all Follett ACCESS inclusive and equitable access programs. This position will also be responsible for leading the team on Auditing & Compliance, Term-Over-Term Program Success (via the use of ACCESS RACI), Program Execution, including assisting with Growth & Expansion Goals, Invoicing/Collection support, and assistance/support in the delivery of Willo integrations via publisher/faculty outreach. This position works collaboratively and cross-functionally with the Follett ACCESS Support team, ACCESS Implementation team, ACCESS Sales Directors and Course Materials Market Managers, and Store/Field Teams on training, product, and process improvements & execution and will report directly to VP Learning and Technology Integrations.

Responsibilities

Leadership and Strategy:

• Define, structure, and execute operational and strategic initiatives by developing work plans, gathering and synthesizing relevant data, leading analyses, and developing final recommendations for senior management and the broader organization.
• Provide deep customer and market understanding, develop and execute strategic initiatives, cultivate and maintain partnerships and innovate business models as related to digital course material delivery, campus integrations, and strategic partnerships.
• Maintain an in-depth understanding of the industry and competitive landscape to inform platform/program and business strategies.
• Form a deep understanding of FHE's strategic goals at corporate and business unit levels and ensure platform/program strategy is aligned to achieve revenue and margin goals.
• Participate in the strategic planning process for the FHE business unit.

People Development:

• Attract and retain talent to ensure ACCESS sales and execution goals are met.
• Create an effective work environment, setting a positive tone, establishing performance expectations, and driving accountability through motivation.
• Manage teams of reports that coordinate internal and external stakeholder feedback, define business requirements, own the consumer experience, and work cross-functionally with teams to execute operationally.
• Manage a team of 15 team members.
• Ensure the digital support team maintains subject matter expertise and adheres to best practices in the ed-tech space as well as in product management, operations, support, implementation, and strategic vision.
• Identify and enable opportunities for professional development on support, implementation, and operations teams to ensure team growth and succession planning.

Financial Acumen:

• Own and execute platform/program P&Ls and budgets to achieve goals related to strategic initiatives, revenue growth, and operating income.
• Formulate business cases, funding requests, budgets, and KPIs for platform/program portfolio. Track and monitor KPIs for strategic portfolio to ensure program/platform effectiveness and performance Manage capital and expense budgets.
• Ability to conceive and execute quantitative analysis and deliver data-driven insights.

Program Operations & Strategic Execution:

• Lead cross-functional teams, internally and externally, through execution and own accountability for the final metrics, while ensuring stakeholders are engaged and informed.
• Facilitate communication across business groups and stakeholders throughout the course materials cycle.
• Proactively ensure the retail support team adheres to defined SLAs.
• Ensure support teams develop and maintain repeatable, documented processes, ensuring a seamless experience for our customers, both technical and operational materials leadership, to ensure timely, smooth delivery of inclusive and equitable access programs.
• Manage timelines and deadlines for client delivery by coordinating internally with implementation, engineering, reporting, and accounting teams.
• First line of defense for program inquiries & support for campuses that fall within a given region.
• Prioritize and balance client and vendor initiatives as they align with the focus of the organization as a whole.

Qualifications

• Master's Degree in a related field or equivalent experience.
• 7 years of progressive experience in product management or business management within a technology, media, or education firm.
• 7 years of multiple-team management experience involving but not limited to team member growth plans, hiring, termination, and general oversight.
• Experience successfully navigating and driving change in complex organizations.
• Experience with partnerships involving product integrations.
• Strong knowledge of software development processes, business administration, and logistics functions.
• Demonstrated writing and verbal presentation skills, enabling her/him to prepare and present information and recommendations to a diverse and often senior audience.
• Able to self-manage progress against milestones and deliverables with a high degree of accountability and personal urgency.
• Ability to shift from strategic thinking to tactical execution.
• Owns 360 degrees of implementation, support, and operations for areas.
• Collaborative problem-solving and working style to drive change through influence.
• Experience in translating business needs into product features and technical requirements.
• Proven success in academic technology.
• Proven success in program product management.
• Proven success in program operationalization to execution.
• Proven success in program sales growth.
• Proven success in building strategic partnerships with internal and external parties.
• Well-versed in academic program technical workings such as LMS and SIS Content Provisioning.

Pay range

Budgeted Annualized Salary: $130k - $145k

Equal Opportunity Statement

Equal Opportunity Employer. This company considers candidates regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.