Application Manager

Position Title: Application Manager

Department: Information Technology Services

Advertised Pay: Base $76,497 with potential increase commensurate with experience and internal equity

Campus Location: Washburn University

Application Deadline:  Application review will begin as applications are received and will continue until the position is filled. Applicants can be assured of full consideration if submitted by: January 27, 2025.

Position Summary: Washburn University is a student-centered public institution with a diverse population. Washburn is a 2024 best college to work for, according to the Great Colleges to Work For® program. Located in the heart of Topeka, we are proud to be a cornerstone of the community. Our mission is to provide opportunities for our students to realize their full potential; we can’t do it without our dedicated faculty and staff. Join us at Washburn, and you will be part of a long tradition of excellence.

Washburn employs more than one thousand faculty and staff on our campuses throughout Topeka. We strive to offer competitive wages, an excellent benefits program, a supportive culture and a healthy work/life balance. Washburn seeks to create an environment that reflects our core values for creating positive IMPACT: inclusion, modernization, partnership, achievement, community and transformation.

The Application Manager manages the operational support and maintenance of University business applications and the analysts that support them. This includes configuration, upgrades, and advanced technical troubleshooting for MAPS (Argos, IntelleCheck, FormFusion), Imaging (OpenText ApplicationXtender), NextGen Dynamic Forms, and Ellucian Experience. In addition, this position is responsible for the University reporting environment, creating reports, developing electronic forms, designing workflow processes, and working closely with Application Services staff to support core Enterprise business systems such as Banner, Recruit, Degree Works, etc.

Essential Functions:
• Manage the IT employees and technical needs of enterprise software application support. Meet with customers to maintain good relations, understand performance issues, and ensure work delivered meets expectations. Assess business requirements and evaluates possible solutions. Communicate with staff and other areas of IT in support of applications.
• Manage operational support of business applications, IT application analysts, the testing of software and identifies opportunities for improvement.
• Work closely with other IT management to support business plans and IT strategies.
• Maintain a strong understanding of technology and its application to achieve business objectives.
• Monitor vendor release schedules and install/apply/oversee upgrades of software systems.
• Assist with testing of upgrades.
• Configure administrative system settings such as authentication, printing, and integrations.
• Provide advanced technical troubleshooting.
• Track patches and upgrades of the administrative information systems software and other integrated software, informing areas of needed patches/upgrades to keep the modules current and reliable.
• Develop scenarios in test mode to replicate problems/errors and design possible solutions by testing alternatives.
• Test/troubleshoot software integrated with the administrative information systems software.
• Work with appropriate staff and vendors to install, update and configure partner applications to ensure software meets the needs of the functional areas.
• Supervise, support and manage assigned staff to maximize employee performance and facilitate professional growth. Recruit, hire, train, schedule and evaluate the performance and effectiveness of assigned staff. Provide appropriate feedback and professional development opportunities. Work to maintain a healthy and fair work environment by promoting and exercising teamwork and collaboration. As a team leader, will actively promote a professional workplace culture of mutual respect and collegiality for all members of the institution and work to build positive and cooperative relationships with all staff, encouraging them to work toward individual and departmental goals.
• Consult listservs, release guides and vendor online support, and communicate with other educational institutions to identify and research solutions to administrative information systems software problems. Research features of future versions of administrative information systems software to assess their impact on functionality, including self-service, to plan for future implementation.
• Serve as IT Project Manager (or IT Lead) for assigned projects and implementations.
• Work with software vendors/consultants and the Technology Project Director to build and execute project timelines/plans. Coordinate project task completion and issue resolution with other team members. Document IT decisions and configurations made during project implementation.
• Develop solutions to meet University business needs.
• Design dashboards, reports, data extracts, and email notifications.
• Develop electronic forms, workflows, and notifications for automating business processes.
• Develop and implement automated import and indexing processes for document retention in the Imaging environment.
• Code API calls to and from the Banner database.
• Develop integrations between enterprise applications.
• Manage overall Argos reporting environment and automated/scheduled reports and data exports. Configure connections to various data sources. Develop specifications for queries/reports and write corresponding SQL scripts to generate queries/reports/extracts. Check the output for reasonableness. Document query/report criteria and reflect report criteria with the report through meaningful titles and column headings or other annotations where necessary.
• Serve as an Information Technology Services representative on teams as assigned.
• Document issues and known solutions using ticket tracking software.
• Perform additional job-related duties as assigned or as appropriate.

Required Qualifications:
• A bachelor’s degree in a technical discipline (Computer Science or a closely related field); or a relevant technical certification and additional full-time IT work experience equivalent to a bachelor’s degree.
• Two years of experience in SQL programming.
• Two years of experience managing staff as a direct supervisor.
• Demonstrated work experience in information technology software development, which includes system design, implementation strategies, process improvement, project management, production support, agile development, integration strategies, quality assurance, and systems development methodology.
• Proven experience with database management systems (i.e., SQL Server, Oracle), managing business applications on Windows-based servers, creating SQL database queries using TOAD, Access, SQL Developer or any similar query tool.
• Demonstrated effective interpersonal, communication, problem-solving and analytical skills.

Preferred Qualifications:
• Proven experience with Ellucian (Banner, Ethos, Experience, and Imaging), Evisions (Formfusion, Argos, and IntelleCheck), and NextGen Dynamic Forms.

Exempt, Full-time, Mon-Fri,    
Background Check Required