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Req #: 235550

Department: UW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Appointing Department Web Address: https://itconnect.uw.edu/uwit

Posting Date: 06/12/2024

Closing Info: Open Until Filled

Salary: $6,617 - $9,925 per month

Shift: First Shift

Notes: As a UW employee, you will enjoy generous benefits and work/life programs. For a complete description of our benefits for this position, please visit our website, click here. (https://hr.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/benefits-professional-staff-librarians-academic-staff-20230119_a11y.pdf)

As a University of Washington (UW) employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world. UW is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff, and your experiences, perspectives and unique identity will be honored at the UW. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable, and welcoming.

UW Information Technology (UW-IT) is the central IT organization for the University of Washington (UW), providing critical technology support to all three campuses, UW medical centers, and global research operations. Data & Applications (D&A) is the division in UW-IT that runs the university’s academic and business systems, productivity platforms, enterprise integrations, learning analytics and data for decision-making and is also responsible for the accessibility of UW’s digital resources. Teaching & Learning Systems evaluates, develops, integrates, and supports technologies that enable others to teach, learn, and innovate. These solutions and applications are used by students, faculty, staff, researchers, clinicians, and external partners.

Teaching & Learning Systems (T&LS) is seeking a Service Manager (SM) to oversee the enterprise academic learning management system (Canvas LMS), and other core teaching and learning tools.

This SM will work with instructional technologists, help desk consultants, engineers, researchers, and other UW-IT colleagues to sustainably support and administer the learning management system and other core teaching and learning tools for the three UW campuses. The SM will work with the Director and colleagues to implement consistent service management practices, including request, incident and change management, and maintain required security, privacy, and accessibility standards. They will collaborate with colleagues to create and implement communication plans, connect with campus partners and end users to assess user needs and service health, and manage key vendor relationships.

Position Complexities:

The primary responsibility of this position is the end-to-end support and success of the enterprise academic learning management system and the suite of integrated teaching and learning tools. The learning management system and related tools support online and digital learning for the three UW campuses and UW Continuum College. The SM must understand the academic workflow and calendar and ensure that the LMS and related tools meet both the core needs and also accommodate the varying requirements of the three campuses, and the many schools and colleges.

The SM must engage with and build trust with both business partners and customers across the university. The SM is expected to collaborate easily and effectively with colleagues in a variety of positions, ranging from faculty and university leadership to technical staff within UW-IT. This position must exercise leadership and influence within a highly matrixed, cross-functional organization, define service scope and ensure alignment to customer needs and university priorities. The SM must serve as the decision-maker to set and execute use and access policies and provide resolution of customer issues, and in this role exercises broad authority that impacts the experience of university constituents. The SM must understand the technical dimensions of the teaching and learning tools and collaborate with colleagues to identify solutions that meet business and customer needs.

T&LS services are critical to academic continuity at the UW, and the SM works directly with the Director and UW-IT colleagues to ensures the availability and accessibility of teaching and learning systems, and that effective service teams are in place to support these services. These teams frequently include staff from other UW-IT divisions and instructional technologists from the Learning Technologies team in Academic and Student Affairs. In addition, the SM participates in communities of practice and tri-campus councils in support of digital learning.

The SM must build relationships with vendor representatives to advocate for UW needs, effectively escalate and resolve issues, and leverage services and benefits under vendor agreements. The SM also participates in nation-wide communities of practice with peers from a wide variety of higher ed institutions, and represents UW on advisory boards and to the broader higher ed community.

All of this is carried out under strict deadlines, often with priorities set by campus-wide committees, UW-IT executive leadership and UW information and technology governance bodies. A strong ability to facilitate and support projects or service teams comprised of engineers, business analysts, instructional technologists, and business partners, as both a leader and participant, is required. In addition, the SM must effectively communicate service strategy and project status to leadership, stakeholders, and colleagues, within and without UW-IT. The SM must manage and prioritize product and service backlogs based on stakeholder and customer feedback, often seeking advice and consult of faculty councils. The SM also participates in research activities, including conducting surveys, focus groups and interviews with users and stakeholders, and then translates findings into functional requirements for the services.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Informatics, Communications, Management and Organization, Information Systems, or relevant field or equivalent experience.

• Four years’ experience supporting educational technology or working in IT customer support, or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

• Experience applying service, project, or program management methodologies, including knowledge of the service or project lifecycle; ability to plan and move a project to completion; facilitation of team communication and collaboration; and experience balancing effort across multiple, competing projects.

• Demonstrated excellent written and oral communication skills, technical documentation skills, user liaison skills, and personal interaction abilities.

• Ability to work effectively in a highly collaborative team environment.

• Demonstrated experience managing a diverse range of activities across multiple projects or efforts and exercising independent judgement in resolving problems. DESIRED:

• Experience in IT customer support, especially administering or supporting learning management systems in a university context.

• Familiarity with UW systems, policies, and academic programs.

• Familiarity with ITIL and agile development methodologies.

• Demonstrated experience with a variety of research and analysis techniques, ideally quantitative and/or qualitative methods for understanding and documenting end-user and business owner requirements.

• Demonstrated ability to manage technical projects within a team environment; experience working with an agile software development team or other iterative software development processes.

• Familiarity with user research, user-centered design, and interviewing methods.CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENTHybrid, open office environment.While the general working hours are within Monday through Friday, 8 am - 5 pm, the position has a great deal of scheduling and location flexibility to help the SM manage non-work commitments. The SM must at times be willing to adjust hours to accommodate the needs of staff, colleagues, clients, and stakeholders. Events that will occur outside the normal work schedule include, but are not limited to, meetings with staff, clients, or stakeholders. This position has regular stringent deadlines revolving around the academic calendar that may require extended work hours.We encourage SM applicants to apply even if they do not feel they satisfy all of the requirements listed above; we understand that it will take some time for the successful applicant to strengthen technical skills where needed, to learn about the many UW-IT, campus, and vendor collaborators, and to develop an understanding of the UW technical environment itself. The SM will join a supportive team that will partner with them in these efforts; we are an open, ethical, highly engaged and collaborative community based on trust, transparency and mutual respect. We believe in the importance of quality of life, embracing diversity, making a difference, and having fun.This is an essential position and is required to report to work remotely when UW suspends operations. Application Process: The application process may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment, you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.

University of Washington is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, among other things, race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.