ABOUT STANFORD UNIVERSITY AND RESIDENTIAL & DINING ENTERPRISES:

Founded in 1891, Stanford University is among the top academic institutions in the country, excelling in a wide range of fields from the humanities to information technology to the health sciences and medicine. The university is located near Palo Alto, 35 miles south of San Francisco, on an 8,800-acre campus.

Residential & Dining Enterprises, the largest auxiliary organization at Stanford University, supports the academic mission of the University by providing the highest quality services to students and other members of the university community. The Department has an annual operating budget of over $206 million, oversees a 5 million sq. ft. physical plant across the campus, and provides housing for over 12,000 students, serves over 18,000 daily meals at 30 dining and retail locations and over 500,000 meals at Athletic Concessions events, and hosts 20,000 conference guests annually. Additionally, R&DE comprises 660 FTE staff in the following divisions: the Office of the Senior Associate Vice Provost, Student Housing, Stanford Dining, Stanford Hospitality & Auxiliaries, Stanford Conferences, and a team of R&DE strategic business partners: Finance & Administration, Human Resources, and Information Technology.

“Students (Customers) First” is the mantra of R&DE and our strategic goals reflect our commitment to delivering quality and excellence to our constituents every day. In R&DE, “Excellence is defined by aligning our strategic goals and performance with our vision.”

The Office of the Senior Associate Vice Provost for R&DE provides strategic and tactical direction to the business units across R&DE and ensures that consistent practices and policies are deployed across the business units and are in alignment with R&DE’s mission and vision.

Summary of Position

This Associate Director functions as a key leader within the R&DE Student Housing Assignments team, a member of the R&DE Student Housing Operations senior leadership team, and as a liaison with departments inside and outside of R&DE.

Incumbent is responsible for a portfolio of responsibilities that include staff supervision, sophisticated revenue and occupancy analysis, systems expertise, summer housing assignments, and student facing communications.

The Associate Director is the primary liaison with R&DE Student Housing Senior Finance Manager, Student Service Center, Student Financial Services, and R&DE Communications and is the primary back-up for the Director of R&DE Student Housing Assignments.

Essential Job Functions

Finance and Occupancy Management (25%)

• Manage Student Housing’s $182M-per-year system-feed billing process, including $165M in Student Housing Operations revenue and $17M in VPTL and VPSA revenue. Maintain transaction auditing procedures, monitor billing exports, and verify integration with PeopleSoft. Work with representatives within R&DE Finance, VPSA and VPTL to ensure accurate rates are charged to students.
• Upload transactions a minimum of three times per week to Student Financial Services ensuring that all transactions have been audited and are 100% correct.
• Maintain expertise in housing demand, including forecasting demand for each housing category.
• Analyze revenue data, identify trends, explain variances from established budget, and use demand forecasts to create revenue projections for annual budget cycle.
• Prepare reports on revenue and occupancy trends. Develop and implement strategic plans to meet occupancy and revenue goals. Present data and plans to senior leadership.
• Cultivate relationships with R&DE Student Housing’s Finance Manager as well as staff within Student Financial Services, the Controller’s Office, Administrative Systems, R&DE IT, and the R&DE Central Office.
• Ensure separation of duties is followed when resolving billing issues by regularly communicating with Housing Front Desk staff and staff within Housing Assignments to be sure any incorrect transaction is corrected.  Provide training as required to reduce possibility of incorrect transactions.
• Collaborate with R&DE Student Housing Finance Manager to process occasional journal transfers.

Staff Management (20%)

• Hire, train, manage, evaluate, and coach the work of five full-time, exempt Student Service Officers and 1-3 temporary workers.
• Adjust staffing levels and manage duty assignments based on changing needs. Set work schedules and oversee time and leave reporting for staff members while meeting budget targets.
• Set performance goals, provide coaching, give informal feedback, and conduct formal reviews.
• Identify and schedule training topics as needs arise; secure subject matter experts to lead training; lead training sessions as subject matter expert when appropriate.
• Define, set, and maintain customer service standards and performance benchmarks; develop a staff evaluation process that considers customer service and benchmarks; promote and maintain a customer-centered focus.
• Using established programs and leading the procurement of additional programs as needed, gather data concerning walk-in traffic, phone calls, email, and help tickets; develop metrics and reports using gathered data and benchmarks; Advise Director and Student Service Officer teams of longitudinal trends; recommend and implement operational and customer service improvements based on trend analysis. ,
• Serve as Student Housing Operations expert on all aspects of CRM system, including overseeing the creation and maintenance of knowledge base articles for Student Housing Assignments. Train Student Housing Operations staff on best practices and metric collection for CRM system.
• Responsible for ensuring compliance of University and department HR policies, safety/security policies, and information security
• Serve as back-up for Director of Housing Assignments

Business Systems Support (15%)

• Possess expertise in the systems supporting Housing Assignments business processes, including Star Rez and CRM system. Act as primary liaison for CRM ticketing functions, Knowledge Base functions, and Star Rez student billing system.  Responsible for identifying and reporting bugs in each of these systems. Attend regularly scheduled meetings with IT to resolve any bugs in systems and recommend enhancements to systems. 
• Provide business requirements to R&DE IT to update and audit reference tables in Star Rez on an annual basis and test all new versions of Star Rez billing.
• Determine enhancement requests for billing processes, evaluate viability and validity of proposed change, write up and oversee Technology Opportunity Requests for system changes, and implement solutions, while keeping Director apprised of any necessary modifications or customizations, including budgetary impacts.
• Monitor trends in industry standards and best practices and modify business processes in Housing Assignments to ensure excellence standards are met
• Oversee meal plan maintenance for 1,900 residents in student-managed residences.
• Serve as back-up for Housing Assignments’ Business Solutions Manager.

 Student Housing Operations Leadership (15%)

• Represent R&DE at weekly Tuesday Student Review (TSR) meetings, where representatives from across the University gather to review sensitive student cases. Explain R&DE policies to administrators as needed. Prepare weekly reports on issues impacting R&DE for the Senior Associate Vice Provost, Executive Director of Student Housing Operations, and Director of Housing Assignments.
• Serve as Student Housing Operations point person for the Residence Agreement, which serves as the legally binding contract for all students in residence. Collaborate with campus partners on Residence Agreement content and work with the Office of the General Counsel on gaining approval for all content changes. Publish revised version of the Residence Agreement annually in time for the annual Draw and Lottery season.
• Serve as departmental expert on mass emailing software for all of Student Housing Operations. Work with all front desk staffs and R&DE Strategic Communications to ensure that all student email communications are following established standards.
• Analyze trend data from mass emailing software to improve student engagement with email communications.
• Coordinate summer student facing communications for all of Student Housing Operations
• Serve on Student Housing Operations Management Team. Represent Student Housing Operations at high profile events such as Resident Fellow dinners, Provost’s parent’s dinner, etc. Present on various topics during all team and leadership meetings.
• Act as representative of Student Housing Operations/Housing Assignments to various university committees and entities.

Summer Housing Assignments Oversight (15%)

• Manage and oversee the assignment process for over 2,300 incoming summer students and visitors, ensuring that all applicable policies are enforced equally to all applicants and that all students assigned are eligible for University Housing.
• Suggest policy improvements to increase efficiencies and student satisfaction with the summer housing allocation processes.
• Oversee and direct Student Service Officers to perform the annual summer allocation process, including direction of all assignment rounds. Ensure assignments are made in a timely and accurate method following pre-determined assignment policies and that results are announced at the end of each assignment round.
• Collaborate with staff within Student Housing, Summer Session, Stanford Conferences, Residential Education, and the Office of Accessible Education on setting configuration of space to optimize the use of space and determine what space must be held from assignment due to operational needs due to constructions, storage or RF use, and what space should be held for potential OAE use.
• Primary liaison with Summer Session and High School office regarding rates, policies, and residence agreements for summer students.
• Manage summer housing communications, website, emails and other collateral information.
• Direct others in processing end-of-spring and mid-summer grad housing terminations and updating add/drop book.
• Direct Student Service Officers in managing moves of students from locations closing at the end of the 8-week session and the creation and maintenance of summer-autumn interim contracts for students remaining in University housing after the summer term.
• Train staff to utilize mass emailing software and oversee the email announcements regarding summer assignments. Track and analyze metrics regarding email campaigns. Identify trends and adjust communication messages to maximize student satisfaction with and understanding of housing assignment policies.
• Announce statistical results at end of summer to various stakeholders.

Management of Housing Assignments Operations/Communications (10%)

• Primary liaison between R&DE Communications and web content editors in Housing Assignments including annual update of websites and collateral materials.
• Work with R&DE Strategic Communication partners to evaluate and enhance student communication methods, including webpages, letters, videos, etc.
• Oversee use of Confluence for documentation of business processes.
• Propose technology solutions to resolve business problems and achieve higher operational effectiveness and service to internal and external customers.

Minimum Requirements

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree and 5-7 years of relevant experience in administrative management, or combination of education and relevant experience. Advanced degree strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated leadership and supervisory skills, including conflict resolution
• Advanced financial expertise in revenue analysis, forecasting, and report creation.
• Advanced expertise in occupancy management and forecasting.
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills. Strong expertise in business and management of computer applications and databases.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate and facilitate meetings with a variety of persons including students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and outside constituents.
• Exceptional organizational and logistical planning skills with the ability to meet numerous deadlines and adhere to strict schedules.
• A demonstrated commitment to excellence in customer service.
• Strong public speaking skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion with a deep understanding of learning and working in a diverse community.
• Star Rez expertise preferred.
• Deep knowledge of industry standards and regulatory requirements.
• Experience working in a university environment strongly preferred.

Physical Requirements

• Constantly perform desk-based computer tasks.
• Frequently sitting.
• Occasionally stand/ walk, reach/ work above shoulders, use a telephone, writing by hand, lift/ carry/ pull/ push objects that weigh up to 10 pounds.
• Rarely twist/ bend/ stoop/ squat, sort/ file paperwork or parts, lift/ carry/ push/ pull objects that weigh 11-20 pounds.

Working Conditions

• Occasionally work evenings and weekends.

Work Standards

• Interpersonal Skills: Demonstrates the ability to work well with Stanford colleagues and clients and with external organizations.
• Promote Culture of Safety: Demonstrates commitment to personal responsibility and value for safety; communicates safety concerns; uses and promotes safe behaviors based on training and lessons learned.
• Subject to and expected to comply with all application University policies and procedures, including but not limited to the personnel policies and other policies found in the University’s Administrative Guide: https://adminguide.stanford.edu/

Additional Information

• Schedule: Full-time
• Job Code: 4142
• Employee Status: Regular
• Grade: K