Career Center

DePaul University

Job Identification: 632
Locations: , , , ,
Job Schedule: Full time
Job Category: Finance and Accounting

Diversity and Inclusion Statement

Guided by an ethic of Vincentian personalism and professionalism, DePaul compassionately upholds the dignity of all members of its diverse, multi-faith, and inclusive community. We seek to hire collaborative, open-minded, and dedicated professionals who are committed to advancing our university mission to making education accessible to all, with special attention to including underserved and underrepresented communities. Successful candidates thrive in an environment where ideas and perspectives representing a wide variety of cultures, backgrounds and experiences are welcome and supported.

The Highlights
The Director of Continuous Improvement, under direction from the AVP, Finance & Operations, guides the Continuous Improvement function at the university. The Director will be tasked with building and developing this new function and department, to add value and efficiencies to university wide efforts to achieve strategic goals. The Director will allocate resources and align strategies to ensure implementation of process improvement projects run as effectively as possible. This position will be seen as a high level collaborator, and champion of culture change and innovation. The Office of Continuous Improvement will be tasked with projects of low to high levels of complexity, and will cover a variety of topics and scopes, including both business process and technical changes.

The Director must focus on change management and continuous improvement, working closely with stakeholders throughout the university and external partners. The individual will work closely with external consultants to develop the improvement function, and optimize the usage of university resources allocated to achieving strategic goals. Effective project management and change management will be key responsibilities for this position, and this function. The Director will work with Project Managers to proactively identify risks and solve problems. This individual will serve as a consultative resource for the identification of potential projects, and the assignment of resources.

Is This You?

• Directly manage multiple teams of project managers and continuous improvement analysts. Create vision based on thorough understanding of needs and guide execution of resulting projects by evaluating and refining ideas, assessing impact, prioritizing resource allocation, and overseeing design and implementation. This position will leverage technical knowledge and functional ability while reviewing plans and validating solutions. Applicable projects can vary greatly in scope and function, with the overall goal of the position being to add value and efficiencies to university wide efforts to achieve strategic goals.
  
• Build, manage, and develop a high-performing team of change agents. Focus on revenue generation, standardization, simplification, automation, cost reduction, and customer experience improvement. Develop frameworks and processes for change management from idea intake through post-implementation validation and monitoring. Build and manage relationships with internal and external parties to drive transformation and align strategies. The individual will work closely with external consultants to develop the improvement function, and optimize the usage of university resources.
  
• Foster an environment of proactive development and positive change. Embed continuous improvement and problem-solving discipline in the culture. Serve as the expert on Lean process methodologies, program management, and process improvement tools. Promote a risk-aware culture to ensure efficient and effective risk and compliance management practices by adhering to regulations and policies and standards. This may also require coaching functional teams throughout the division to provide them with effective approaches to change management and change implementation.
  
• Develop and maintain short and long term strategic road map or dashboard that aligns with the university's strategic goals. This dashboard should report on ongoing and future projects, and include project status, dependencies, resources required, risk levels, etc. This will be the primary routine deliverable of the Office of Continuous Improvement and will include key performance indicators depending on project status.
  
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Your Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree required, advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of progressive experience, including leadership positions, in Project/Product Management, Change Management, Financial Planning & Analysis, Business Process Improvement, or related fields.
• Higher Education experience preferred.

Preferred Requirements

• Lean Six Sigma or PMP, equivalent certification strongly preferred.

Managerial Responsibilities

• This position will have 2-4 direct reports, as well as 2-4 indirect reports. The entire team will include a minimum of 2 Project Managers, as well as Financial/Business Analysts and Content Producers.

Financial Responsibilities

• Responsible for overseeing the development of process changes that are complicit with university policies and compliance guidelines.
• This position provides guidance on policies and procedures to individuals throughout the university, at executive and non executive levels.
• This position requires access to information that is considered confidential. This may include employee, student, or university information.

Other Skills & Abilities Required

• Requires excellent communication skills, including active listening and ensuring mutual understanding. The Director must be able to communicate with a wide range of colleagues to understand requirements and develop effective content.
  
• Resourceful, flexible, and able to anticipate and resolve problems effectively, with a capacity for understanding the relationship of specific tasks to the broader operations and administrative functions;
  
• Highly organized and detail-oriented.
  
• Proficient at solving challenges and securing and deploying resources
  
• Adept collaborator with strong influencing skills and ability to build trust-based relationships.
  
• Prior experience leading sizable, effective teams
  
• Must be able to create and maintain positive relationships with co-workers, customers, and vendors. Must possess excellent interpersonal, communications, and customer service skills.
  

Additional Information
For consideration, please include a resume and cover letter.

• As a salaried and degreed professional, evening or weekend work may be necessary when deadlines or projects need to be completed.
• A criminal background check is required.

Perks:

• Working for a stable and well-known University that values diversity and inclusion.
• Medical, dental, and vision benefits.
• Generous paid time off, sick time, holidays, floating holidays, and more!
• Matching retirement plan up to 10%.
• Tuition waivers for employees and dependents!
• Full-Time Benefits
• Part-Time Benefits

Required Background Check:
Employment at DePaul University is contingent on passing a background check. Only final candidates who are extended an offer of employment will undergo a background check.

Required COVID-19 Vaccination:
Employment at DePaul University is contingent upon receiving all recommended doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, including the booster, or having a valid religious or medical reason not to be vaccinated. To request a religious or medical exemption, please email [email protected]

Mandated Reporting of Child Abuse & Neglect:
Upon accepting an offer of employment with the university, you will also be required to sign an Acknowledgement of Mandated Reporter Status at the time of hire. A mandated reporter is required to make a report to the Illinois DCFS Hotline whenever there is reasonable cause to believe that a child known to them in their professional or official capacity may be abused or neglected. For more information, please visit the following pages:

Illinois Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS)
Illinois Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act

Title IX Contact Information
Federal Title IX policy requires that all colleges and universities make known the contact information for the person responsible for coordinating its efforts to comply with Title IX responsibilities. The Title IX Office is on the Lincoln Park campus on the 3rd floor of the Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Avenue. The Title IX Office can be reached at 312-362-8970 or [email protected]

DePaul University is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, genetic information or any other legally protected status, in accordance with applicable federal, state and local EEO laws.

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