Location: Albany, NY
Responsibilities: Information Technology Services (ITS) at the University at Albany seeks a Director of Business Alignment. This role ensures ITS engagement and support are aligned to university priorities across teaching and learning, research, athletics, advancement, communications and marketing, and administrative functions.
Primary Responsibilities
- Business Relationship Management
- Shape, support, and enforce IT policy for the university.
- Formulate and influence strategic direction in alignment with university-wide priorities.
- Ensure ITS involvement and leadership in all stages of planning and implementation of technology at the university.
- Build and enhance ITS' strategic partnership with business areas by leading collaborative efforts to develop and maintain a shared vision and roadmap.
- Lead and coordinate ITS readiness, preparatory activities, and execution of business relationship meetings with various levels of university leadership.
- Develop managers to capture, shape, and guide campus IT needs through ITS work‑management processes for efficient intake, enterprise architecture assessment, approval, prioritization, scheduling, resourcing, and delivery coordination.
- Build and maintain high-level familiarity with the strategic and functional objectives of each university division and the role of technology in enabling and supporting them.
- Ensure the Business Alignment unit leads messaging of the university’s IT governance, guiding principles, policies, and procedures.
- Maintain a continual state of readiness for reporting/show‑back to executive leaders.
- Demand Management
- Ensure business needs and opportunities are recognized and recorded in a timely fashion.
- Engage efficiently with customers to capture and shape fully formed requests that articulate value and are ready for review and assessment.
- Confirm executive sponsorship for requests before projects are initiated.
- Oversee process development and improvement for demand management.
- Update portfolio prioritizations with executive sponsors prior to advancing new projects to the initiation phase.
- Project and Project Portfolio Management
- Establish and maintain overall accountability for ITS project delivery and portfolio outcomes.
- Provide strategic leadership for the university’s IT project portfolio by setting governance expectations, decision criteria, and performance measures aligned to university and ITS priorities.
- Lead, through the Project Portfolio Manager, the end‑to‑end portfolio lifecycle (intake through closure), ensuring consistent business cases, scoping, prioritization recommendations, and transparent decision documentation.
- Oversee portfolio resource allocation and capacity planning in partnership with ITS delivery leaders; resolve prioritization and resourcing conflicts to protect critical‑path commitments.
- Ensure timely, accurate portfolio reporting (status, schedule, budget, benefits, risks, dependencies) and deliver executive‑level communications that enable informed decisions and maintain shared expectations.
- Direct portfolio‑level risk, issue, and dependency management, ensuring appropriate escalation paths, mitigation planning, and governance cadence for high‑impact initiatives.
- Sponsor continuous improvement of project and portfolio management practices, standards, and tools, ensuring adoption across ITS delivery teams through training, coaching, and accountability.
- Business Analysis
- Establish and maintain overall accountability for business analysis capabilities and outcomes.
- Provide strategic leadership for business analysis as a discipline by defining expectations and standards for requirements gathering, customer experience, and value realization.
- Drive high‑quality deliverables, including discovery and facilitation, current‑state and future‑state process mapping, and documentation of functional and non‑functional requirements.
- Ensure business analysis activities are integrated into demand management and project initiation.
- Champion continuous improvement of business analysis practices, templates, and tools, and develop staff capabilities through coaching, training, and a community of practice.
- Staff Supervision
- Lead and manage direct reports by providing guidance, support, and performance feedback to ensure goals, programs, activities, and personnel practices align with the university’s mission.
- Foster a positive and productive work environment.
- Complete performance management feedback and goals timely and per requirements, offering constructive feedback and development plans.
- Other reasonable duties as assigned.
Functional and Supervisory Relationships
- Reports to: CIO
- Supervises: Administrative and Business Services Manager (2), Educational Technology Services Manager, Research Technology Services Manager, Reporting and Analytics Manager, Communications and Collaboration Manager, Project Portfolio Manager, and Business Analysis Manager.
- May supervise additional positions and functions as assigned.
Job Requirements
- Strong trust and discretion, including access to sensitive and confidential information related to the university and its employees.
- Excellent relationship management skills, including stakeholder engagement, negotiating, influence, and political savvy.
- Excellent communication and facilitation skills, including active listening, clear persuasive communication, and facilitation and meeting leadership.
- Competency in portfolio and prioritization management.
- Competency in process design, optimization, and change leadership.
- Ability to use AI‑enabled tools to improve research, analysis, writing, workflow, or decision‑making while exercising good judgment over AI‑generated outputs.
- Exceptional ability to organize work, prioritize tasks, and manage multiple and changing priorities.
- Ability to develop inclusive and equitable relationships within a diverse campus community.
- Ability to support diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and belonging relative to their role.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree from a college or university accredited by the US Department of Education or an internationally recognized accrediting organization.
- At least 7 years of progressive experience in IT project portfolio management and/or IT business relationship management.
- Experience supervising direct report employees.
- Demonstrated record of success leading cross‑functional teams and managing complex project portfolios.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in client account management or other executive sales role.
- Experience supervising management‑level direct report employees.
- Master’s or doctoral degree from a college or university accredited by the US Department of Education or an internationally recognized accrediting organization.
- Experience working in higher education.
- Experience working in a unionized environment.
Working Environment
- Typical office environment.
- Report to campus in‑person. This position is not eligible for telecommuting.
Professional Rank and Salary Range: Director, MP3, $165,000
Special Notes: Visa sponsorship is not available for this position. If you currently need sponsorship or will need it in the future to maintain employment authorization, you do not meet eligibility requirements. Additionally, UAlbany is not an E‑Verify employer.
THE UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY IS AN EO/AA/IRCA/ADA EMPLOYER
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