Director of Enterprise Applications and Platform Services

Director of Enterprise Applications and Platform Services 3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars Portland, ME Full-time University of New England 145 reviews Full-time The Director of Enterprise Applications and Platform Services provides strategic and operational leadership for the university's enterprise application platforms that support teaching, learning, research, and administrative operations. This role manages the IT Services department responsible for the administration, configuration, technical oversight, and continuous improvement of enterprise application platforms, including ERP systems, EHR, student information systems (SIS), learning management systems (LMS), student success platforms, CRM, and other mission-critical applications. The Director, reporting to the VP/CIO, serves as a primary liaison between Information Technology Services (ITS) and the university's academic and administrative units, driving platform stability, integration, operational excellence, and growth of capability. The Director of Enterprise Applications and Platform Services promotes strong cross-ITS collaboration and consistent practices that increase platform reliability, reduce risk, and deliver meaningful outcomes for students, faculty, and staff. The Director is expected to be a visible, trusted technology leader across the institution, bringing both strategic vision and hands-on technical credibility to the role. This is an on-site position located on our Portland, Maine campus. About The University of New England UNE is Maine's largest private university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study-abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible online offerings. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to positively impact a world full of challenges. We are the state's top provider of health professionals and home to Maine's only medical and dental colleges, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care programs, and nationally recognized programs in the marine sciences, the natural and social sciences, business, the humanities, and the arts. Benefits Overview Multiple health and dental plan options, plus vision coverage. Up to 8% retirement plan match. Generous leave time, including vacation, sick, and personal time, and 12+ holidays per year. Educational benefits : UNE tuition waiver for employees, spouses, and domestic partners For more information about our outstanding benefits, please visit: UNE Benefits Overview Responsibilities Enterprise Application and Platform Leadership Lead the strategy, governance, and roadmap for the university's enterprise application portfolio, ensuring platforms are aligned with institutional mission and operational priorities. Manage the enterprise applications team to ensure delivery expectations, service levels, and quality standards are consistently met. Oversee platform operations across the full application lifecycle, including upgrades, patch management, configuration, testing, and release management. Establish and maintain standards, documentation, and procedures for application administration, configuration management, and platform change control. Partner with academic and administrative leaders to define platform priorities, success measures, and the value delivered by enterprise systems. Personally lead select critical platform initiatives as needed, while delegating operational and project responsibilities to team members. Maintain a current understanding of the enterprise application market, including emerging SaaS platforms, vendor roadmaps, and higher education technology trends, to inform institutional planning and investment decisions. Enterprise Application Administration and Technical Operations Serve as the senior technical authority for the university's mission-critical application platforms, including ERP, CRM, SIS, EHR, LMS, and related systems, ensuring each platform is properly administered, configured, maintained, and supported in alignment with institutional and vendor standards. Oversee and actively participate in the technical administration of enterprise applications, including user role and security configuration, system settings, workflow design, environment management, and platform-specific customizations. Direct the administration, configuration, and performance tuning of enterprise platforms, including ERP, SIS, LMS, CRM, EHR, and other university-wide systems, ensuring reliability, responsiveness, and alignment with institutional needs. Ensure that all enterprise applications are maintained on current, supported versions and that patch and upgrade cycles are executed in a planned, tested, and risk-managed manner. Establish tiered application support models that clearly define ITS responsibilities versus functional owner responsibilities and ensure that escalation paths for application issues are documented, communicated, and followed. Oversee business process reviews conducted in collaboration with functional owners to ensure that platform configurations reflect current institutional needs and operational best practices. Lead the identification and implementation of system enhancements, integrations, and workflow improvements that increase platform value and user experience. Ensure application environments (production, test, development) are properly maintained, documented, and managed in accordance with institutional standards. Establish and oversee a formal testing and quality assurance practice for platform changes, upgrades, and new configurations to reduce risk and improve release outcomes. Monitor and manage application performance trends, proactively planning for capacity needs tied to enrollment growth, new programs, increased platform usage, or other institutional changes. Coordinate with functional owners on user training, adoption monitoring, and usability improvements following major releases, transitions, or platform enhancements, ensuring that enterprise systems are effectively utilized across the institution. Partner with IT security, infrastructure, and data teams to ensure platforms meet compliance, data governance, and cybersecurity requirements. Build application management capabilities across ITS and promote a culture of continuous improvement in platform operations and service delivery. Application Portfolio Intelligence and Architecture Documentation Own and maintain a comprehensive Full Application Inventory serving as the authoritative register of all university applications, including functional and technical ownership, vendor, version, licensing expiration, upcoming contract renewals, and deployment model (SaaS, on-premises, or hybrid), regardless of whether the application is directly supported by ITS. Develop and maintain an Architecture Topology Diagram (As-Is) providing a layered visual map of all systems organized by function, including end-user portals, integration and API layers, core applications, data and analytics platforms, and infrastructure, along with major integration and data flow connections. Produce and keep current an Integration and Dependency Matrix identifying which systems communicate with one another, the nature of data exchanged, protocols used, and frequency of interaction, serving as a reference for integration planning, incident response, and change management. Conduct and publish a periodic Risk and Health Assessment flagging applications that are end-of-life, running on unsupported platforms, over-licensed, misaligned with business continuity requirements, or otherwise presenting institutional risk. Maintain a working mastery of the university's application architecture, including system interdependencies, data flows, integration patterns, and platform boundaries, sufficient to guide technical decision-making, advise institutional partners, and evaluate proposed changes for downstream risk. Develop and promote reference architecture standards for enterprise application onboarding, integration design, and data exchange, ensuring that new systems and enhancements conform to institutional architectural principles. Partner with infrastructure, security, and data teams to ensure that application architecture decisions account for scalability, availability, security, and regulatory compliance requirements. Technology Evaluation and Technical Review Lead or participate in formal technical reviews of existing enterprise applications and proposed new systems, assessing architectural fit, integration complexity, total cost of ownership, vendor stability, data governance implications, and alignment with institutional technology standards. Serve as a primary ITS technical voice in procurement processes, RFP development, and vendor demonstrations for enterprise application acquisitions, ensuring that technical requirements are clearly defined, documented, and evaluated. Evaluate proposed applications for compatibility with the university's existing integration ecosystem, identity and access management infrastructure, security posture, and data governance framework before any institutional commitment is made. Maintain a formal Technology Review process in partnership with ITS leadership and governance stakeholders that ensures no new enterprise application is onboarded without documented technical review and architectural approval. Assess shadow IT and unsanctioned application usage across the institution and develop strategies to either rationalize those tools into the supported portfolio or transition users to approved and supported alternatives. Conduct and document total cost of ownership (TCO) analyses for current and proposed enterprise platforms, accounting for licensing, staffing, integration maintenance, training, upgrade costs, and long-term sustainability, to inform institutional investment decisions. Application Transitions, Migrations, and Decommissioning Lead or co-lead enterprise application transition projects, including system replacements, cloud migrations, and platform consolidations, ensuring that planning accounts for data migration, integration re-mapping, user training, business continuity, and cutover risk. Oversee data migration planning and execution during application transitions, partnering with data governance and functional teams to ensure data integrity, completeness, and validation throughout the process. Develop and maintain application decommissioning plans for retired systems, including archival of historical data, sunset of integrations, license termination, and documentation of transition outcomes. Proactively identify opportunities to rationalize the university's application portfolio by consolidating redundant tools, eliminating underutilized platforms, and reducing unnecessary licensing costs and integration complexity. Ensure that all major application transitions include formal post-implementation reviews to capture lessons learned, validate outcomes against defined success criteria, and improve future transition planning. Integration, Data, and Security Governance Oversee the design, implementation, and maintenance of application integrations and data exchange processes across enterprise platforms in conjunction with the data engineering functions. Ensure that application data stewardship practices align with the university's data governance policies, privacy standards, and regulatory requirements, with specific accountability for ensuring that application configurations and access controls actively support FERPA and HIPAA compliance obligations. Collaborate with the ITS security team to ensure applications are configured and maintained in accordance with institutional security standards and risk tolerance. Develop and manage strategies for business continuity, disaster recovery, and application resilience across the enterprise application portfolio. Partner with data and analytics teams to support accurate, reliable data flows that enable reporting, institutional research, and decision-making. Maintain a working knowledge of identity and access management (IAM) principles as they apply to enterprise application access, role-based permissions, and provisioning workflows. Vendor and Contract Management (Platform-Specific) Advise institutional partners on vendor selection and manage vendor relationships and contracts specifically related to enterprise application platforms within the Director's portfolio. Ensure vendor performance meets defined SLAs, risk requirements, institutional strategy, and budget parameters for enterprise applications. Develop and manage strategic vendor partnerships within the portfolio, ensuring alignment with institutional strategy, risk tolerance, and financial sustainability. Lead structured vendor performance reviews on a regular cadence, documenting outcomes and escalating unresolved issues to ITS leadership and procurement partners as appropriate. People Leadership and Team Development Lead, coach, and develop a multidisciplinary team of application administrators, analysts, developers, and platform specialists. Set measurable performance goals, provide ongoing feedback, and support professional development for team members at all levels. Foster an inclusive, collaborative, and outcomes-driven team culture that prioritizes service excellence and continuous learning. Champion modern practices in application lifecycle management, platform engineering, and enterprise systems administration, and promote skill development across the team. Develop and maintain succession and cross-training plans to ensure operational continuity and reduce key-person dependencies across the enterprise applications team. Liaison Responsibilities, Proactive Planning, and Cross- ITS Collaboration Serve as a primary ITS liaison to schools, colleges, and administrative units for enterprise application platforms and related services. Assist institutional partners with proactive planning, including the development of realistic upgrade timelines, dependency mapping, and coordination of platform changes across teams. Promote a culture of partnership between ITS and business units, ensuring that platform configurations and enhancements are co-designed with functional users and stakeholders. Provide regular, concise updates to leadership and governance groups on platform health, risks, issues, and decisions required. Collaborate with the Center for Emerging Technologies (CET) as an ITS liaison to advance the use of emerging technologies, including AI-enabled tools, to strengthen platform intelligence, automation, and the overall enterprise application experience. Represent ITS on relevant institutional committees, working groups, and governance bodies related to enterprise systems, data, and technology planning. Strategy, Governance, and Continuous Improvement Collaborate with ITS leadership to develop multi-year platform roadmaps and annual plans that align the enterprise application portfolio with institutional strategy. Support technology and data governance processes, including platform prioritization, risk management, and investment decisions. Establish and track key performance indicators for platform availability, application performance, support responsiveness, release quality, and user satisfaction, using pragmatic and sustainable approaches. Identify and implement process improvements to reduce technical debt, streamline platform operations, and enhance the reliability and user experience of enterprise applications. Manage efforts in establishing and maintaining a strong release management methodology. Develop and maintain a portfolio-level view of platform health, risk, and investment needs, and present findings to ITS leadership and governance stakeholders on a regular basis. Additional Responsibilities Participate in special projects and perform other duties as assigned by the VP and CIO. Lead select critical initiatives when needed while delegating operational and project work appropriately to ensure sustainable delivery and strong team development. Other duties as assigned. Supervision Exercised The Director leads a team that may include application administrators, platform engineers, systems analysts, business analysts, programmers/developers, and technical support staff. Qualifications Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, information systems, or a related field. Significant progressive experience in enterprise application administration, platform management, or IT systems leadership, typically seven to ten years, including leadership of complex, cross-functional technology operations. Demonstrated hands-on experience administering and supporting mission-critical enterprise application platforms such as ERP, SIS, LMS, CRM, or EHR systems in a large or complex organization, including configuration, upgrades, environment management, and technical troubleshooting. Experience conducting formal technical reviews of enterprise systems, including evaluation of proposed new applications for architectural fit, integration complexity, security alignment, and total cost of ownership. Experience overseeing application integrations, data governance practices, and platform security requirements in a regulated environment, including familiarity with FERPA and HIPAA compliance obligations as they apply to enterprise systems. Demonstrated experience leading or co-leading enterprise application transition projects, including system replacements, cloud migrations, and data migrations. Proven experience managing vendor relationships and contracts for enterprise software products or SaaS platforms. Strong understanding of application lifecycle management, platform operations, ITIL-aligned service management, and release management best practices. Excellent communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills, with demonstrated ability to work effectively with senior leaders, technical teams, and nontechnical stakeholders. Demonstrated ability to lead and develop teams, build trust, and foster a collaborative work environment. Demonstrated experience developing or managing technology budgets, including operating and capital expenditures for enterprise software platforms. Preferred Qualifications Master's degree in information systems, business administration, computer science, or a related field. Experience in higher education or a similarly complex, mission-driven organization. Professional certifications such as ITIL, PMP, Workday, Salesforce Administrator, Oracle, SAP, or other relevant enterprise platform credentials. Experience standing up or maturing an enterprise application management function, including platform governance, architecture documentation, and operational frameworks. Experience with integration platforms, middleware technologies, and API management within an enterprise application ecosystem. Experience developing and maintaining enterprise application architecture documentation, including topology diagrams, integration matrices, and application inventories. Familiarity with application rationalization methodologies and experience leading portfolio consolidation or system decommissioning efforts. Experience leading organizational change management efforts associated with platform implementations, migrations, or major upgrades. Familiarity with AI-enabled capabilities within enterprise application platforms and experience evaluating or deploying such features in an operational context. EEO Statement Summary Consistent with federal and state law and University policy, the University of New England is committed to the fundamental concept of equal opportunity for all of the members of the University community. The University prohibits, and will not tolerate, discrimination in employment, the provision of academic services or in any other area of University life based on race, color, sex, physical or mental disability, religion, age, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, ethnicity, genetic information, HIV status, or status as a veteran. Prohibited bias factors should not motivate decisions regarding students, employees, applicants for admission, applicants for employment, contractors, volunteers or participants in and/or users of institutional programs, services, and activities. Vaccination Statement (PLEASE NOTE) Employees in clinical settings must meet the State of Maine's immunization requirements for clinical activity. Additional Note This position is not eligible for H-1B visa sponsorship.