Associate Director - Billing Office

Towson University (TU) has earned distinction as both a top-100 public university and one of the nation's great colleges to work for. Located north of Baltimore, TU currently enrolls over 19,000 students and is the second-largest university in the prestigious University System of Maryland. Towson University fosters a climate that is grounded in respect to cultivating the intellectual and personal growth of the entire university community.

The Associate Director of the Student and University Billing Office collaborates with the Director, and Associate Director, of Operations to set policy and procedures for the Student and University Billing Office to ensure business processes and system functionality meets best practice standards, PCI Compliance, and all audit and regulatory requirements. This position directs and oversees the Systems and Technology Unit of the Student and University Billing Office. This unit supports all system components of the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Student Financials module including all setup, configuration, testing, security, issue resolution, reporting, and maintenance.  This position also manages all setup, configuration, testing, training, reporting, and implementation of the Oracle Financials Cloud AR module and other various online integrated third party applications. This position serves as the functional expert for Student Financials serving on various projects and committees assisting in the development of business process flows and functional specifications for system set up, page configuration, file layouts and more.

Responsibilities and Duties

System Analysis and Configuration:

• Serves as the PeopleSoft Student Financials module owner and system expert for the University. Also serves as the PeopleSoft Student Financials module expert for various committees and is utilized to support new departmental programs and other revenue development for the University. Provides system analysis and business process review, works with various University departments reviewing MOU’s and new contract specifications to determine proper tuition, fees, and billing setup to support new program offerings, assess future Student Cloud ERP Solutions’ for system setup and functionality, write functional specifications and requirements identifying table and field components along with process flows to support university initiatives, system modifications, system upgrades and various interfaces.
• Responsible for the overall analysis, configuration, setup and management of the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Student Financials module for the University’s student ERP solution. Responsible for configuring all system high-level business rules to support tuition and fee calculation, charge priority and payment allocation, system tree node structures, item type configuration and GL mapping, refund processing, billing layouts, external file layouts, and Self-Service page layouts.
• Responsible for the overview of the configuration and setup of the University’s tuition and fee charges and calculation controls. This includes working with the Business Application Manager in structuring term fees, course fees, class fees, student selection criteria, course setup criteria, waiver adjustment rules, equation engine coding with embedded SQL call routines, equation variables, billing and due calendars, and adjustment refund calendars that control system drop and term withdrawal refund percentages.

Security Administration and Access Control:

• Responsible for creating PeopleSoft Roles and Permissions for Student Financials controlling user access to pages and field components. High level understanding of menu structures, page configurations, and field components are needed when creating such security permissions. Also must identify users that should have update or read only access to specific functionality. Utilize the setup of specific roles to support audit requirements to provide separation of duty between user access. Submit security access request to the Office of Technology Services with functional specifications for all set up requirements. Evaluate system access need of user and submit user Role and Permission set up request to the Office of Technology services. Responsible for providing authorization for Student Financials security user request received by Office of Technology Services.
• Responsible for setting up Item Type Security that controls what data a user can access. Item type security is controlled by having a very high level understanding of the Student Financials Tree Manager structure which controls all the charge and payment allocation rules in the Student Financials system. Setting Item Type Security on a user, controls what charges or payments can be posted or reversed in Student Financials and also controls what Financial Aid item types can be accessed by Financial Aid administrators.
• Responsible for setting up Service Indicator security in PeopleSoft which controls user access to specific service indicator codes.   This security controls the user’s access for the adding and releasing of service indicator codes which allows or prevents specific actions that a student can take within the system. This access is highly reviewed by system and legislative auditors to verify that user controls are in place.

Reporting:

• Responsible for developing complex queries, crystal reports, databases and ODBC connections for supporting the day-to-day business activity of the Student and University Billing office.
• Responsible for developing reports for the system and legislative auditors. Provide reports based on their data requests to support their research and analysis.
• Responsible for designing reports to support reconciliation efforts of payment applications, such as TouchNet, Salesforce, and Student Financials.

Direction/Management of the Student and University Billing IT Systems and Technology Unit:

• Responsible for the direct management and supervisory support of 3 exempt employees who are responsible for all set up, modifications, and processing of the PeopleSoft Student Financials module. Oversees and provides direction for all activities and project prioritization dealing with supporting Student Financials and Third Party systems, configuration and execution of system processes. Responsible for dealing with escalated issues pertaining to project support and customer service issues received from various university community members and departments. Also responsible for the direct management and supervisory support of 1 non-exempt position dealing with the system batch processing, eRefund process and maintenance, processing student and organization refund files, online invoice activity, report generation, and other duties supporting the business functions of the Student and University Billing Office and other departments.
• Direct all Student and University Billing Office customer associates, supervisors, Director and Associate Director in training of system software and processes. Assist with problem solving strategies for all new functionality and daily transactions for SUBO and other university departments when problems arise that cannot be rectified by normal processing procedures.
• Serve as the Student and University Billing Office Director’s representative in their absence in committees and meetings when needed.

Committees and User Groups:

• Participates as a member of the eCommerce Marketplace User Group dealing with setting up ePayment solutions and business processes for the university community while supporting audit regulations, PCI requirements and accessibility requirements. Committee members are responsible for reviewing new Marketplace opportunities for university departments, establish various payment processing rules along with budget mapping controls for settlement and revenue distribution.
• Participates as a member of the PeopleSoft User Group where high level system set up and processing issues are discussed and resolved. Office of Technology Services discusses bundle updates and deliverables to prepare for system upgrades. New university initiatives are discussed and system experts acknowledge any foreseeable issues.
• Participates as a member of the PeopleSoft BioDemo committee. This committee supports all the BioDemo complexities of system reporting and field display for university community. Procedures are developed for entering BioDemo data and training is provided to new users of Towson’s university community. Any access to BioDemo data must be approved by those members that sit on the BioDemo Committee to regulate and assure proper access controls.

Other duties :

• Provide customer service and training to the Student and University Billing associates and other university departmental personnel on system security access and functional processes. Responsible for explaining system set up and processing rules.
• Perform in a role of system expert for other university departments when looking for training in the utilization of PeopleSoft, Stratus (Oracle Cloud), or other Third Party systems.
• Responsible for meeting with system, legislative, and internal auditors to discuss business process   flows and PeopleSoft Student Financial, Oracle Financials Cloud AR and Third Party system set up and security. Provide details to auditors to support research efforts and business process reviews.

Qualifications and Skills

• A Bachelor's degree with five or more years of experience and experience with supervising employees.
• Master's Degree preferred with Higher Education Experience, Student Financials experience in People Soft, and integration experience with third-party vendors.
• Ability to manage and prioritize work flow for employees, understand how to obtain system component and table structures from ERP systems. Ability to conceptualize how new systems and technology can better serve the office functionality and customer experience that deals with Student Financial processing rules. Work with multiple systems and have experience in writing functional specifications for project development and issue resolution. Have experience in report writing and analyzing system ability to work well under pressure, time constraints and prioritize multiple project request competing for the same resources.
• Ability to analysis business processes, design and offer solutions utilizing ecommerce solutions.
• Ability to collaborate with individuals and teams toward developing a rewarding solution for developing new business.processes and software solutions. Ability to learn and adapt to new technologies.

Salary and Benefits

Salary at $110,000-$115,000 annually and full University benefits that include 22 days of annual leave, up to 17 holidays, personal and sick days; excellent health, life, and retirement plans; and tuition remission. To learn more about our benefits, click here. TU also offers a variety of great perks and discounts, which can be found here.

This position will be open for a minimum of 14 days. A cover letter and resume with your online application is required.