Applications Administrator (2 Vacancies)

Applications Administrator (2 Vacancies)

About University at Albany:
Established in 1844 and designated a University Center of the State University of New York in 1962, the University at Albany's broad mission of excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, research, and public service engages a diverse student body of more than 17,000 students in nine schools and colleges across three campuses.

Located in Albany, New York, New York State's capital, the University is convenient to Boston, New York City, and the Adirondacks.

Job Description:
Information Technology Services (ITS), the central IT provider at the University at Albany, seeks applicants for an Applications Administrator to support the academic, research, and business needs of this R1 institution. The University's constantly evolving, and increasingly complex technical environment encompasses more than 250 applications, including the student information system supporting over 17,000 students. The Applications Administrator plays a key role in assuring that enterprise applications and systems are robust, secure, and compliant. They have a deep understanding of how applications fit into the broader technical environment, are adept at working with both on-premises and cloud-based applications, and are comfortable analyzing complex requirements to implement highly effective solutions. They ensure applications support a positive user experience and are compliant with industry standards and best practices.

The Applications Administrator is a member of a team of IT professionals, a group with wide-ranging responsibilities who work closely to ensure the integration, interoperability, and availability of campus technology resources. They enjoy collaborating with other technology professionals to provide solutions and have the technical skill to evaluate, implement, and maintain applications, to meet the evolving needs of a wide variety of disciplines and departments. They understand the importance of assessing functionality, performance, risk, and security.

The Applications Administrator has intellectual curiosity, keen analytical skills, and quickly grasps new concepts. They are confident in their knowledge and ability to make recommendations on behalf of the University's enterprise application environment and work across ITS and business units to provide input and expertise to a range of services.

Primary Responsibilities:
Assure the delivery of robust, secure enterprise applications that meet all regulatory requirements, industry standards, and best practices.  

• Administer enterprise applications, assuring integration, interoperability, and availability with other systems and services.
• Participate in application selection, installation, configuration, upgrade, testing, performance tuning, and maintenance, including the replacement of existing systems.
• Contribute to internal controls for applications.
• Collaborate across ITS teams to identify problems, devise creative solutions, and implement proposed recommendations.
• Identify and effectively translate business needs into technical solutions and evaluate new technologies by liaising between ITS and functional users. Provide consultation and training for application users as needed.

Provide day-to-day operational ownership for assigned applications including documentation, standards, patching, upgrades, configuration management, continuous monitoring, and performance management.

• Install, configure, upgrade, and maintain enterprise applications, ensuring customer objectives are met.
• Monitor application performance and troubleshoot to ensure optimal performance and availability.
• Develop, establish, and maintain documentation, standards, and controls for application use and administration.
• Ensure application security by implementing and enforcing ITS standards, controls, security policies, and procedures.
• Provide subject matter expertise and technical support to customers, and service and project teams.
• Assess emerging trends and technologies in application administration, by developing and following a professional development plan, regularly sharing knowledge with stakeholders, and recommending changes and improvements to the applications environment.
• Other reasonable duties as assigned.

Functional and Supervisory Relationships:

• Reports to: Manager of Application Operations and Development
• Supervises the following positions: None
• Interacts with: ITS; academic, research, and business units; external vendors/contractors/consultants; peer institutions

Job Requirements:

• Applicants must demonstrate excellent interpersonal and oral and written communication skills. 
• Applicants must demonstrate the ability to organize work, prioritize tasks, and manage multiple and changing priorities. 
• Applicants must be available to provide scheduled support and consultation outside normal business hours, including occasional evenings, holidays, or weekends, within reasonable professional obligation and expectation. 
• Applicants must be able to report to campus in-person on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and as needed. This position is eligible to telecommute on Tuesdays and Thursdays, following a probationary period and with supervisor approval.
• 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.
• Applicants must demonstrate an ability to develop inclusive and equitable relationships within our diverse campus community.  
• Applicants must demonstrate an ability to support diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and belonging, relative to their role.

Requirements:
Minimum Qualifications:

• A bachelor's degree from a college or university accredited by a U.S. Department of Education (DOE) or internationally recognized accrediting organization.
• Two or more years of experience evaluating, implementing, and supporting enterprise/business applications.
• Experience with scripting languages such as Python, Bash, and Go for automation.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze, clarify, and validate customer needs/business requirements and translate them into technical design requirements, workflows, business rules, and specifications.
• Ability to effectively manage several projects concurrently.
• Experience in administering and configuring low-code/no-code software solutions.
• Proven experience in developing and maintaining technical documentation within a knowledge base.
• Applicants must demonstrate an ability to develop inclusive and equitable relationships within our diverse campus community
• Applicants must demonstrate an ability to support diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and belonging relative to their role

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working in higher education and/or familiarity with the unique needs of an academic institution.
• Fluency in more than one programming language.
• Proven ability to analyze and troubleshoot complex, cross team applications and integrations.
• Experience working with AI tools, such as OpenAI, Microsoft Copilot, or other organizational chatbots.
• Prior knowledge and/or experience with IT Service Management (ITSM) processes and tools.
• Experience working in a UNIX/Linux environment. 

Additional Information:
Professional Rank and Salary Grade: SL-4, $85,000-$95,000

Special Note: 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.

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, or Clery Act, mandates that all Title IV institutions, without exception, prepare, publish and distribute an Annual Security Report. This report consists of two basic parts: disclosure of the University's crime statistics for the past three years; and disclosures regarding the University's current campus security policies. The University at Albany's Annual Security Report is available in portable document format [PDF] by clicking this link http://police.albany.edu/ASR.shtml

Pursuant to NYS Labor Law 194-A, no State entity, as defined by the Law, is permitted to rely on, orally or in writing seek, request, or require in any form, that an applicant for employment provide his or her current wage, or salary history as a condition to be interviewed, or as a condition of continuing to be considered for an offer of employment, until such time as the applicant is extended a conditional offer of employment with compensation, and for the purpose of verifying information, may such requests be made.  If such information has been requested from you before such time, please contact the Governor's Office of Employee Relations at (518) 474-6988 or via email at info@goer.ny.gov.

THE UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY IS AN EO/AA/IRCA/ADA EMPLOYER

Please apply online via https://albany.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=182342

Application Instructions:
Applicants MUST submit the following documents:

• Resume
• Cover letter stating all the required minimum qualifications and any of the applicable preferred qualifications
• List of 3 professional references with e-mail addresses and telephone numbers

Note: After submitting your resume, the subsequent pages give you instructions for uploading additional documents (i.e. cover letter etc.).

A review of applications will start on November 25, 2024 and the search will remain open until the position is filled.