IT Director I (Inst)

Job Summary

The Adaptive Planning and Forecasting Associate Director will provide critical leadership as the lead of the Budget and Planning Team, with a focus on supporting business objectives while managing system maintenance, release management, and continuous improvement. This position will also ensure operational alignment of resources and technology solutions to the Universities of Wisconsin business needs and initiatives.

The Adaptive Planning and Forecasting Associate Director will be the primary provider of leadership and support for the Workday Adaptive Planning module. The person in this role will partner closely with Universities of Wisconsin business leaders to ensure operational needs are successfully enabled by technology solutions. They will ensure operational success measures are met and will identify opportunities to improve operational effectiveness. They are responsible for effective communication and reporting to functional stakeholders, collaborating across lines of business to manage cross‑functional topics, and working closely with leadership to maintain alignment and provide the information required when and how it is needed.

The Adaptive Planning and Forecasting Associate Director serves as the liaison between the business and the technology and helps align the strategic vision of the organization to the enterprise applications enabling it. They are responsible for the successful facilitation of on‑going governance and prioritization efforts (including decision‑making and issue/risk management) with their business partners to ensure the team is aligned with the highest value initiatives for their functional lines of business. They stay closely connected with Workday and associated technology advancements to advise business leaders on new technology solutions becoming available to meet their strategic needs. They contribute to the UW enterprise applications product road map, facilitate key decisions regarding the system configuration and operation, advocate for the product internally, and represent the team in meetings with peers and leaders across the university and the broader product user community. They lead continuous improvement efforts for their functional area through relentless prioritization of backlogged items to ensure the team delivers the most valuable solutions. They seek opportunities to eliminate gaps and implement solutions that add value to the business through alignment of product and business strategy, facilitate the constant grooming of the product backlog, and ensure resources focus on initiatives that create and add the most value. They facilitate the uptake of new system functionality to stay current and take full advantage of the cloud product.

The Adaptive Planning and Forecasting Associate Director will lead a team responsible for updating and implementing new system configuration and provide guidance to shared capability resources aligned to the workstream. In this role, they will supervise a team of admins and business analysts that will partner with business leaders to design, configure, test, and deploy solutions both within and across ERP technologies to meet the ever‑changing needs of the business. They provide guidance to shared capability team members assigned to support the functional team while creating cross‑work‑stream alignment. They give cross‑work‑stream direction in alignment with institutional goals and key operational milestones, define the vision and guiding principles for the teams supporting the product, develop and implement strategies to maximize product value and enhance the user experience, manage and support the team's performance to achieve deliverables on schedule through effective allocation and development of talent and skills, coach and mentor the team, and serve as an early escalation point for any issues or risks. They guide the functional teams on effective allocation of time and focus, and identify when solutions, issues, or other matters need business leader direction.

Key Job Responsibilities

• Develop operating policies and procedures to comply with regulations, institutional policies, and unit objectives
• Serve as a liaison representing the interests of the institution to internal and external stakeholders
• Exercise supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 full‑time equivalent (FTE) employees
• Advise institutional or divisional leadership on information technology operations and business models
• May develop and audit institutional budgets and/or financials
• May perform manager functions
• Intentionally collaborate with peers across Workday and Enterprise Solutions Team to form a cohesive and well‑functioning leadership team
• Direct strategic information technology planning initiatives and establish objectives for the institution to ensure appropriate use of financial, administrative, staffing resources in alignment with the strategic plan

Department

Workday and Enterprise Solutions Team (WEST)

Compensation

Well qualified applicants can expect to earn between $135,000 and $167,800, with final salary based on experience and qualifications. In addition to salary, this position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including generous paid time off, competitively priced health, dental, vision, and life insurance, tax‑advantaged savings accounts, and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund. For a summary of benefits, please see:

Required Qualifications

• Must be a strategic thinker who can bring innovative approaches to meet business objectives. Must also be willing and able to think through operational details and how specific needs fit into the overall strategy.
• Must be effective at leading a team, model good leadership characteristics, and help create an environment that allows the team to succeed. Must build positive relationships with executive leaders, stakeholders, peers, and team members.
• Must be able to effectively communicate with a wide variety of audiences, presenting effectively in varied settings and modalities.
• Must have a solid understanding of how the organization’s business objectives are influenced by industry drivers and trends. Stakeholders may have diverging interests and must understand how the organization operates and how to effectively work within that environment.
• Must have demonstrated experience effectively managing people and resources, successfully achieving outcomes and providing high‑quality customer service.
• Demonstrated experience with finance and related functions.
• Demonstrated experience supporting time‑bound planning and budgeting cycles, including system readiness, testing, stabilization, and elevated operational pressure during fixed deadlines.
• Experience managing system changes and releases while maintaining operational stability during active planning cycles.
• Comfort working in an environment where priorities are driven by institutional timelines and end‑user business processes, not just system or product roadmaps.
• Proactive ownership, including driving work forward and following through without waiting for direction.
• Exceptional organizational discipline when coordinating complex work across teams with dependencies and firm, planning‑cycle driven deadlines.
• Hands‑on people leadership for a team with mixed functional, technical, and operational responsibilities.
• Accountability for balancing team capacity and sustainability with enterprise and institutional planning deadlines.
• Comfort leading people through ambiguity and change, especially during high‑impact planning and budgeting cycles.
• Demonstrated experience providing formal people management, including conducting performance reviews, setting goals, delivering feedback, and addressing performance issues in accordance with organizational policies.

Preferred Qualifications

• Line of business context: experience managing, developing, or implementing budget‑specific business processes.
• Familiarity with the complex needs and challenges of a multi‑university system that includes a flagship research university.

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher required.

Institutional Statement on Diversity

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW‑Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinions enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals. The University of Wisconsin‑Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background—people who, as students, faculty, and staff, serve Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin‑Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website.

To request a disability or pregnancy‑related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre‑employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment.

The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released.