Job Description
The Director, Application Services provides leadership, oversight, and hands-on administration for Texas State Technical College’s portfolio of enterprise and departmental applications. This role ensures applications remain reliable, optimized, supported, and aligned with institutional priorities and operational requirements.

The Director serves as the institutional leader for application administration practices supporting Workday and other mission-critical business applications. This role combines operational leadership, technical expertise, governance responsibilities, and direct system administration to improve service delivery, strengthen business processes, and maximize institutional value from enterprise technology investments.

Working closely with business stakeholders, vendors, functional owners, and technology teams, the Director ensures enterprise applications support operational excellence, process modernization, and scalable service delivery.

Essential Functions

The employee will demonstrate TSTC’s Core Values of Excellence, Accountability, Service, and Integrity with internal and external stakeholders, customers, students, and community members.

Strategic Leadership & Application Governance

Develops and maintains application administration roadmaps and lifecycle management practices supporting institutional priorities. Establishes standards, procedures, governance practices, documentation standards, and service expectations supporting enterprise application administration.

Provides oversight for enterprise application portfolios, ensuring applications are appropriately governed, supported, optimized, and aligned with operational priorities. Partners with stakeholders to establish enhancement priorities and continuous improvement initiatives.

Develops operational metrics and reporting that measure application health, service quality, utilization, and team effectiveness.

Application Operations & Optimization

Provides leadership for day-to-day administration, maintenance, support, and optimization activities across enterprise applications.

Serves as a senior application administrator supporting critical applications including Workday. Oversees configuration, security administration, user provisioning, business process management, upgrades, testing activities, releases, and deployments.

Leads initiatives that optimize workflows, reporting, Journeys, self-service capabilities, automation, and platform functionality that improve institutional effectiveness and user experience.

Monitors application performance and proactively improves reliability, operational effectiveness, and service quality.

Stakeholder Collaboration & Service Delivery

Builds strong partnerships with stakeholders, vendors, application owners, and technical teams. Serves as liaison between business units and technology teams to ensure enterprise applications support operational needs.

Coordinates communication related to outages, upgrades, enhancements, and service changes. Gathers feedback and translates business requirements into improvements and enhancement priorities.

Leadership & Team Development

Provides direct leadership, mentorship, and development for application administration and support staff. Establishes expectations, develops capability, and promotes a customer-focused and solutions-oriented culture.

Supports workforce planning, succession planning, staffing, and resource allocation activities. Leads continuous improvement initiatives that strengthen team effectiveness and service delivery.

Education & Experience

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Information Systems, Business Administration, or related field.

Five years or more of experience supporting, administering, or managing enterprise business applications.

Three years or more of leadership experience managing application administrators, technical teams, or support staff.

Experience supporting Workday or comparable enterprise SaaS platforms.

Experience supporting enterprise application upgrades, testing coordination, business process optimization, security administration, and user provisioning.

Experience managing vendor relationships and third-party support organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience within higher education or public sector environments.

Experience leading Workday administration teams.

Experience supporting SaaS enterprise platforms and vendor-managed cloud environments.

Experience supporting optimization initiatives related to workflow automation, self-service, reporting, and user adoption.

Skills & Abilities

Demonstrated ability to lead enterprise application administration functions while balancing operational responsibilities and technical execution. Strong understanding of enterprise applications, user access management, role-based security, system configuration, and governance practices.

Ability to troubleshoot complex technical issues and coordinate resolution activities across technical and functional teams. Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage competing priorities and operational demands.

Ability to communicate effectively across technical and non-technical audiences and build strong partnerships supporting institutional objectives.

Core Competencies

Technical Leadership

Provides leadership supporting enterprise applications while maintaining technical expertise and operational effectiveness.

Operational Excellence

Develops systems, processes, and governance practices that improve service delivery, reliability, and scalability.

Stakeholder Partnership

Builds collaborative relationships with business units, vendors, and technical teams to improve outcomes and service quality.

Decision Making & Problem Solving

Uses technical knowledge, operational data, and sound judgment to resolve issues and guide priorities.

People Leadership

Develops team capability, establishes accountability, and supports a collaborative work environment.

Execution & Accountability

Maintains focus on operational priorities, delivers commitments, and ensures reliable service delivery.

Extra Duties Statement

This job description outlines the general responsibilities and expectations of the role. It is not intended to include every task or responsibility. Additional duties may be assigned by leadership as needed.