Position Number: S-3958
Position Summary
The Application Administrator supports the administration, maintenance, security, and continuous improvement of enterprise applications and related systems used across Central Michigan University. Working as part of a collaborative team, this position helps ensure these services are reliable, secure, and effective for the faculty, staff, and students who depend on them. The role includes technical support, system configuration, monitoring, documentation, troubleshooting, and participation in…
planning and improvement efforts that advance the Office of Information Technology's goals, service standards, and commitment to excellent customer support.
Required Qualifications
Application Administrator I:
- Associate's degree in computer science, information systems, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Foundational knowledge of application or system administration concepts.
- Familiarity with common operating systems such as Windows or Linux.
- Ability to troubleshoot technical issues, follow established procedures, and learn new systems and processes.
- Strong communication, customer service, and collaboration skills.
Application Administrator II:
- All the qualifications of Application Administrator I, plus:
- Four years of experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience, related to application or system administration.
- Experience supporting, administering, or maintaining enterprise applications or related technologies.
- Experience with one or more enterprise application support technologies, such as collaboration platforms, messaging systems, learning management systems, document management systems, web technologies, commerce systems, or data services.
- Ability to recommend and implement improvements to application support, maintenance, or operational practices.
- Working knowledge of application deployment, configuration, and ongoing management processes.
- Experience with application monitoring, troubleshooting, or performance support.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and collaboration skills.
Application Administrator III:
- All the qualifications of Application Administrator II, plus:
- Six years of experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience, related to application or system administration.
- Experience contributing to service planning, support strategies, or operational improvement efforts for enterprise applications and related systems.
- Strong working knowledge of application hosting, web, or server technologies used to support enterprise applications.
- Experience using scripting, automation, or other technical tools to support application deployment, maintenance, or administration.
- Experience working with cloud-hosted, vendor-managed, or hybrid application environments.
- Ability to mentor, support, or share knowledge with other staff.
- Experience supporting integrations or data exchange activities across multiple systems.
- Ability to contribute to the design, improvement, or long-term support of enterprise application solutions.
- Excellent communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
Senior Application Administrator:
- All the qualifications of Application Administrator III, plus:
- Eight years of experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience, related to application or system administration.
- Experience administering multiple complex enterprise applications or services.
- Strong understanding of security practices, risk mitigation, and operational reliability in application environments.
- Ability to lead or significantly contribute to the design, scalability, resiliency, and long-term support of enterprise application solutions.
- Demonstrated ability to identify improvement opportunities and develop practical recommendations for implementation.
- Demonstrated professionalism and sound judgment in working with faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders.
- Demonstrated leadership in communication, coordination, or stakeholder engagement for complex work.
- Ability to model collaborative, service-oriented, and values-based behavior in support of team and university goals.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with enterprise platforms and technologies such as Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Exchange, Blackboard, Perceptive Content, SQL Server, web services, cloud-hosted systems, or similar tools is helpful.
- Familiarity with scripting or automation tools, such as PowerShell or Python, to support routine administration tasks.
- Experience partnering with business units, user offices, or subject matter experts to identify needs and develop solutions using supported systems.
- Ability to gather, analyze, and document user needs or business requirements to support application improvements or implementations.
- Experience working in technical support, service desk, desktop support, or other customer-facing IT roles.
Duties & Responsibilities
Application Administrator I:
- Demonstrates ownership in supporting assigned systems, resolving routine end-user issues, and developing an understanding of system functionality, configuration, dependencies, and change impacts.
- Uses established procedures to troubleshoot routine application and system issues, document findings, and escalate issues requiring additional analysis or decision-making.
- Performs basic administration and support tasks in common operating system environments used by supported applications, including routine validation, access checks, and coordination with infrastructure teams.
- Participates in system testing approaches and test planning, and assists with test procedures that assess the impact of application and system upgrades on performance and reliability.
- Works with OIT staff and vendors to support systems on behalf of end users.
- Verifies system backups and assists with creating and maintaining technical documentation.
- Monitors system logs and investigates discovered issues or events.
- Ensures applications meet university security standards and requirements.
- Provides application functionality instruction to end users as needed.
- Serves as backup to peer staff for identified systems and applications.
- Maintains a positive, service-oriented approach with all faculty, staff, and students.
- Acts as a technical resource for application administration projects.
- Other duties as assigned.
Application Administrator II:
- All the duties of Application Administrator I, plus:
- Assists in establishing system specifications and infrastructure.
- Contributes to production control and release management procedures, maintains system release documentation, and supports successful production deployments.
- Helps establish system access practices, monitoring and control procedures, and disaster recovery policies and procedures, including related testing.
- Assists with security incident investigations related to core OIT systems.
- Works with the Information Security team to mitigate risks related to core OIT systems.
- Establishes load and stress testing and participates in system capacity planning.
- Responsible for administering one or more low-complexity applications or systems.
Application Administrator III:
- All the duties of Application Administrator II, plus:
- Develops service strategy for related systems, including support approach, operational practices, improvement priorities, and stakeholder and technical partner coordination.
- Develops production control and release management procedures, maintains system release documentation, and ensures successful production deployments.
- Uses scripting, automation, or other technical tools to support application deployment, maintenance, administration, monitoring, reporting, and repeatable operations.
- Supports integrations and data exchange across systems, including coordination with technical partners, data-flow validation, and integration troubleshooting.
- Onboards new or existing software solutions in alignment with organizational and industry software implementation best practices.
Senior Application Administrator:
- All the duties of Application Administrator III, plus:
- Serves as an expert resource for complex troubleshooting.
- Responsible for administering one or more high-complexity applications or systems.
- Leads technical projects with broad organizational impact.
- Leads or significantly contributes to design, scalability, resiliency, and long-term support planning for complex enterprise application solutions and services.
- Leads communication, coordination, and stakeholder engagement for complex application work, ensuring stakeholders and technical partners understand impacts, decisions, timelines, and support expectations.
- Evaluates new software solutions and works with business offices to address business needs or improve processes.
Supervision Exercised
None.
Position Details
- Employee Group: Professional & Administrative - Salary
- Pay Range: $55,000 - $85,000
- Division: President
- Department: Applications & Systems - OIT
- Position Status: Regular
- Employment Status: Full-Time
- FTE: 1.0
- Position Type: 12 month
- Weekly Work Schedule: M-F 8-5; evenings, nights and weekends as needed
- Location: Mount Pleasant, MI
- Open Until Filled: Yes
About the Department
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) serves as Central Michigan University's strategic technology partner, providing the infrastructure, services, security, and support that enable teaching, learning, research, and university operations. OIT works collaboratively across campus to deliver reliable technology solutions, improve efficiency, protect institutional information, and help advance the university's mission.
About CMU
Central Michigan University has a more than 125-year legacy of preparing students to become leaders and changemakers in their communities and in their personal and professional lives.
We serve nearly 15,500 students on our Mount Pleasant campus, in satellite locations around the state and throughout the country, and through flexible online programs. Many of our approximately 300 undergraduate, master's, specialist and doctoral programs in the arts, media, business, education, human services, health professions, liberal arts, social sciences, medicine, science and engineering are nationally ranked for excellence.
CMU leads the nation in leadership development programming through our Sarah R. Opperman Leadership Institute, and we are proud to be among only 5% of U.S. universities in the top two Carnegie research classifications. Our faculty work with graduate and undergraduate students in areas such as Great Lakes research, medical innovation, engineering technology and more.
Central is home to 17 men's and women's Division 1 sports including football, basketball, gymnastics, baseball, wrestling and more. Our student-athletes achieve great success in competition and in the classroom, capturing Mid-American Conference championships and maintaining an average cumulative GPA of 3.17.
CMU is located in Mount Pleasant, a community that blends the best of small-town living with big-city amenities. It's part of the culturally varied and vibrant Great Lakes Bay Region that also includes Saginaw, Bay City, Midland and the state's largest Native American community, centered on the Saginaw Chippewa Isabella Reservation in Mount Pleasant.
Area residents enjoy the mix of outdoor activities, cultural events, shopping and dining options, and family attractions. Other major Michigan destinations and attractions — Lansing, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Traverse City, wineries, beaches, golf and ski resorts, and many more — are within easy reach of the city's central location in Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
CMU employees enjoy access to a nationally recognized wellness program along with health care and benefits that exceed regional, state and national norms.
CMU Leadership Standards
Central Michigan University is a place where we value students and work for their success, where we act as family, and where employees are engaged, appreciated and have extraordinary opportunities to make a difference.
We intentionally maintain and strengthen the hallmark CMU culture that sets us apart from our peers by expecting CMU leaders and employees to model the following Leadership Standards and develop them within their teams.
Please review the Leadership Standards before applying for this position.
Message to Applicants
Central Michigan University is dedicated to fostering an environment that is reflective of the communities we serve. We are especially interested in highly qualified candidates who will advance and promote CMU's mission, vision, and leadership standards.
You must submit an on-line application in order to be considered as an applicant for this position.
Cover letters may be addressed to the Hiring Committee.
This position will remain open until filled. The university reserves the right to close the recruitment process once a sufficient applicant pool has been identified. For best consideration, please submit application materials on or before Thursday, September 10th, 2026.
To apply, visit https://www.jobs.cmich.edu/postings/45335.
Equal Opportunity & Title IX
CMU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and institution. CMU does not discriminate against persons based on age, color, disability, ethnicity, familial status, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, height, marital status, national origin, political persuasion, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, race, religion, sex, sex-based stereotypes, sexual orientation, transgender status, veteran status, or weight.
If you wish to see "Know Your Rights" posters, please click here.
CMU does not discriminate on the basis of sex in the education program or activity that it operates, including admission and employment, and is required by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 not to discriminate in such a matter.
Inquiries about the application of Title IX can be made to CMU's Title IX Coordinator, the US Department of Education's Assistant Secretary, or both.
CMU's Title IX Coordinator can be reached at:
Phone: 989-774-3253
Office: 103 E. Preston St.
Bovee University Center, suite 306
Mount Pleasant, MI 48858
Email: titleix@cmich.edu