Application Open:
Full-Time
Job Focus:
The Student Information System Manager at MBZUAI provides senior
functional leadership and institutional ownership of the
University’s Student Information System (Banner SaaS), the central
academic and operational system of record. Th is role leads to the
end-to-end functional vision, design, implementation, governance,
and continuous evolution of Banner, ensuring that Registrar’s
Office (RO) policies, academic regulations, research-based program
structures, and operational processes are accurately translated
into system functionality and adopted effectively across the
University. Acting as the primary interface between academic and
administrative stakeholders, the Registrar’s Office, IT, and system
vendors, the Associate Manager ensures that SIS integrations, data
structures, and workflows support institutional scale, academic
integrity, regulatory compliance, and long-term sustainability,
while driving change management, training, and continuous
improvement beyond go-live in a research-intensive university
environment.
Key Responsibilities:
Implementation & Delivery
- Lead and deliver SIS Banner SaaS workstreams from configuration
through go-live and beyond, acting as the institutional functional
lead and product owner from the academic and business
perspective.
- Own delivery milestones, dependencies, risks, and cutover
readiness, ensuring system decisions support current operations and
future academic and research growth.
- Ensure Banner configuration supports complex research-based
academic models, including thesis-driven programs, supervisor
structures, non-standard progression pathways, and funding-linked
enrollment requirements.
Process & Policy Enablement
- Translate academic regulations, governance decisions, and
Registrar’s Office policies into scalable system logic, ensuring
Banner enforces policy while preserving academic flexibility and
innovation.
- Map, standardize, and continuously optimize end-to-end academic
lifecycle processes, including registration, add/drop, withdrawals,
grading, academic standing, progression, graduation, records
management, and scholarship eligibility.
- Define and institutionalize standard operating procedures,
internal controls, and maker-checker mechanisms that ensure
auditability, consistency, and institutional trust in academic
data.
Testing & Readiness
- Lead business-driven user acceptance testing (UAT) to validate
that Banner accurately reflects academic rules, research pathways,
and student outcomes before becoming the official system of
record.
- Design comprehensive test scenarios, datasets, and validation
checkpoints that protect the integrity of grades, academic
standing, graduation eligibility, and official transcripts.
- Oversee post-release stabilization, defect triage, and
validation cycles to mitigate institutional, academic, and
regulatory risk.
Training & Change Management
- Design and deliver a university-wide functional training and
change enablement strategy, ensuring faculty, advisors,
administrators, and student-facing teams understand how academic
decisions translate into system outcomes.
- Develop role-based training materials, reference guides, and
train-the-trainer programs that promote distributed ownership
rather than dependence on the Registrar’s Office.
- Lead structured communications on system and process changes,
clarifying impacts, timelines, and mitigation strategies for
high-impact academic and research-related changes.
- Be accountable for designing, publishing, and continuously
improving online learning resources that support faculty and
student adoption of Banner, ensuring materials remain current with
system releases, policy updates, and process changes
Data, Reporting & Compliance
- Define and govern academic data standards and business rules
within the SIS, in close collaboration with Institutional Research,
to ensure consistency, integrity, and reliability of downstream
reporting and analytics.
- Partner with Institutional Research and senior leadership to
deliver trusted academic and research-relevant dashboards,
statutory submissions, and regulatory reports (e.g.,
CHEDS/MoE).
- Ensure consistency and alignment between operational SIS data,
research analytics, funding models, and external reporting
requirements.
Integrations & Cross-Function Coordination
- Serve as the academic business authority for Banner’s
integration ecosystem, ensuring coherent end-to-end academic
processes across SIS, LMS, ERP/Finance, CRM, Identity Management,
and research-support systems.
- Collaborate with IT to validate enterprise workflows, define
ownership boundaries, and prevent data fragmentation or duplication
across platforms.
- Implement and manage service-level expectations, handoff
protocols, and escalation pathways across academic, research, and
operational units, operating under the Registrar’s delegated
authority.
Operations & Continuous Improvement
- Establish and manage a structured institutional intake process
for Banner enhancements and academic process improvements,
prioritizing initiatives that deliver academic value, scalability,
and service quality.
- Monitor system adoption, service KPIs, academic compliance
indicators, and data quality metrics, leading continuous
improvement cycles that evolve Banner from a transactional system
into a strategic academic platform.
- Anticipate future academic and research requirements and
proactively shape the Banner roadmap to support institutional
growth.
Governance & Vendor Interface
- Represent the Registrar’s Office and broader academic community
in institutional governance forums, contributing decision briefs,
risk assessments, and strategic recommendations.
- Act as the primary academic business counterpart to SIS
vendors, ensuring MBZUAI’s research-driven academic model is
accurately understood, protected, and reflected in system
solutions.
- Advise senior leadership on system-related academic risks,
trade-offs, and long-term implications.
Other duties:
- Carry out all other duties as reasonably directed by the line
manager that are commensurate with these functional
objectives.
Academic Qualifications:
- A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration or
other relevant discipline.
- A postgraduate degree will be preferable.
Professional Experience:
Essential :
- At least 6-10 years in student systems/registrar operations or
higher-ed business systems, with hands-on process ownership.
- Demonstrated experience leading SIS implementations or major
upgrades from the business side (preferably Ellucian Banner or
similar).
- Strong business analysis, documentation, and UAT leadership;
proven ability to convert policy into system behavior.
- Excellent communication, facilitation, and training skills with
non-technical audiences.
- Solid project delivery skills (planning, risk/issue management,
cutover readiness, change management).
- Familiarity with SIS (preferably Banner) modules (Registration,
Student Records, Curriculum, Degree Audit), LMS/SIS integrations,
and finance touchpoints.
Preferred :
- Awareness of integration concepts (e.g., APIs/Ethos) and
reporting practices.
- Experience successfully working in the UAE.
- Arabic language speaker.
