Senior Manager, IT Applications

Be the one who makes a difference!

At Vertex Education we are a team of high achievers courageous leaders and passionate believers in changing lives through education. As a purpose-led education services provider our mission is destined to benefit many and yet it starts with just one person inspired to work together with us to make a memorable and meaningful difference for our clients schools students and communities. Be the one who makes a differencewith us.

As the Senior Manager of Applications you will own execution for the end-to-end parent and student lifecycle across Legacy Traditional Schools. You will provide oversight in support of configuration integration and support the core systems that power every touchpoint for families and school staff including Student Information Systems (SIS) and a new parent CRM that covers all parent services communications and support interactions. Success requires a hands-on execution-focused leader who spends most of their time improving real workflows resolving issues and launching changes. You bring coherence to our application ecosystem by simplifying processes standardizing data and ensuring that parents and students experience a single intuitive journey from first inquiry through graduation.

Essential Functions:

Application Strategy & Roadmap:

• Translate the operational needs of Legacy Traditional Schools into a prioritized backlog and executable roadmap and personally deliver configuration changes and small projects that simplify the user experience for school staff.

• Design configure and document future-state workflows across SIS and the parent CRM to support the full parent and student lifecycle (inquiry enrollment attendance communication services support) with a focus on data integrity and reducing manual work for school staff.

• Lead and execute the end-to-end implementation of the new parent-facing CRM including detailed configuration data migration coordination integrations testing and go-live support.

• Conduct regular hands-on audits of the application portfolio including reviewing real workflows and usage data to identify consolidation and decommission opportunities and implement agreed changes.

User Enablement & Adoption:

• Establish and manage formal feedback channels such as user surveys and focus groups to continuously measure and use them to drive continuous configuration and workflow improvements

• Serve as the designated incident commander for critical application outages ensuring clear communication and timely resolution for all affected school communities.

• Partner directly with school leaders and administrative staff to configure and optimize SIS platforms (PowerSchool Infinite Campus etc.) and the parent CRM into more intuitive workflows.

• Personally build and maintain admin guides how-to articles and short videos that help staff self-serve common tasks and reduce repetitive support requests.

Vendor & Partner Management:

• Function as the primary relationship owner for key application vendors holding them accountable for service delivery support performance and contractual obligations.

• Lead contract negotiations and renewals working with leadership to secure favorable terms and maximize the value of our investments in technology.

• Direct and oversee the work of vendor professional services during implementations and projects ensuring their deliverables are aligned with the specific needs of our schools.

• Maintain a strong awareness of vendor product roadmaps to inform internal strategy and advocate for features that directly benefit Legacy Traditional Schools.

Governance & Team Leadership:

• Design and implement a formal change management process to review approve and communicate all significant application configuration requests.

• Establish and lead a cross-functional governance committee to prioritize enhancement requests and align application changes with network-wide school priorities.

• Provide direct coaching mentorship and performance feedback to a small team of application specialists aligning their work to strategic priorities.

• Define and manage team processes using tools like Asana and Zendesk to ensure clear ownership of tickets and projects fast response times and visibility into work in progress.

Qualifications:

Required:

• Proven experience managing a portfolio of enterprise applications including K-12 Student Information Systems (e.g. PowerSchool Infinite Campus) and CRM platforms.

• Proven experience directly configuring and supporting a portfolio of enterprise applications including K-12 Student Information Systems (e.g. PowerSchool Infinite Campus) and CRM or parent-engagement platforms.

• Experience creating and executing a tactical application roadmap and backlog delivering a steady cadence of configuration changes and small projects that simplify a complex ecosystem and improve user satisfaction.

• Track record of personally leading new enterprise system implementations including requirements discovery configuration testing training and post-launch support.

• Demonstrated success developing and executing user adoption strategies including training programs and support models for non-technical school staff.

• Strong vendor management and contract negotiation skills with experience holding technology partners accountable for service delivery.

• Experience establishing and enforcing application governance and change management processes to ensure data integrity.

• Prior experience as a people manager with responsibility for coaching mentoring and prioritizing the work of a technical team.

Preferred:

• Previous experience working directly within a K-12 school school district or charter management organization.

• Direct hands-on configuration experience with platforms like HubSpot PowerSchool SIS or Infinite Campus .including building workflows forms automations templates and reports.

• Experience in business process mapping and redesign for academic or school operations workflows.

• Formal project management experience leading cross-departmental technology initiatives.

• Demonstrated ability to facilitate data connections or workarounds in an environment without a dedicated integration platform.

Be excited to be a part of our team and grow your career with us!

Be the one who enables us to positively impact over 258000 students across multiple states while driving our growth forward so we can enrich even more lives. Be the one who helps us achieve excellence for over 226 schools that we support with academics finance technology human resources communications marketing facilities construction and food services. Be the one who is a diverse thinker a team player a smart risk taker an innovator and a difference maker by encouraging others to climb higher and reach farther to further education.

• Be yourself surrounded by wonderful people who care about you value your unique skills and lift you up.

• Be supported in your work by caring leaders and team members who want you to succeed.

• Be empowered to make a difference and climb higher and reach farther to change lives through education.

• Be well in all aspects of your life from your physical mental and emotional wellbeing to your finances.

• Enjoy industry-leading pay rewards referral bonuses with unlimited flexible paid time-off for performance.

• Be able to care for your health and your family with comprehensive medical dental and vision benefits and invest in your future with 401(k) plans with a 6% employer match on your contributions.

• Enhance your growth and development with mentoring and money to take training classes.

• Thrive in a welcoming supportive and inclusive environment where we treat others with fairness and respect celebrate diversity and elevate equality and inclusion as an equal opportunity employer.

Be the one who makes a difference!

With an innovative mind a hungry heart and engaging spirit you can change lives through education. Be a part of Vertex Education and lets make a difference together. Apply Today!