Business Systems Specialist

Staff - Non Union

Job Category
M&P - AAPS

Job Profile
AAPS Salaried - Administration, Level B

Job Title
Business Systems Specialist

Department
Administrative Leadership | Extended Learning

Compensation Range
$6,551.00 - $9,418.83 CAD Monthly

The Compensation Range is the span between the minimum and maximum base salary for a position. The midpoint of the range is approximately halfway between the minimum and the maximum and represents an employee that possesses full job knowledge, qualifications and experience for the position. In the normal course, employees will be hired, transferred or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range for a job.

Posting End Date
March 14, 2024

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the Posting End Date above.

Job End Date

Apr 30, 2026

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career. 

Job Summary

UBC Extended Learning (ExL) brings UBC excellence in academics, teaching, and research to communities through flexible, innovative, and accessible learning opportunities. ExL welcomes thousands of lifelong learners from all over the world annually, and supports UBC faculties to create and deliver programming that meets the career and personal educational needs of learners while strengthening UBC’s contribution to society, industry, and government.

The Business Systems Lead analyzes and anticipates the business needs of Extended Learning (ExL) as it relates to the new Destiny One enterprise system, its integrations and supporting applications, such as e-commerce websites, CRM, payment processor, reporting tool, JIRA and Sharepoint site. The incumbent is the lead user and product owner of Destiny One with a solid understanding of users, the marketplace, the competition and of future trends for continuing education student registration systems.

The Business Systems Specialist will actively market and promote ExL services within a cost and resource-savings framework, and be responsible for initiating, delivering and managing these services to internal and external clients under the new Destiny One service model. Working independently, the Business Systems Specialist will by apply knowledge and expertise of system implementations to coordinate work schedules with other teams to complete projects on time and within budget. The results will allow non-credit providers across campus to better deliver their courses, events and programs of study while improving the student/participant experience. Knowledge and expertise gained through these service implementations will allow the Business Systems Specialist to advise and make recommendations on future policy, procedures, and changes to the services that the ExL services team offers in the future. The Business Systems Specialist will actively represent Continuing Education to multiple stakeholders across campus, and will establish long-term relationships, building partnerships though trust, respect, and results.

The incumbent will provide expertise in the areas of requirements definition, business process definition, business process analysis and design, functional system design, project management, system configuration, implementation, IT workflow, release cycle management, testing, training, facilitation and documentation to deliver a robust student registration system to meet the needs of all of ExL and its partners’ needs. Has responsibility for the planning, budgeting, resourcing and execution of tasks that deliver systems, projects, enhancements, maintenance and production support throughout application lifecycles.

This role is a key member of the IT/LT Governance Committee, the Data Governance Working Group and is the Destiny One Lead in the university-wide Non-Credit/CPE Community of Practice.

The position will be primarily based at the David Strangway Building on the UBC Vancouver campus and will have the option to work remotely according to University and VPAO policies and guidelines.  

Organizational Status

The Business Systems Specialist reports directly to the Associate Director, Extended Learning. The incumbent works closely with the Director of Administration, the Director of Marketing, the Finance team, and all the program area leads.   

This role liaises with ExL teams, UBC Web Services, UBC IT, and other partners, stakeholders and vendors.  It works closely with all power users of the Destiny One daily.  

Work Performed

Specific Duties:

Student Management System

Is the subject matter expert for Destiny One. Acts as an advisor to ExL management team to identify and assess needs business systems’, and to plan and develop actionable and sustainable organizational change strategies and initiatives related to Destiny One and related systems.  

Key liaison with the Destiny One provider. Participates in the prioritization and governance meetings and discussions with provider and UBC partners (ExL and others). Analyzes, helps develop and improves current workflows and processes. Works with the Destiny One provider to understand existing and new features/functionalities and how it applies to ExL business requirements.  

Responsible for knowledge management, governance, community engagement structures, change management, project management, communication, training and documentation. Works with a continuous improvement focus.  

Works in partnership with the ExL IT/LT Governance Committee, the ExL Management Team, and the Destiny One Governance Committee to manage the development, implementation, evaluation, and reporting of progress on plans and outcomes for key Destiny One initiatives including the provision of success metrics.

Initiates exploration of business process improvements pertaining to Destiny One and related systems, and anticipates and determines needs identified by diverse set of stakeholders both within and external to UBC. Makes recommendations to the IT/LT Governance Committee for prioritization. Scopes enhancements and communicates requirements to IT and provider. Develops and maintains technology roadmaps which include an analysis of options, risks and costs versus benefits. Provides project management for business systems’ related projects.

Works with UBC IT on weekly prioritization for simple Destiny One enhancements and fixes. Establishes an Agile/Scrum process with IT and DevOps. Serves as the ‘Product Owner’.   

Manages implementation and roll out of regular Destiny One releases. Develops processes for and leads user acceptance testing. Develops and coordinates UAT with all system tenants Provides prioritization to IT based on ExL prioritization and governance processes. Coordinates go/no-go decisions. Work with central ExL units on communication plan.  

Works closely with IT, Administration, Student Services, Finance and Marketing on Destiny One outage process (planned and unplanned).

Have a good understanding of FIPPA and information security best practices and able to provide guidance to all system tenants on these matters in relation to Destiny One and related and/or integrated systems.

Responsible for formal procurement processes, negotiation for services and licenses, and stakeholder, partner and provider relationship management. Manages finances and hours related to provider services.

Acquires and maintains a working knowledge of the university's technical and business environments. Stays in close contact with all UBC units using Destiny One to ensure leading industry best practices, in alignment with UBC norms and expectations regarding recruitment, enrollment, fee payment, registration, and student service.

Service Delivery to Clients

Responsible for the delivery of agreed ExL services to new and existing clients under the emerging ExL/Destiny One service model.

Understands the ExL service model framework and value proposition. Applies and reinforces the value proposition and commitments in the delivery of services, exercising sound judgement in balancing client needs and expectations.

Onboards and sets up new clients, train client representatives on responsibilities, policies, and tools.

Coordinate client requests and service delivery. Anticipate and flag customer concerns while seeking resolutions.

Deal effectively with complex issues using judgement and initiating resolutions, ensuring the integrity of service.

Build out templates, forms, cheat sheets, etc. to standardize and streamline services.

Drives successful delivery of services (on time, on budget, on quality, on scope) and issue resolution. Identifies and coordinates the right people from multiple teams (internal, cross- institutional, and client teams) to deliver services and resolve complex issues.

Ensures effective tools are used to support service delivery e.g., project management tools, implementation plans, schedules.

Assists in the definition of projects’ scope, objectives, stakeholders, etc.

Develop detailed project plans to monitor and track progress.

Writes and maintains comprehensive project documentation.

Contributes to the overall success of the ExL service delivery model.

Drives continuous improvement of service delivery - proactively identify and drive improvements in quality, consistency, complexity, efficiency, lead-time, cost, client satisfaction, etc.

Represent the Continuing Education brand and reinforce the reputation of Continuing Education in the delivery of services to the clients.

IT, LT and Data Governance

Leads and facilitates collaborative processes with academic and administrative partners at UBC to develop, implement, and evaluate IT and data governance plans, approaches, decision making framework and projects for ExL.  

Works closely with ExL Academic Services and with the LT Hub on LT matters.  Assesses requests and actions based on request types, requirements and urgency. Communicates urgent requests to IT/LT Governance Leadership in between the prioritization meetings. Communicates on behalf all system tenants to Modern Campus developers. Acts as the Product Owner in the ExL IT SCRUM process.

Responsible for the development of project charters, processes and templates to foster quality and workflow improvement. This requires proactive involvement in strategic planning, goal setting, and change initiatives specific to IT and data governance.  

Communicates effectively with stakeholders of varying technical ability, subject matter expertise, and organizational status in ways that foster engagement and collaboration

Is a key member of the ExL and UBC Non-Credit CPE Data Governance Committees. Initiates data governance projects following appropriate project management and change management methodologies including gathering and defining project scope and requirements, creating project plans, risks, stakeholders, budgets and schedules, identifying staffing requirements, and forming/leading project teams. Acts as data steward for ExL.  

Stays current with professional trends and maintain awareness of the industry development. Provides technical and business systems leadership to Extended Learning staff, coaching and mentorship to less-experienced individuals.  

Performs other related duties as required
Consequence of Error/Judgement
Decisions and actions taken by the Business Systems Lead will have a direct impact on how efficiently and effectively the systems and business processes will perform and function. Errors in judgment, poor analysis, or failure to act proactively, strategically and decisively would have a detrimental effect and adversely impact ExL students and ExL’s UBC partners who also use DESTINY ONE , affecting thousands of students and prospective students. Reputational damage in the community and with government would be difficult to overcome.
Supervision Received

The Business Systems Lead reports directly and works under the general direction of the Associate Director, Extended Learning. This role works under the direction of members of the ExL Management Team for ExL business systems initiatives.   

Must be able to work independently as well as contribute actively, proactively and collaborate openly as a team member.

Supervision Given
May manage teams and staff indirectly. Periodically plans and monitors the work of project team members, such as programmers, consultants, business analysts, quality assurance analysts, and other staff assigned to operational projects.
Minimum Qualifications
Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Minimum of three years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own

- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field: Technology, Business, or combination with at least 3-5 years' experience in a post-secondary environment.
• At least 3 years of experience in a project management role, preferably with implementation of software, systems and/or processes.
• Extensive experience using and administering student registration systems.
• Prior experience working with clients from front-line to executive level.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct needs analysis, plan, organize, manage, monitor, complete, and evaluate projects within allocated time and resources. Experience as a Project Manager, Business Analyst or Product Owner in an Agile environment is an asset.
• Experience producing reports using visualization tools such as Tableau and MS Power BI.
• Continuous improvement mindset, with a focus on applying to diverse business models.
• Preferred experience working with change management and working in atypical organizational structures.
• In-depth knowledge of IT decision making framework and data stewardship
• Good understanding of FIPPA and information security best practices
•  Ability to translate business needs into technical deliverables.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills.
• Ability to use tact and professionalism in all manners of communication to navigate complex discussions involving multiple stakeholders.
• Cross-functional team experience and ability to build good working relationships and trust with a wide range of individuals at all organizational levels.
• Experience with the SAFe framework desired.
• Experience with a customer/student information system an asset.
• Ability to develop and deliver effective presentations and workshops.
• Knowledge of IT application development and implementation best practices, "rules of thumb", and benchmarks.
• Demonstrated knowledge and proven experience in producing BRDs, use cases, user scenarios, user stories, BPMs working experience on applications.
• Knowledge of business process re-engineering improvement.
• Demonstrates the willingness, ability, and enthusiasm to learn new processes, methodologies, or technologies.
• Ability to work with changing priorities and an atmosphere of ambiguity.
• Ability to work outside of regular hours as required.
• Personal attributes of an ideal ExL Team Member: high level of honesty and integrity, robust work ethic and accountability, demonstrated initiative, adaptability in a rapidly changing landscape, a creative and curious problem-solver, commitment to engendering a harmonious work environment and strong emotional intelligence.  

Core Competencies:

Collaboration - Actively solicits ideas and opinions from others to efficiently and effectively accomplish specific objectives targeted at defined business outcomes. Openly encourages other team members to voice their ideas and concerns. Shows respect for differences and diversity, and disagrees without personalizing issues. Utilizes strengths of team members to achieve optimal performance.

Communication for Results - Conducts discussions with and writes memoranda to all levels of colleagues and peer groups in ways that support troubleshooting and problem solving. Seeks and shares relevant information, opinions, and judgments. Handles conflict empathetically. Explains the context of interrelated situations, asks probing questions, and solicits multiple sources of advice prior to taking action when appropriate.

Problem Solving - Applies problem-solving methodologies and tools to diagnose and solve operational and interpersonal problems. Determines the potential causes of the problem and devises testing methodologies for validation. Shows empathy and objectivity toward individuals involved in the issue. Analyzes multiple alternatives, risks, and benefits for a range of potential solutions. Recommends resource requirements and collaborates with impacted stakeholders.

Analytical Thinking - Coordinates the information gathering and reporting process. Reviews trends and compares to expectations. Conducts research to define problems and prepares responses to anticipated questions. Prioritizes multiple issues and opportunities. Identifies relationships and linkages within several information sources. Anticipates issues that are not readily apparent on the surface. Identifies root causes and effects. Defines priorities within performance objectives. Reports and identifies areas that need guidance in order to resolve complex issues. Anticipates the possible outcome of potential solutions.

Business Process Knowledge - Maps full business processes and designs operational process flow. Facilitates group input and drafts proposals for process improvements. Identifies resource implications. Implements process improvement recommendations within the context of overall business processes.

Initiative - Seeks out new challenges that require risk taking. Determines the resources, team support, and technical needs necessary to enable success and procures them. Keeps responding to the challenge in spite of obstacles and setbacks.