POSITION SUMMARY:
The challenges of college affordability have never been more pronounced, and uAspire’s expertise – built over 35+ years of practice – has never been more needed across communities nationwide. The Data Systems Specialist, Salesforce will support the development, implementation, oversight, and strategic integration of uAspire’s Salesforce system across each of these departments. uAspire currently leverages Salesforce for complex data and relationship tracking across all of its departments – currently 70 users – from programmatic implementation and evaluation to fundraising, marketing, and business development. This position is responsible for the management of uAspire’s Salesforce instance and related information systems, ensuring the collection, migration, and maintenance of high quality program, development, and operations data. They will work closely with each department to maximize use of the Salesforce platform and build cross-departmental reporting mechanisms that support strategic decision making and program impact.
The ideal candidate will have technical expertise of Salesforce, coupled with a deep understanding of data management and a passion for contributing to a mission driven organization and team. They will have a keen ability to introduce new, efficient approaches to data collection, reporting, and analysis across diverse departments, paying close attention to quality, efficiency, and ongoing user needs. As uAspire continues to grow, this position will have the opportunity to build new systems that support the evolving needs of a data-driven and analytical organization.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Systems Maintenance
- Stay up-to-date with new features/system enhancements coming from Salesforce; recommend and manage implementation of new functionality as needed
- Manage Salesforce user roles, permissions, and group settings across the organization (currently 70 users, and growing) to meet staff access and data security needs
- Oversee routine data cleaning and data quality checks. Partnering with other teams to keep data clean through de-duplication, mass upserts and uploads, data validation, and monitoring syncs from external data sources
- Develop reports and dashboards to continuously monitor data integrity
- For all data integrity processes, embody a hyper-focus on ensuring that new systems and processes “stick” across all Salesforce users, meaning they are user-friendly, well thought-out, intuitive, and meet the evolving needs of end users in their design and implementation
Training & Support
- Develop and document Salesforce and other data system protocols and procedures
- Lead on-going training of Salesforce users
- Manage user feedback and troubleshooting systems, resolving troubleshooting issues as they arise
- Oversee customization of new fields, objects, formulas, page layouts and process/flow automations within uAspire’s Salesforce instance
- Develop intuitive reports and dashboards to support monitoring and learning
- Regularly solicit and respond positively and proactively to feedback from staff across all departments regarding their experiences with Salesforce
Continuous Improvement of Salesforce Functionality to Meet Team Needs
- Regularly assess and solicit new opportunities to align organizational data needs with Salesforce’s offerings, and coordinate/lead follow-through on ideas as plans are approved by department/organizational leaders
- Identify, build out, and test tools that enable us to use Salesforce to effectively track data and enhance student- and practitioner-level impact across all our Impact Models, including Advising, Training, Policy, and Consulting
- Maintain and enhance Salesforce capabilities to meet the needs of the External Affairs, Finance & Operations, and People teams
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:
We understand that people gain skills through a variety of professional, personal, educational, and volunteer experiences. We encourage candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications below. If you believe you have the transferable skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of this role, we encourage you to apply.
Education, Experience & Skills:
- Committed to Equity: has a passion for working and participating in an organization dedicated to ensuring a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment; recognizes ways that race and other identities (historically and presently) intersect and play out in the work, especially for our students and community members; continually able to hear, reflect, and act on feedback re: identity and equity with the aim to learn.
- Salesforce Expertise: has experience and comfort with Salesforce Administrative tasks including: creation and manipulation of fields, objects, page layouts, reports, dashboards, flows, and processes; management of data imports; build out of user profiles, permissions, and security settings (while not every candidate may not have deep expertise in all areas, we are looking for someone who is comfortable with the majority of them).
- Project Management: able to assess complexities and dependencies of projects; breaks work down into tasks, timelines, and owners, and can keep work moving on target through peer management; makes iterative adjustments as needed; ensures clear communication of progress, deliverables, and adjustments to those involved.
- Effective Communication Skills: has willingness to absorb and understand before reacting; has customer service orientation to respond positively and proactively to changing needs of diverse users; uses clear and effective language in group and individual settings; modulates level of technical detail and explanation based on audience skill level.
- Learning & Growth Mindset: actively seeks to expand technical skills and expertise; relishes feedback; has ability to continue problem solving after making mistakes.
- Problem Solving: frames and breaks down business problems by absorbing and understanding multiple perspectives; listens for underlying needs, above and beyond taking statements at face value; ability to and enthusiasm for analyzing, assessing and deconstructing information to pinpoint problems and subsequently research and identify potential solutions.
Core Competencies:
- Equity and Inclusion
- Equity Mindset – Identify and examine personal biases, stereotypes, prejudices and cultural norms in ways that consider their impact on persons with marginalized identities.
- Awareness of Inequity – Recognize the social effects of race, ethnicity, class, gender and other identities and the systems of oppression which perpetuate these inequities.
- Advance Diversity and Inclusion – Proactively seeks out diverse perspectives and relationships within the workplace and the broader community served.
- uAspire’s Core Competencies
- Excellence – Steps up and follows through to consistently deliver high-quality work.
- Equity & Inclusion – Champion the values of diversity and the creation of inclusive spaces.
- Growth Mindset – Embrace challenges and setbacks as the fuel for learning and development.
- Teamwork – Contribute actively and collaboratively with colleagues to active shared goals.
ANTICIPATED START DATE: April 18, 2022
COMPENSATION: The salary range for this position is $50,125 – $58,000. Salary commensurate with experience and education.
GRADE: C
STATUS: Full Time
LOCATION AND WORK ARRANGEMENT: Remote. Preference for candidates based in our Boston, New York City, or Bay Area geographies. Candidates need to reside in the United States.
REPORTS TO: Katie Redmond, Director of Technology
VACCINATION REQUIREMENTS: All uAspire employees are required to be fully vaccinated. Proof of vaccination or proof of exemption for medical or religious reasons will be collected upon employee onboarding.
APPLICATIONS: Applicants should apply through uAspire’s website here. Because of the technical nature of this position, we are asking all candidates to complete two additional Salesforce questions as a part of their application. These questions can be found on the application and include one multiple choice and one short answer.
ABOUT UASPIRE:
Organization Vision: uAspire imagines a day when all young people have the opportunity to reach their full potential by graduating from college, regardless of their families’ financial resources or college experiences.
Organization Summary: uAspire is a national leader in providing college affordability services to young people, families, and college access and success practitioners. By 2022, uAspire’s strategic plan aims to impact the lives of 3,000,000 young people through:
- Student Advising: In person and over text, we support students one-on-one to maximize financial aid, minimize loan debt, and make informed financial decisions about the best post-secondary option for them.
- Training: Online and in-person we provide professional development for school counselors and college access providers, sharing our expertise so they can effectively support their students.
- Policy & Systems Change: To level the playing field for young people from all economic backgrounds, we work to improve financial aid systems so everyone has a chance to graduate with a degree they can afford.