USC Provost IT is seeking a Technical Project Specialist (Project Manager) to join our growing team. This position will be a key member of an innovative and customer-focused department responsible for leading efforts to re-imagine USC’s advisement platform. It will coordinate across university academic units, work with technical and nontechnical teams, manage project components, and coordinate status updates, and collaborate with constituents on their technical and operational needs.

The Work

You will work on leading efforts to replace the university’s main Academic Advisement Platform, collaborating with academic and administrative colleagues in every school and unit and the graduate and undergraduate level. This work will also involve working with technical and nontechnical colleagues to perform business analysis, implementation, and other key project management responsibilities to support our new platform both pre- and post-launch, as well as associated student services platforms. This work will also involve coordinating data feeds, integrations, managing meetings and bringing others together to form a consensus on key project decisions and deliverables.

About USC & The Office of the Provost

Founded in 1880, the University of Southern California is one of the world’s leading private research universities. An anchor institution in Los Angeles, a global center for arts, technology and international business, USC is at the center of modern innovation and breakthroughs in science, the arts, medicine, engineering, and nearly every field in between.

USC is the largest private research university on the West Coast, and the largest private employer in Los Angeles. We have almost 30,000 faculty and staff members as well as 46,000 students who come to USC from 135 countries around the world. We are consistently ranked as one of The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For” and are proud to offer excellent benefits to compliment a dynamic and collaborative work environment where everyone can develop new skills and reach their highest potential. By joining USC as an employee, you will be a part of the Trojan Family – a lifelong and worldwide network of other staff, faculty, students, and over 400,000 living alumni all around the world who support one another and change the world each and every day.

Within USC, the Office of the Provost provides academic leadership to the University and oversees all academic programs and support functions, including USC’s twenty-two schools and academic units, research, faculty affairs, student affairs, academic planning, museums and galleries, global initiatives, religious life, campus wellness, and much more.

About Our Team

USC Provost IT is the information technology services department of the USC Office of the Provost. We provide various IT services, including infrastructure and application services, technical support, and software engineering and cloud applications, to nearly 100 University divisions, departments, and offices. We take pride in partnering with business and academic units to deliver reliable, effective, and secure information technology solutions which empower users and improve business processes, redefining how IT is delivered within higher education.

Our projects include, but aren’t limited to, initiatives related to data analytics and databases, cloud applications and infrastructure, websites and web development, next-gen infrastructure, cybersecurity, and much more. We emphasize closely partnering with the faculty, staff, and students that we support in order to advance the University’s missions of teaching, research and patient care.

While we are based out of the Office of the Provost, our team leads key strategic technology initiatives that have an impact across the entire University. We support USC’s senior leadership team as well as clients across our campuses on projects large and small. Our team members come from diverse backgrounds and enjoy working together to create solutions that delight our clients, push the boundaries of technology, and move the University forward. We like to have fun in everything we do and are fans of curiosity and continuous improvement as well as learning, mentoring, and professional development. We enjoy cultivating a culture of innovation and we are excited to be growing our team to help support the ascent of USC as a world-class research university.

Other Job Accountabilities

• Provides a variety of IT consulting services in areas such as specialized software, hardware, data access/analysis, and research. Provides support for specialized software/data installation, configuration and planning. Investigates and analyzes various specialized computing options and solutions.

• Researches, gathers, organizes and summarizes data for special technology projects. Develops, evaluates, recommends and implements procedures for data acquisition, management and quality control. Analyzes data for trends or conclusions and presents results and recommendations to management.

• Serves as key resource for specialized technology project information. Interfaces with faculty, staff, and/or external contacts necessary to complete assignments. Resolves problems and/or questions referred by project staff or administrators.

• Executes within all areas of systems integration, hardware selection and configuration, prototype development, systems configurations, software/data installation and system software.

• Interacts with hardware and software vendors to establish or maintain supportive relations. Conducts side-by-side vendor comparisons, formulates performance criteria, and submits benchmark analysis reports with departmental usage recommendations.

• Conducts research on new technologies as requested. Tests new specialized software and hardware and recommends purchase for university-wide or department usage.

• Assists with project budget development. Monitors and reconciles budget activity. Analyzes variances and provides projections. Prepares financial reports, as needed.

• Prepares status reports on specialized technology project plans, progress and results of activities. Develops, enhances and maintains information systems to support project operations.

• Stays informed of new developments and technologies by reading journals and other pertinent publications, maintaining contact with vendors, and participating in professional organizations, meetings and seminars.

• Performs other duties as assigned or requested. The university reserves the right to add or change duties at any time.

Preferred Qualifications

• Must have a Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience

• Minimum of 2 years of experience with designing, modifying, operating, installing, and maintaining IT equipment.

• Minimum of 2 years of experience in project Management

• Expert skill-level and specialized experience in information technology

• Demonstrated experience with applications/systems development methodologies

• Demonstrated experience with Enterprise/information architecture and Operating systems

• Demonstrated experience with Project management tools and techniques

• Demonstrated experience with Database design tools and usability engineering

• Typically possesses experience in higher education.  

• Typically possesses a Bachelor’s degree.

• Must possess strong written and verbal communication skills

• Ability to coordinate multiple projects and adjust to changing priorities in a fast paced environment.

• Demonstrated strong personal mastery, including ethics, interpersonal skills, and engage in continuous learning.