Associate Director, Graduate Financial Aid Operations

Department: Medill - Administration
Salary/Grade: EXS/9

Job Summary:

The Associate Director oversees the daily operations of graduate financial aid for the Medill School serving students on three campuses. As the primary manager for graduate financial aid, they are responsible for strict adherence to federal and institutional requirements. The Associate Director, working with the Assistant Dean, is mainly responsible for the processing, awarding, and management of federal financial aid, and private loans for all Medill graduate students (FT and PT). As the financial aid lead, responsibilities include reviewing budget appeals, SAP, external scholarship processing and financial aid wellness programming.

The Associate Director collaborates with the Assistant Dean on annual enrollment reporting for school and campus leadership. Throughout the year, the Associate Director is involved with event planning, marketing communications, admissions interviews, and application review. The position requires strong leadership, detailed orientation, critical thinking skills, and excellent (oral and written) communication skills.

This role collaborates closely with the Assistant Dean, for awarding merit scholarships to admitted students to secure student enrollment. In addition, the Associate Director is responsible for awarding and processing program specific fellowships, institutional aid, and travel/conference stipends. The position will work with the Business Office for accurate scholarship budgets and the Development Office for adherence to funding requirements. Responsibilities include counseling students on financing their education, determining federal aid eligibility, processing private loans, ensuring compliance, managing data entry and verification, and delivering excellent customer service. Key functions include creating annual cost of attendance, scholarship letters, understanding federal needs analysis, financial aid packaging, professional judgment decisions, awareness of federal and institutional regulations, and Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) evaluations. The Associate Director also collaborates with the Assistant Dean on university requests for admissions and financial aid data, and coordinates with relevant departments on annual document and system updates, testing, and participation in campus-wide meetings. This position requires technical familiarity with admissions CRM and SES systems for managing prospective student data, events, generating reports and providing analysis of admissions and enrollment data.

Weekend and evening work, and occasional travel (domestic and international) is required.

*Note: Not all aspects of the job are covered by this job description.

Specific Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership, Organizational Management, and Collaboration

• Determines and tracks grant and scholarship awards using awarding rubric for admitted students in Medill graduate programs to accomplish institutional enrollment goals.
• Oversee the processing and management of federal financial aid for all Medill graduate students including managing financial aid communication for all programs. Manages the storage of confidential financial aid records and assessment for financial aid processes.
• Creates the annual Cost of Attendance budgets for admitted students for all programs and collaborating with offices across Northwestern to determine budget costs.

Financial Aid Operations, Technology, and Process Excellence

• Oversees the administration of financial aid operations for complex and varied program structures and academic calendars, including packaging, disbursement, and compliance reporting.
• Leads process improvement initiatives to enhance operational efficiency, accuracy, and service quality.
• Oversees financial aid operations for complex graduate and professional program structures, leading process improvements to expand efficiency and service quality; partnering with IT to optimize systems and automation (PeopleSoft, MachForm, ELM, COD, COGNOS, NSC/NSLDS); testing and validating PeopleSoft upgrades to ensure accurate aid processing and communicating updates to staff; and advancing modern communication tools, workflows, and student service delivery.
• Ensures compliance with all applicable institutional, state and federal financial aid regulations.
• Facilitates the awarding of Medill program-specific grants and stipends to students, in collaboration with other offices and external partners.
• Partner with colleagues on Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP).
• Test and validate the University's financial aid software system (PeopleSoft) during upgrades to confirm accuracy and reliability of aid processing, then communicate relevant changes to staff.
• Drives initiatives to modernize communication tools, digital workflows, and student service delivery.

Data Analysis, Reporting, and Institutional Accountability

• Utilizes data analytics to inform merit scholarship strategies, debt management initiatives, and financial forecasting.
• Ensures data accuracy and transparency through collaborative reporting and effective data governance practices.
• Provides leadership in identifying trends, benchmarking performance, and supporting institutional decision-making through robust reporting and analysis.

Policy Development, Risk Management, and Policy Development

• Maintains knowledge of federal, state, and institutional financial aid regulations, including Title IV, SAP, Gainful Employment, Financial Value Transparency, and accreditation standards.
• Oversee institutional compliance initiatives, including audit preparation, accreditation reporting, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Supports the Assistant Dean in developing and documenting policies and procedures; evaluates and enhances business processes to improve proficiency and effectiveness; contributes to the continuous improvement of office operations; and collaborates with academic deans, the registrar, Career Services and student services to support systems, and promote student success.
• Leads the development, revision, and documentation of policies and procedures to ensure compliance, operational effectiveness, and readiness for external reviews.
• Monitors evolving federal guidance and proactively ensure institutional alignment and response.
• Advises on regulatory impacts to enrollment, funding strategies, and institutional reputation.

Counseling, Engagement, and Student Support

• Provides clear and timely communication to students, staff, faculty, and university leadership on financial aid policies, processes, and regulatory updates.
• Champions a student-focused service model, ensuring transparency, accessibility, and responsiveness to the unique needs of graduate and professional students.
• Delivers high-quality, personalized financial aid counseling to students, families, and campus partners by providing clear guidance, resolving concerns, and ensuring a supportive and responsive experience.
• Schedules and conduct admissions interviews, completing department interview reports to evaluate students based on admissions criteria.
• Reads application files, providing an admissions decision recommendation based on assessment.
• Represents Medill at professional conferences, graduate school fairs and other recruitment efforts. Present financial aid during recruitment events, Admitted Student Day(s) and New Student Orientation.
• Build strategic relationships with deans, faculty and staff at colleges/university for graduate recruitment.
• Writes, edits, designs and schedule financial aid programming for prospective students, applicants, admitted and enrolled students.

Miscellaneous

Performs other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree
• 3-5 years' experience working in admissions at a college/university.
• Excellent customer service skills, with a student-centered approach to admissions and financial aid work.
• Strong analytical and organizational skills. Keeping attention to detail and accuracy.
• Excellent counseling and interpersonal skills.
• Supervisory experience and ability to effectively oversee staff who must maintain a high level of accuracy.
• Experience working with graduate/professional students, strong written and oral communication skills, comfort working with data as well as admissions and financial aid systems.
• Must be able to work with a group and/or complete solo projects.
• Upholds diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the school and larger Northwestern University community and relate effectively to prospective and admitted students as it relates to sensitive issues surrounding diversity and inclusion throughout the recruitment process
• Ability to travel domestically and abroad and on weekends and evenings when directed
• Ability to relate effectively with students, faculty, administrators, staff, and the public
• Ability to carry and move boxes of material weighing up to 50 pounds
• Passion for team-based work with dedication to fostering positive, collegial relationships
• Comfortable speaking and presenting to large groups and virtually

Target hiring range for this position will be $80,000 - $91,000 per year. Offered salary will be determined by the applicant's education, experience, knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.

Benefits:
At Northwestern, we are proud to provide meaningful, competitive, high-quality health care plans, retirement benefits, tuition discounts and more! Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/benefits/index.html to learn more.

Work-Life and Wellness:
Northwestern offers comprehensive programs and services to help you and your family navigate life's challenges and opportunities, and adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles.
We support flexible work arrangements where possible and programs to help you locate and pay for quality, affordable childcare and senior/adult care. Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/benefits/work-life/index.html to learn more.

Professional Growth & Development:
Northwestern supports employee career development in all circumstances whether your workspace is on campus or at home. If you're interested in developing your professional potential or continuing your formal education, we offer a variety of tools and resources. Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/learning/index.html to learn more.

Northwestern University is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics, including disability and veteran status. View Northwestern's non-discrimination statement. Job applicants who wish to request an accommodation in the application or hiring process should contact the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance. View additional information on the accommodations process.

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