Penn State Job Catalog

Additional levels that exist for this job profile can be seen below.
Missing levels within the leveling matrix can be added based on business need.

The defined natural career progression within or between job profiles.

Academic Advising

The Academic Advising Manager leads the strategic planning, administration, and continuous improvement of a comprehensive academic advising program within an assigned college, campus, or academic unit; develops and implements advising strategies, programs, and services that promote student success, persistence, retention, and timely degree completion, while ensuring alignment with institutional priorities, accreditation requirements, and University policies; provides strategic leadership for advising operations by establishing advising standards, assessing program effectiveness, managing resources, and fostering a culture of student-centered service, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement; oversees advising staff and serves as the primary resource for complex academic cases, policy interpretation, organizational change, and advising best practices; collaborates with faculty, administrators, and campus partners to advance student success initiatives, enrollment strategies, and institutional goals; may teach courses that support student success and adviser development.

• Lead the strategic planning, development, implementation, administration, and assessment of a comprehensive academic advising program that supports student success, retention, persistence, equity, and degree completion
• Establish advising philosophies, service standards, operating procedures, and evidence-based practices that promote consistent, high-quality advising across assigned academic programs
• Direct advising operations and ensure effective delivery of advising services through appropriate staffing, workload management, technology utilization, resource allocation, and continuous process improvement
• Develop, implement, and evaluate student success initiatives, advising programs, orientation activities, first-year experiences, peer advising, and other programs that support recruitment, engagement, retention, and graduation
• Provide leadership and consultation on complex student cases involving academic standing, appeals, transfer credit, curriculum exceptions, graduation eligibility, student success interventions, and interpretation of institutional policies and academic regulations
• Interpret, analyze, and implement University, college/campus, accreditation, and regulatory policies; assess the impact of policy changes; develop operational procedures and communicate changes to faculty, staff, and students
• Monitor advising effectiveness through assessment, student success metrics, enrollment trends, and data analytics; establish performance measures; prepare reports and implement improvements that enhance advising quality and student outcomes
• Lead organizational change initiatives involving advising redesign, technology implementation, curriculum changes, policy revisions, organizational restructuring, and student success initiatives
• Collaborate with faculty, academic leadership, enrollment management, student affairs, registrar, financial aid, and other campus partners to coordinate advising services and improve the student experience
• Represent the college or unit on University committees, task forces, and cross-functional initiatives related to advising, curriculum, enrollment management, student success, assessment, and academic policy
• Direct adviser training, professional development, onboarding, mentoring, and continuing education; establish advising competencies and ensure consistent application of advising standards and best practices
• Develop communications, advising resources, educational materials, and training programs for advisers, faculty, students, and other stakeholders
• Administer the advising budget, develop staffing and resource plans, monitor expenditures, forecast operational needs, and ensure responsible stewardship of financial and organizational resources
• Utilize student information systems, advising technologies, and reporting tools to monitor operations, evaluate program effectiveness, support decision-making, and identify opportunities for continuous improvement
• May administer specialized advising, testing, consultation, or student success programs serving designated student populations
• May teach first-year seminar, student success, transition, or other academic courses consistent with academic unit or campus policies
• Hire, supervise, coach, mentor, develop, and evaluate advising staff; establish performance expectations; promote employee engagement and accountability; foster an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing work environment

Level:

– Manager

Base Description:

– Manages direct reports where primary duty is the management of a working unit.

Level Summary:

– Demonstrates proficient ability in work design, project management, financial planning and development of goals for accomplishing unit assignments. Reviews and guides work to ensure conformity to policy and effective approaches. Evaluates employee performance and recommend development opportunities. Demonstrates ability to coach employees. Presents and communicates key university indicatives and connects it to unit contributions. Provides broad guidelines. Develops, evaluates, enhances, and/or implements quality improvement practices. Recommends innovative solutions.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

– Oversees a team (typically 4 or more; no fewer than 2) full
– time direct reports of individual contributors and/or first level supervisors.

Fiscal Responsibilities:

– Monitors and tracks department/area budget
– May plan, forecast, and/or assist in developing budgets
– May have final signature authority for specific area

Problem Solving:

– Encounters varied and complex problems
– Helps to develop creative and/or novel approaches to resolve problems that are difficult in nature but within limited scope
– Modifies, adapts, or refines guidelines if necessary to resolve issues or problems

Independence of Action:

– Works independently on complex or strategic assignments
– Uses existing practices and advanced working knowledge to determine appropriate work methods for the team
– Reviews completed work of others for conformity to policy, and effectiveness of approach
– Delegates advanced tasks to others

Communication and Collaboration:

– Communicates with both internal and external audiences
– Collaborates closely with team members and various areas across the University
– Prepares written and/or verbal presentations or proposals on complex issues and delivers to a broad variety of audiences
– Communicates key university initiatives and how unit’s work contributes to their achievement
– Presents ideas, concepts and instructions in a clear manner, and uses persuasion and negotiation to build consensus and cooperation
– Establishes and maintains networks to facilitate successful communication among units

• Comp Grade – 10
• Minimum – $65,508.00
• MidPoint – $80,244.00
• Maximum – $94,980.00

• Advising
• Consulting
• Customer Service
• Document management
• Organizational training
• Records management
• Reporting
• Scheduling
• Writing