Salesforce Application Administrator

This position serves as the institutional Application Administrator and IT System Administrator for University Advancement’s Kindsight Ascend CRM, built on Salesforce. The role partners closely with Advancement Operations, frontline fundraisers, and campus stakeholders to translate fundraising and engagement needs into scalable, secure, and well-governed CRM functionality.

System administrators exercise independent technical authority while following institutional and regulatory standards. This position is accountable for lifecycle management, technical enablement, system availability, security, access management, configuration, data integrity, integrations, and compliance for applications with division-wide and institution-wide impact. Failures or security issues associated with the systems administered by this role may escalate to executive IT leadership (CIO/CISO), making this position accountable for audit findings, continuity of operations, and risk mitigation.

This position owns privileged access and security design for enterprise applications assigned to it, including user roles, administrative permissions, and access reviews in alignment with institutional audit and compliance requirements. This position is accountable for protecting sensitive data through appropriate access controls, configuration management, and vendor security coordination. This position ensures that system configurations, upgrades, and integrations adhere to University standards and do not introduce audit risk, data exposure, or compliance failures (e.g., FERPA, HIPAA, SOX, PCI, or other applicable regulations).

This position maintains operational continuity and availability of enterprise systems by proactively managing system performance, capacity, and user-impacting behaviors. This role plans upgrades and designs integrations, evaluating vendor releases, patches, and roadmap changes to ensure availability and stability for all users, and serves as the primary escalation point for production incidents and system failures, coordinating response activities with vendors, infrastructure teams, and integration partners. This position ensures coverage is in place to mitigate institutional risk during staff absences or turnover by providing cross-training and system and process documentation. This role also supports continuous improvement efforts across the systems it administers., Key Responsibility Application Administration, Configuration Management, End-User Support Essential Tasks

• Acts as the system owner for University Advancement’s Salesforce org, including administration of core objects, record types, page layouts, validation rules, and related integrations.
• Owns Salesforce configuration (metadata), workflow/automation design (e.g., Flow), security roles, profiles/permission sets, and data governance standards.
• Serves as the primary administrator and point of coordination for Kindsight Ascend upgrades, releases, and vendor support.
• Independently implements and maintains configuration standards that affect multiple departments and campus units.
• Leads continuous improvement of the Advancement CRM platform by proactively identifying opportunities to streamline fundraising workflows, reduce manual processes, and improve data quality and user experience across University Advancement.
• Ensures configuration changes do not disrupt downstream systems or integrations.
• Supports end user business activities as needed and answers questions about system behavior (errors, features, and configuration options).
• Supports application-level reporting and analytics using Salesforce data, including reports and dashboards, and provides ad hoc reporting to campus constituents using an appropriate mix of Salesforce and enterprise reporting tools.
• Partners with Advancement stakeholders to ensure Salesforce data supports metrics related to fundraising performance, pipeline management, constituent engagement, and campaign reporting.
• Acts as backup administrator for designated Advancement & Communications applications.

Percentage Of Time 20 Key Responsibility Change Awareness, Communication, and End User Impact Management Essential Tasks

• Evaluates software changes, patches, and enhancements for operational and integration impact.
• Performs impact analysis for configuration changes, upgrades, and integrations to ensure system behavior aligns with approved institutional standards and does not introduce downstream risk.
• Communicates changes to end users and stakeholders, coordinates testing for upgrades and new integrations and functionality, and mitigates disruptions to campus business processes.

Percentage Of Time 20 Key Responsibility Backup Coverage, Documentation, and Knowledge Transfer Essential Tasks

• Maintains end-user and technical documentation and supports cross-training to ensure coverage during absences or turnover, including updates to procurement website documentation.
• Maintains operational procedures, configuration documentation, and escalation paths to protect institutional continuity.
• Designs and delivers workshops / seminars / training to communicate with application users and stakeholders.

Percentage Of Time 15 Key Responsibility Integrations, Infrastructure Dependencies, and Vendor Management Essential Tasks

• Manages and validates integrations between Salesforce and institutional systems such as identity management/SSO, ERP/SIS, data warehouse/reporting platforms, and third-party applications.
• Coordinates with infrastructure, identity, and ERP teams to resolve dependencies.
• Serves as the primary vendor liaison, manages escalated vendor support cases, evaluates vendor roadmaps, and determines upgrade timing.

Percentage Of Time 15 Key Responsibility Audit, Security, and Risk Accountability Essential Tasks

• Supports IT audits and compliance reviews by documenting access, configurations, and controls.
• Owns remediation of system-related audit findings.
• Ensures access is provisioned, reviewed, and removed in accordance with institutional policy and separation of duties principles.

ADA Checklist

ADA Checklist

R for Rare (0-30%), O for Occasional (30-60%), F for Frequent (60-90%), C for Constant (90-100%). Physical Effort Hand Movement-Repetitive Motions - F, Reading - F, Writing - F, Hearing - F, Talking - F, Sitting - F Work Environment Inside - C

Applicant Documents

Required Documents

1. Resume/CV
2. Cover Letter
3. List of References

Optional Documents

1. Reference Letter 1
2. Reference Letter 2
3. Reference Letter 3

• Mid- to late-career with Masters and 2-4 yrs experience.
• Bachelors and 3-5 yrs experience; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Additional Required Certifications, Licensures, and Certificates Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience serving as a Salesforce Administrator, with a strong preference for experience with Kindsight Ascend or Affinaquest AdvancementRM, in a higher education or nonprofit environment.
• Salesforce Administrator certification (or equivalent experience) preferred.
• Experience managing vendor relationships, integrations, audits, and institution-wide system changes.
• Experience managing CRM platforms in partnership with functional business owners.
• Experience using the following tools and technologies: Agile Accelerator, Power BI

Located in North Carolina’s third largest city, UNC Greensboro is among the most diverse, learner-centered public research universities in the state, with 18,000 students in eight colleges and schools pursuing more than 150 areas of undergraduate and over 200 areas of graduate study. UNCG continues to be recognized nationally for academic excellence, access, and affordability. UNCG is ranked No. 1 most affordable institution in North Carolina for net cost by the N.Y. Times and No. 1 in North Carolina for social mobility by The Wall Street Journal - helping first-generation and lower-income students find paths to prosperity. Designated an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, UNCG is a community-engaged research institution with a portfolio of more than $67M in research and creative activity. The University’s 2,600 staff help create an annual economic impact for the Piedmont Triad region in excess of $1B. Primary Purpose of the Organizational Unit The Division of University Advancement builds and nurtures relationships with loyalty and integrity to promote UNCG’s mission, foster communication, and secure philanthropic support.

We are responsible for:

• Building pride and tradition among alumni, faculty, staff, students, families, and community members
• Developing life long relationships
• Building advocacy
• Branding and awareness
• Securing private and public financial support