IT Analyst - VolCard Office - UTK

The IT Analyst is responsible for overseeing the technical execution, systems integration, and operational efficiency of Vol Dining, VolCard, and related campus services. This role ensures seamless functionality of Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, access control systems, meal plan administration, and food service operations. The ideal candidate will collaborate with cross-departmental teams, contractors, and IT personnel to deliver innovative solutions while maintaining compliance with university policies and industry standards. Availability for evening and weekend work, as well as conferences.  

• Actively participate in project planning meetings, contributing to ideas for new concepts/renovations of established locations, collaborating on project needs. Provide direction on necessary requirements.
• Schedule and meet with contractors and local IT personnel on all new concepts/renovation projects, providing guidance and work direction. Monitor the status of projects, providing updates to the Vol Dining Director. Identify risks that could cause project delays resulting in budget shortfalls, or cause problems with functionality once open. 
• Provide feedback on successes/pain points of projects to minimize challenges for future endeavors.  
• Establish checklists necessary to minimize operational inefficiencies on large-scale projects. 
• Create a positive customer support experience and build strong relationships through deep problem understanding, ensuring timely resolution or escalation, communicating promptly on progress, and handling customers with a consummately professional attitude. Establish regular collaborative meetings with the Food Service Contractor to maintain unified goals and objectives and minimize downtime. 
• Responsible for all Vol Dining technical oversight and execution including expansion of existing programs and locations.
• Leads integration of new technical solutions - new POS systems, new concept integrations (e.g.GrubHub), etc. - and performance tracking including the creation of KPIs around new solutions for senior management to promote successes. 
• Manages continuous improvements to ensure reliable, secure, and efficient operation, communicating status to senior leadership. 
• Coordinate testing of program changes   and system configurations for third party integrations, in tandem with the Food Service Contractor. 
• Manage the Meal Plan Scheduler and Search Path for locations and mealtimes to maximize availability to students.
• Accountable for monitoring, maintaining, troubleshooting, and resolving POS systems, and working with the Food Service Contractor to make upgrades and ensure reliable access to critical systems. 
• Manage inventory for Micros to ensure hardware cycle is current. 
• Plan for software end-of-life by researching alternatives, acquiring implementation costs, visiting other campuses for demonstrations or scheduling/attending on-site demos, evaluating, and implementing software. Prioritize software to avoid multiple software implementations during one budget cycle. Communicate with Director, providing regular updates and information on roadblocks or pain points.
• Oversees and supports patching and upgrades for all Vol Dining servers, ensuring application and user security in the production environment to applicable PCI standards. 
• Accountable, along with Food Service Contractor, for Grubhub processes to ensure kiosks are functional and providing accurate data to Vol Dining and VolCard. Communicate to senior management when processes are unavailable or not functioning correctly to mitigate impact by redirecting resources. 
• Administer changes for Meal Plans, SVC Changes, Meal Equivalencies, POS locations, etc. for Vol Dining. 
• Manage inventory to ensure loss prevention. 
• Attend conferences or visit other institutions as it pertains to POS systems or dining.
• Make recommendations based on information gleaned from conferences and industry trends.
• Provide on-site assistance during Move-In Weekend to enhance the student onboarding and campus experience by giving direction to students and monitoring dining systems for consistency and functionality.
• Lead critical API solutions to integrate CS Gold data with campus applications, prioritizing security, speed, accuracy, and system reliability, ensuring minimal disruptions in mission critical applications (e.g. DASH, ADP, Timeclocks). 
• Build and manage access controls for gate access provided by Housing, Sororities, and Parking, ensuring security while maintaining availability.
• Coordinate efforts for CS Gold server maintenance collaborating with Cbord DBAs to do Oracle and Windows patches and upgrades.
• Utilize SQL to query, update, manipulate, sanitize, and reorganize mission-critical CS Gold data, including integrations with Banner and OIT.
• Design, implement, and maintain credentials for use with various patron groups while adhering to university-established guidelines. 
• Responsible for managing and analyzing UTHSC student data in CS Gold, identifying and resolving discrepancies. Make decisions about viability of data and direct others to update systems as necessary.   
• Provide updated UTHSC information to campus partners for Banner, LDAP, Library, and Ticketing systems across campus. 
• CS Gold administration of housing locations – create new locations, build schedules to integrate with StarRez. Build parameter templates for reader functionality. 
• Administer large-scale Mercury Panel installation projects for access control in residence halls, coordinating efforts with outside contractors and campus partners to configure, install, and troubleshoot security of buildings.
• Manage existing reports and create new reports from CS Gold based on newly identified issues, using Crystal Reporting.   
• Managing and maintaining access control systems in residence halls. 
• Primary escalation authority for on-call technicians regarding all housing access issues.
• Maintenance and configuration of locations within SFTP software, ensuring compliance with university security policies. 
• Responsible for initial planning phases with campus partners to provide technical solutions for student-experience programs. See projects through implementation and maintenance by providing quotes, equipment, software, support documentation, training materials, and training. Provide on-going support for hardware/software including program changes. 
• Leverage SQL, Access, and Google Sheets to extract, analyze, and transform data into KPI reporting for strategic decision-making. 
• VolCard front office hardware and software support. 
• Manage inventory to ensure loss prevention. 
• Participate in relevant conferences, workshops, and vendor events related to CS Gold, credentials, and IT to stay current on industry trends, product updates, and best practices; provide strategic insights to senior leadership; and strengthen vendor and peer relationships to support system enhancements and vision-driven initiatives.
• Manage data in RevenueVision for VolCard and Micros to identify performance trends and optimize long-term planning decisions. 
• Oversite of Food Truck Program for campus. Coordinate   scheduling, location planning, setup logistics, and testing in collaboration with VolCard and Vol Dining team, contributing to smooth operations, increased visibility, and increased revenue. 
• Perform semester-transition system updates, including deactivation of prior meal plans and security flag maintenance to mitigate fraud risks. 
• Activate meal plans and enrollment flags for current semester to authorize correct student privileges. 
• Collaborate on cross-departmental projects within AVCFA to support organizational goals. 
• Attend necessary training related to VolCard and Vol Dining.