Senior Manager, Salesforce CRM & AI Higher Education

Lead and grow SIG’s Salesforce CRM & AI Higher Education practice by delivering high-quality, on-time Salesforce and Agentforce solutions that help colleges and universities achieve their enrollment, student success, advancement, and operational goals. This role owns the practice’s strategy, financial performance, and delivery quality; builds and develops a high-performing team of consultants, developers and administrators; and establishes SIG as a trusted leader in responsible, data-ready AI on Salesforce, while remaining hands-on in solution architecture and client engagement. 

Practice Leadership & Strategy 

• Own the Salesforce CRM & AI practice end to end, including service strategy, delivery model, team capacity, and financial performance, through an annual practice plan aligned to SIG’s growth goals. 
• Evolve SIG’s Salesforce service portfolio across Agentforce Education, Agentforce AI agents, Marketing Cloud, and Data 360. 
• Represent the practice in leadership planning, providing data‑driven recommendations on investment, staffing, and priorities, and act as SIG’s Salesforce thought leader through webinars, conferences, and content. 

Agentforce & AI Leadership 

• Build and own SIG’s Agentforce offering for higher education: AI readiness assessments, fixed‑scope first‑agent pilots (such as admissions inquiries, advising, or financial aid), and ongoing agent management within Salesforce managed services. 
• Act as the Salesforce delivery partner to SIG’s AI Strategy & Governance and Data Readiness services, turning recommendations into working agents. 
• Lead Data 360 and data‑readiness work with SIG’s Integrations and Data teams, connecting Salesforce with Ellucian Banner and Colleague, Slate, and other campus systems. Build and enhance AI-enabled Salesforce solutions leveraging Agentforce, Prediction Builder, and Next Best Action. 
• Define SIG’s standards for responsible AI on Salesforce, including student data privacy (FERPA), agent guardrails through behavioral boundaries, testing, human oversight, and monitoring. 
• Drive the use of AI within SIG’s own delivery (configuration, documentation, testing, and data migration) to improve quality, utilization, and margin. 

Team Leadership & Development 

• Lead, coach, and develop the team through regular one‑to‑ones, goal setting, performance reviews, and clear role expectations and career paths. Support the team hands-on in designing, developing, testing, and implementing scalable solutions on the Salesforce platform, including general configuration, Flows, Lightning Web Components, Apex and all other Salesforce solutions. 
• Own a certification roadmap that maintains SIG’s partner standing and grows and grows Agentforce Education certifications, Architect certifications, Agentforce Specialist certifications, and other key certifications.
• Lead hiring, onboarding, and workforce planning, and develop emerging leaders to create succession depth. 
• Reinforce and model SIG’s culture: collaborative, humble, client‑centered, and rooted in long‑standing higher‑education partnership. 

Delivery Excellence & Client Engagement 

• Oversee Salesforce implementations, optimizations, integrations, and managed services, ensuring on‑time, on‑budget, high‑quality delivery with consistent methodologies and reusable assets. 
• Ensure solution architecture follows Salesforce best practices, and provide hands‑on architecture and engagement leadership on strategic projects. 
• Serve as escalation point for at‑risk engagements, partnering with the PMO to resolve issues proactively. 
• Build relationships with senior institutional stakeholders and partner with Sales on discovery, estimating, SOWs, RFP responses, account expansion, and renewals. 
• Serve as SIG’s practice‑level contact with Salesforce’s Education team, growing partner standing, competency, and client reviews. 

Operations & Collaboration 

• Manage utilization, billable hours, and resource allocation with the Resource Management Office, and partner with Finance on forecasting and margins. 
• Report practice KPIs, including utilization, project health, client satisfaction, certifications, and AI adoption. 
• Collaborate with SIG’s Slate, Ellucian ERP, PMO, Marketing, and Sales teams to deliver connected solutions and position SIG’s capabilities. 

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Business, or a related field, or equivalent experience. Master’s degree preferred. 
• 8+ years of Salesforce experience, including 5+ years in consulting or professional services and 4+ years leading Salesforce teams with direct people management. 
• Proven delivery of Salesforce solutions in higher education, ideally including Agentforce Education (formerly Education Cloud). 
• Demonstrated hands‑on delivery of at least one Agentforce or AI‑on‑Salesforce solution through to production, with an understanding of responsible AI and FERPA. 
• Strong knowledge of Strong knowledge of core Salesforce infrastructure including Sales, Service and Experience Clouds is required. Marketing Cloud and Data 360 experience is preferred. Experience integrating with Ellucian Banner or Colleague is a strong plus. 
• Experience managing utilization, forecasting, and margin, and leading pre‑sales scoping, estimating, SOWs, and RFP responses. 
• Salesforce Certified Administrator required. Agentforce Specialist (or within six months), Education Cloud Consultant, and architect certifications preferred. 

• Strong understanding of higher‑education processes across recruitment, admissions, student success, and advancement. 
• Executive presence, with the ability to explain AI opportunities, risks, and ROI in plain language to institutional leaders. 
• Ambitious, accountable, and people‑first leader ready to grow into a Director role, balancing strategy with hands‑on delivery. 
• High integrity and a client‑centered, mission‑driven mindset aligned with the needs of higher education. 

Starting salary range for this position is dependent on individual skills and experience as well as geolocation.  

• Base range $135,000 - $155,000 plus bonus 
• Flexible hours, Remote work   
• Medical, vision and dental   
• Flexible Spending or Health Savings Account   
• PTO, Sick and holiday pay   
• Company Paid Life insurance   
• Retirement 401(k), 5% Company Contribution   
• Professional Development opportunities    
• Connectivity stipend