Salesforce Administrator (Kindsight Ascend) - (CEMI)
About the Cornell Experience Modernization Initiative and Donor Engagement and Experience Project
The Cornell Experience Modernization Initiative (CEMI) is a multi-year program designed to improve the experience of students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, patients, and partners by unifying and enhancing administrative systems and processes across all Cornell University locations. Its name CEMI is said as "See Me" because the focus is on you: the people who use Cornell’s systems and data to accomplish your goals.
CEMI Donor Engagement and Experience Project (DEEP) is a major, multi-year effort to modernize and unify development and engagement technology across Cornell’s Ithaca and Cornell Tech campuses, Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM), and the Lab of Ornithology.
What will you do:
The Salesforce Administrator (Kindsight Ascend) plays a key role within the Cornell Enterprise Modernization Initiative (CEMI), with primary responsibility for supporting the Donor Engagement and Experience Project (DEEP)-a major, multi‑year initiative to modernize and unify development and engagement technology across Cornell’s Ithaca and Cornell Tech campuses, Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM), and the Lab of Ornithology.
The CEMI DEEP Salesforce Administrator supports Kindsight Ascend and its associated data model as part of a largescale, multicampus transformation that consolidates development and engagement capabilities on a single Salesforce platform. The CEMI DEEP Salesforce Administrator is responsible for end-to-end support and maintenance of Salesforce platform solutions, including Kindsight Ascend, other managed packages, configurations, and custom-built capabilities, to meet the institution’s evolving fundraising and donor engagement goals.
The CEMI DEEP Salesforce Administrator works closely with fundraising, engagement, and operations teams across all campuses, as well as Salesforce Operations, the DEEP project team, campus stakeholders, and the system integrator responsible for Kindsight Ascend implementation, to ensure the platform is stable, optimized, and effectively aligned with institutional objectives.
The CEMI DEEP Salesforce Administrator has a dual reporting relationship to Cornell Information Technologies and Development Information Technology and participates directly in industry‑level activities to maintain a strong understanding of processes, priorities, and initiatives. Working closely with business analysts and functional stakeholders, the CEMI DEEP Salesforce Administrator helps capture business requirements and translates them into platform configuration and technical specifications, and leads or supports testing, documentation, training, and user adoption efforts.
The CEMI DEEP Salesforce Administrator serves as the dedicated subject matter expert for the Salesforce ecosystem, with responsibility for ensuring the platform is optimally configured and strategically aligned with the University’s fundraising and donor engagement objectives through Kindsight Ascend. In this role, they partner closely with Development Information Technology, providing expert guidance on how to effectively leverage Salesforce capabilities-including Sales, Experience, and Marketing Cloud-to drive operational efficiency, enhance donor engagement, and directly support the University’s philanthropic mission.
The CEMI DEEP Salesforce Administrator is responsible for the end-to-end administration, configuration, support, and continuous optimization of the Salesforce platform and Kindsight Ascend, including managed packages and related capabilities such as data unification and marketing data activation. This role ensures platform stability, data integrity, security, and compliance while aligning solutions with enterprise architecture and evolving business needs. Through ongoing collaboration with Development IT colleagues, the administrator identifies pain points, recommends best practice solutions, and implements improvements that enhance system usability, scalability, and the overall user experience.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
- Administer, configure, support, and optimize the Salesforce platform, with Kindsight Ascend as the core managed package, to support enterprise fundraising and donor engagement operations.
- Install, configure, upgrade, and maintain Salesforce managed packages and associated standard and custom data models.
- Manage Salesforce and Kindsight Ascend environments, releases, and deployments; coordinate testing, validation, and production readiness.
- Configure and maintain platform functionality across Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, and related Salesforce ecosystem capabilities leveraged by Ascend.
- Implement and support declarative automation solutions, including Salesforce Flows, to streamline business processes and improve operational efficiency.
- Develop and maintain reports, dashboards, and analytics that support fundraising, engagement, and operational decision making.
- Provide Tier 2 operational support, including troubleshooting, issue resolution, root cause‑ analysis, and coordination with Salesforce Operations and vendors.
- Coordinate integrations between Salesforce standard objects, managed packages, and external systems to ensure reliable data flow and system interoperability.
- Ensure data integrity through validation rules, monitoring, and adherence to data governance standards.
- Configure and maintain role-based‑ security, permissions, and access controls in alignment with institutional governance and compliance requirements.
- Establish and maintain configuration standards, operating procedures, and technical documentation for Salesforce solutions.
- Support emerging enterprise capabilities such as Data360 and Salesforce Agentforce, providing platform administration and operational support once architectures are established.
- Enforce compliance controls for Salesforce solutions handling HIPAA regulated medical data, FERPA protected student data, confidential information, and PII, including approved security configurations and data segmentation.
- Collaborate closely with fundraising, engagement, and operations teams across all campuses; Salesforce Operations; the DEEP project team; campus stakeholders; and system integrators to gather requirements and deliver solutions.
- Serve as a subject matter expert for Salesforce administration and Kindsight Ascend ‑within the DEEP project and ongoing operations, contributing to platform governance, stability, usability, and continuous improvement.
- Support testing, documentation, training, and user adoption efforts to ensure effective use of Salesforce solutions as enterprise needs evolve.
This is a 3 year term appointment which may be ended or extended based on organizational needs, funding availability, and performance.
While position responsibilities vary, every member of our community is expected to foster a culture of belonging and a healthy work environment by communicating across differences; being cooperative, collaborative, open, and welcoming; showing respect, compassion, and empathy; engaging and supporting others regardless of background or perspective; speaking up when others are being excluded or treated inappropriately; and supporting work/life integration of oneself and others.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Systems, or a related field, with a minimum of three (3) years of experience administering and supporting Salesforce in complex, enterprise environments, or an equivalent combination of education and experience
- Experience supporting large‑scale, multi‑year enterprise Salesforce implementations, particularly in higher education, healthcare, nonprofit, or similarly complex and regulated environments
- Demonstrated experience configuring and supporting Kindsight Ascend and its associated advancement/fundraising data model
- Strong experience administering Salesforce managed packages, including installation, configuration, upgrades, and ongoing support
- Hands‑on experience with the Salesforce platform and core CRM data models, including opportunity‑based workflows supporting fundraising, engagement and associated back-office operations.
- Familiarity with Salesforce Lightning Experience, including Lightning App Builder, Lightning Record Pages, and Lightning application development
- Experience building custom user interfaces using Lightning components
- Experience with Salesforce configuration and administration, including security and access management, role‑based permissions, declarative automation (Flows), reporting, dashboards, and Experience Cloud
- Experience supporting Salesforce integrations with standard objects and external systems, including coordination with middleware and API‑based integrations
- Demonstrated experience translating business requirements into technical designs using the Salesforce platform
- Experience providing Tier 2 operational support, including troubleshooting platform, data, and configuration issues in production environments
- Experience working with sensitive and regulated data, including HIPAA‑regulated medical data, FERPA‑protected student data, confidential information, and PII, in compliance with privacy and security requirements
- Experience partnering with system integrators, vendors, and platform teams in complex delivery and support models
- Salesforce certifications such as Salesforce Administrator, Advanced Administrator, Sales Cloud Consultant, Service Cloud Consultant, or comparable credentials
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot Salesforce configurations, customizations, and integrations
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders
- Ability to cultivate and develop inclusive working relationships
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience supporting or operating within formal governance structures, including data governance, security review processes, change management, and enterprise standards
- Experience working with emerging Salesforce capabilities (e.g., Data360, Salesforce Agentforce, or similar platform features), with a focus on administration, configuration support, and operational readiness rather than solution design
- Experience supporting Salesforce analytics and reporting, such as advanced Salesforce reporting, CRM Analytics, TableauNext, or similar tools
- Experience supporting Salesforce-Marketing Cloud integrations, including preference and consent management, audience activation, and engagement data synchronization
- Experience working effectively across multiple business units, balancing enterprise standards with local operational needs
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