Program Manager - Education

Job Description

The Program Manager will lead the strategic planning, execution, and successful delivery of multiple concurrent projects for a major institutional client. This is a highly delivery-focused role requiring a professional who can ensure clear project scope, realistic planning aligned with business objectives, and the achievement of on-time milestones. The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in program governance, stakeholder communication, and risk management within a technical environment.

• Program & Project Delivery Own end-to-end delivery for a large-scale account, defining project scope, business requirements, UAT readiness, and success criteria.
• Governance & Compliance Establish and enforce program governance frameworks, utilizing reporting dashboards and metrics to track progress against schedule, budget, and quality objectives.
• Stakeholder Management Act as the primary delivery contact for client stakeholders, providing transparent updates on project status, risks, and dependencies to ensure expectations remain aligned.
• Technical Leadership Implement Agile processes (sprint planning, daily stand-ups, retrospectives) and align delivery with solution designs for process automation, API integrations, and AI/ML use cases.
• Commercial & Resource Optimization Calculate and optimize man-hours across project phases, monitor team workloads to prevent bottlenecks, and prepare reports on actual versus planned effort for client audit and acceptance.
• Risk Mitigation Proactively identify program-level risks and maintain robust contingency and escalation plans to safeguard delivery outcomes.

• Bachelor’s degree in one of: computer science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Information System, or a related field (Master’s preferred).
• Professional certifications: PMP or PgMP (required), Agile/Scrum Master (preferred), SAFe Agile or equivalent. Familiarity with ITIL v4/ISO 20000 certification.
• 10+ years of progressive project/program management experience with at least 5 years in program leadership focused on application development and agile methodology.
• Proven track record delivering large-scale, multi-project programs for enterprise or higher-education clients. Familiarity with Higher Education systems and applications is strongly preferred.