Advanced Specialist, Project Manager

About Pearson

At Pearson, we add life to a lifetime of learning so everyone can realise the life they imagine. As the world’s lifelong learning company, we help people build skills, make progress and transform their lives. In English Language Learning, our assessments – including PTE Academic, PTE Core and our Versant AI-scored tests – are trusted by governments, universities, employers and US state education agencies to make decisions that shape learners’ futures.

This project manager role underpins Pearson's US State Programs work within the ELL portfolio – specifically, the TELPAS and MOWR statewide English language assessments in Texas and Arizona, both underpinned by Versant automated spoken-scoring services. You'll drive delivery, governance and contractual control across these high-stakes programmes, working with experts in test development, automated scoring, psychometrics and technical development. You'll also coordinate the managed exit from the AZELLA contract, and – as that work winds down – grow into the wider PTE portfolio and other government recognition initiatives.

In summary, it's a delivery-led role, US-focussed, but within a global, matrixed environment, turning complex technical and scoring workflows into clear, manageable, deliverable plans.

• Lead delivery, governance and operational control across the TELPAS and MOWR statewide assessment programmes – managing contractual milestones, SOW deliverables, scoring-service dependencies, risk, budget and reporting obligations.
• Maintain delivery cadence across recurring annual cycles, live administrations, Versant AI engine‑training windows and validation reporting.
• Own programme and project control: governance, RAID logs, dashboards and KPIs, with clear escalation of risks and issues.
• Coordinate across Versant AI Scoring Services, R&D, Test Development, Psychometrics, Engineering, Scoring Operations and Finance, plus external delivery partners.
• Coordinate the managed exit from the AZELLA contract – document archiving, lessons‑learned and controlled data‑deletion – while keeping ongoing programmes on track.
• Choose and adapt the right delivery approach (waterfall, Agile or hybrid), run retrospectives and lessons‑learned, and support quality initiatives including ISO 9001 and ISO 27001.
• Coach colleagues in effective project management tools, disciplines and ways of working.
• As the role expands, support delivery across the wider PTE portfolio and contribute to government recognition and bidding activity.

• Proven experience delivering complex projects or programmes, ideally in education, assessment or regulated environments.
• Comfort managing contractual delivery – SOW milestones, deliverables and reporting obligations – ideally in public‑sector or statewide assessment contexts.
• A strong grasp of project governance, risk and issue management, and dependency planning.
• Confidence operating in global, cross‑functional, matrixed teams, working alongside technical and psychometric colleagues.
• Fluency across both traditional and Agile / hybrid delivery approaches.
• A project management qualification (e.g. PMP/PMI, PRINCE2, M_o_R, Agile, equivalent) is required and we're also looking for good experience running complex, cross‑functional initiatives.

• Project management leadership – owning and delivering complex projects end to end.
• Stakeholder management & communication – aligning and influencing senior, technical and external stakeholders with clear, structured messaging.
• Analytical thinking & problem‑solving – making sense of complex delivery, contractual, psychometric and operational scenarios.
• Governance & delivery control – scope, risk and dependency management with an audit‑aware mindset.
• Adaptability & continuous learning – thriving amid ambiguity, change and transition.
• Data & AI awareness – using dashboards, data visualisation and AI‑scoring insight to sharpen reporting and delivery.

Structured, proactive and delivery-focused, comfortable holding control and predictability through ambiguity and transition, and collaborative across functions and geographies.

US –…