Department Chair (Lead Academic Program Manager RN-BSN)

Western Governors University•Salt Lake, UT

23h•$119,400 - $185,100

About The Position

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families. The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is: Grade: Professional 313 Pay Range: $119,400.00 - $185,100.00 Job Description As Lead Academic Program Manager of academic programs in WGU’s INSERT AREA you will be the overall end-to-end owner of that program through its entire lifecycle. This will include (a) all the pre-definition research (market-segment selection, targeted skills, market demand for graduates, student demand, competitive analysis, portfolio strategy, pricing, program requirements, and program level P&L), (b) building and launching the program by working with the academic program directors and other subject matter experts across different departments to define the curriculum, and working with the program development team to build and launch the program (with the right quality, on-time and in budget), and (c) tracking the post-launch adoption of the program by working with the marketing and partnership teams to drive the adoption of the program with students, monitoring and tracking the success of students within the program, working with other stakeholders to make on-going adjustments to the program to improve student success and market relevance, and managing the program-level P&L. Your success will be measured in terms of planning, building, delivering and scaling the right programs profitably that cater to our underserved student population with a high-level of retention and ROI for the students. In this role, you will report to the Associate Dean and Academic Program Director and/or the Vice President, Dean of the department. Job Profile Summary: As Lead Academic Program Manager of academic programs in WGU’s RN-BSN and MSN Core programs you will be the overall end-to-end owner of that program through its entire lifecycle. This will include (a) all the pre-definition research (market-segment selection, targeted skills, market demand for graduates, student demand, competitive analysis, portfolio strategy, pricing, program requirements, and program level P&L), (b) building and launching the program by working with the academic program directors and other subject matter experts across different departments to define the curriculum, and working with the program development team to build and launch the program (with the right quality, on-time and in budget), and (c) tracking the post-launch adoption of the program by working with the marketing and partnership teams to drive the adoption of the program with students, monitoring and tracking the success of students within the program, working with other stakeholders to make on-going adjustments to the program to improve student success and market relevance, and managing the program-level P&L. Your success will be measured in terms of planning, building, delivering, and scaling the right programs profitably that cater to our underserved student population with a high-level of retention and ROI for the students. In this role, you will report to the Associate Dean and Academic Program Director and/or the Vice President, Dean of the department.

Requirements

Deep understanding of how students learn and combining innovative curriculum and student support strategies to drive student success
Customer or student obsession with a focus on driving successful outcomes for them
Industry or academic leader in the discipline
Understanding of the industry trends, job opportunities, local student needs, and educational market trends in the discipline
Credible voice of the department in external partnerships and presentation opportunities
Strong people leader to directly or indirectly lead a diverse team of 25+ people including other academic program and department leaders, instructional faculty, and student coaches/mentors
Execution focus with the ability to dive-deep and live in the details with a fast-paced weekly execution cadence
Ability to organize and coordinate activities and results across cross-functional teams
Ability to coach and develop direct reports
Ability to collaborate with and lead teams, including those in a remote environment, while demonstrating excellence, integrity, and respect
Ability to work effectively in a highly matrixed organization
Ability to build relationships and influence at all levels, both internally and externally
Ability to be an agent of change in a rapidly changing environment
Proven ability to analyze data to identify trends and drive innovation
Sound judgement and decision-making skills
Strong oral and written communication skills
Master of Science in Nursing degree or in place of a master’s degree, a PhD in Nursing or DNP from an accredited institution.
Active unencumbered RN license
4+ years of related experience to include a combination of: program P&L responsibility, able to effectively plan and operate degree-granting educational programs with the goal of driving student outcomes, student satisfaction, and profitability.

Nice To Haves

PhD in Nursing, DNP, or an MSN along with any terminal degree from an accredited institution
Experience in higher education
Experience in developing online education programs and/or developing and scaling rapidly changing organizations/programs
Experience in developing curriculum and/or high-stakes assessments
Demonstrated success in change management, and bringing order and structure to complex situations

Responsibilities

P&L ownership experience with managing over RN-BSN and MSN Core programs
Drive a culture of continuous experimentation, measurement, and learning from data to rapidly improve the quality and delivery to students
Strong people leader to indirectly lead a diverse team of 25+ people including academic program leaders, instructional faculty, and student coaches/mentors
Influences Others and Communicates Effectively: Communicates to improve and promote teamwork, decision making, and problem solving. Listens and responds effectively to the reactions and positions of others and encourages the expression of diverse ideas and opinions. Adjusts message and style to fit the audience. Provides timely and helpful feedback. Communicates appropriately to win support with all audiences.
Collaborates: Works cooperatively with others across the organization to achieve shared objectives. Represents own interests while being fair to others and their areas. Partners with others to get work done. Credits others for their contributions and accomplishments. Gains buy-in, trust and support of others.
Manages Ambiguity: Deals comfortably with the uncertainty of change. Effectively handles risk. Can decide to act without the total picture. Is calm and productive, even when things are up in the air. Deals constructively with problems that do not have clear solutions or outcomes.
Drives for Results: Has a strong outcomes-based orientation. Persists in accomplishing objectives despite obstacles and setbacks. Has a track record of successfully achieving goals. Pushes self and helps others achieve results. Has a continuous improvement mindset.
Builds Effective Teams: Forms teams with appropriate and diverse mixes of styles, perspectives, and experience. Establishes common objectives and a shared mindset. Creates a feeling of belonging and strong team morale. Shares wins and rewards team efforts. Fosters open dialogue and collaboration among the team. Creates a team that works well cross-functionally.
Organizational Learning: Learns quickly when facing new situations. Experiments to find new solutions. Takes on challenges of unfamiliar tasks. Extracts lessons-learned from failures and mistakes. Expands knowledge base through ongoing curiosity.
Performs other related duties as assigned.

Benefits

medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare
health savings account and flexible spending account
basic and voluntary life insurance
disability coverage
accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages
legal and identity theft coverage
retirement savings plan
wellbeing program
discounted WGU tuition
flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave