Principal, Program Manager

Pearson

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Pearson is reimagining how learning content is created and delivered in the age of AI. As part of that work, the Content Excellence team is driving a broad transformation agenda focused on building a faster, more scalable, and more future-ready content development model—combining modern product thinking, AI-enabled workflows, and strong content operations. We are seeking a strategic program manager to work in close partnership with the Head of Content Excellence on one of the company’s most ambitious transformation efforts. The successful candidate will frame the agenda, structure ambiguous problems, develop options and tradeoffs, and drive alignment and decisions with senior stakeholders. S/he will also take ownership of select priorities, translating strategy into pragmatic action and measurable outcomes across content, product, and technology teams.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
Experience in strategy, consulting, transformation, business operations, product operations or a similarly cross-functional role that required shaping decisions and influencing senior stakeholders.
Experience in educational publishing, content development, learning products, or adjacent industries.
Demonstrated, hands-on experience applying AI (e.g., generative AI tools) to improve workflows—such as piloting new approaches, evaluating tools, and measuring impact.
Working knowledge of content development and content operations, including how structured content, metadata/tagging, and tooling enable reuse, automation, and scale.
Strong problem-solving skills and structured thinking, with the ability to develop clear, practical recommendations on complex issues.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience preparing concise, executive-ready materials.
Demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders and drive progress in matrixed environments without relying on formal authority.
Proven capacity to take ownership of complex work and move it forward with limited oversight.
Strong judgment, learning agility, and comfort operating in fast-moving, ambiguous environments.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting enterprise transformation, workflow redesign, operating model change, or organizational change efforts.
Demonstrated curiosity about AI tools and emerging technologies, with a practical mindset about experimentation and adoption.
Product management (or strong product mindset) experience—defining user problems, writing requirements, prioritizing backlogs, and partnering with engineering to ship improvements.
A “spike” in data/analytics or data science—comfortable working with structured data, instrumentation/measurement, and using data to improve content workflows (e.g., metadata quality, tagging, transformation pipelines).
Familiarity with large, distributed organizations and the realities of driving change across multiple teams and leaders.

Responsibilities

Serve as a close thought partner to the Head of Content Excellence—framing the agenda, structuring ambiguous problems, and advancing high-stakes decisions.
Develop executive-ready recommendations on strategy and operating questions (workflow transformation, AI enablement, capability building, change approach, and operating model design), including clear options and tradeoffs.
Design and run communication, governance and decision forums that drive alignment and accountability across all functions involved in content development at Pearson.
Produce and drive key strategic artifacts (decision memos, executive narratives, prioritization/roadmap framing, KPI & measurement approach, and investment cases) that enable faster, higher-quality decisions.
Own selected initiatives end-to-end—from diagnosis through delivery and outcome—ensuring work is viable organizationally and produces measurable impact.
Support the evaluation and application of AI tools and emerging practices to our work via hands-on experimentation (workflow pilots, prompt/tooling patterns), measuring impact, and scaling what works.
Represent the Head of Content Excellence in meetings and stakeholder discussions; build alignment, resolve key dependencies, and move decisions forward.
Bring appropriate rigor to execution where needed (clarifying ownership, surfacing risks and tradeoffs, and maintaining momentum) as an enabler of strategic outcomes—not as the center of the role.