Franklin CREATE! Project Manager: Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

University of Georgia•Athens, GA

49d

About The Position

Franklin College of Arts and Sciences seeks a highly organized, dynamic and visionary Program Manager to lead the newly launched Franklin CREATE! initiative, a formal start-up program to reach across the Arts and Sciences to foster innovation, an entrepreneurial mindset, and market engagement. This role is central to managing the day-to-day operations, logistics, and administrative functions that support the program's strategic goals, multidisciplinary activities, and collaboration across the University of Georgia and with University System of Georgia partners. Franklin College students participate in a wide range of disciplines, increasing the value, and opportunity to mobilize students whose entrepreneurial interests are latent. Similarly, the College's entrepreneurial faculty who have started companies seek enhanced professional pedagogy skills so they can mentor and teach students who want to amplify market engagement through startups. Franklin CREATE! is an initiative that will adapt, implement, and scale effective curricular and extra-curricular models for entrepreneurial education to succeed in the multidisciplinary, comprehensive learning environment that spans the Arts & Sciences. This position offers a unique opportunity to shape a transformative initiative at the intersection of creativity, research, and startup activity. The Program Manager will serve as a catalyst for collaboration across campus, within the college, and with external stakeholders (alumni, industry, etc) helping to bridge the gap between academic exploration and market application. By fostering a culture of innovation and supporting both students and faculty in their entrepreneurial journeys, the Program Manager will play a key role in positioning Franklin College as a leader in multidisciplinary start-up education and innovation. The program manager's efforts will be based on industry best practices and will work as the single point of contact for facilitation and communication of program goals, deliverables, and schedules. The individual must be an excellent communicator to produce with other project participants documentation of the emergence of Franklin CREATE! at each stage of the program. While this position does not currently include supervision of staff, it is expected to take on supervisory responsibilities as the role develops.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent and 5 years of professional experience
Demonstrated ability to manage complex operations and logistics across multiple stakeholders.
Strong organizational and problem-solving skills.
Expressed ability to define goals and objectives, identify target audiences, and measure progress toward project goals.
Strong communications, leadership, and interpersonal skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience in designing, coordinating, implementing and evaluating student-centered programs in an educational or nonprofit setting.
Ability to foster student engagement through innovative programming tailored to wide-ranging student interests.
Familiarity with entrepreneurship, innovation ecosystems, and interdisciplinary collaborations.
Experience working with business/industry, alumni engagement, or development initiatives.
Strong skills using technology in the workplace, familiarity with project management systems.
Bachelor's degree
Minimum of 3-5 years of experience in program management, preferably in a higher education, non-profit, government or innovation-focused setting.

Responsibilities

Oversee all aspects of program operations including scheduling, human resource allocation, communication plans, and compliance with the proposal deliverables.
Develop and maintain efficient workflows and systems to support curricular and extracurricular programming.
Coordinate logistics for events, workshops, speaker series, and innovation challenges.
Manage internal documentation, reporting, and evaluation processes to track program outcomes and impact.
Communicate with resource managers, team leads, etc. to track program milestones and keep the focus on delivering program commitments.
Work with the Senior Associate Dean and other project constituents to implement scalable models for entrepreneurial education across diverse disciplines.
Facilitate and/or conduct feasibility studies for program and requests for resources.
Make recommendation on selections.
Interact regularly with program sponsors and stakeholders; use appropriate program management strategies to implement requirements across multiple parts of Franklin CREATE!
Collaborate with faculty and departments to integrate Franklin CREATE! programming into existing academic structures.
Ensure alignment between program goals and operational execution, adjusting plans as needed to meet evolving needs.
Serve as the primary point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, including faculty, students, industry partners, and alumni.
Help to facilitate cross-functional collaboration and communication across departments and units.
Work with College Marketing and Communications staff to develop and manage marketing, outreach, and promotional efforts to increase visibility and participation.
Provide operational support for student start-up projects, mentorship programs, and innovation labs.
Assist faculty in accessing resources and training to enhance entrepreneurial pedagogy and mentorship capacity.
Identify and mobilize students with emerging entrepreneurial interests through targeted programming and outreach.
Additional responsibilities as assigned.