Program Manager, Operations & Events

University of Washington • Seattle, WA

21h • Onsite

About The Position

The University Honors Program, a unit of Undergraduate Academic Affairs (UAA) at the University of Washington, is seeking a Program Manager, Operations and Events. UAA aims to enhance the undergraduate academic experience for all students. The Honors Program offers two academic pathways, Interdisciplinary Honors and Departmental Honors, serving over 1400 UW Seattle undergraduates. This role is integral to the Honors Program team, contributing to its values of curiosity, engagement with diversity, and continuous learning. The Program Manager will oversee and manage program operations, event production, and program communications. They will also manage Honors hiring processes and provide executive support to the Honors Program Director and Assistant Directors. Key responsibilities include directing office operations, administrative coordination, business processes (purchasing, budget tracking), supervising student employees, leading annual events, and managing external communications. The position ensures compliance with university policies and provides executive-level assistance, including liaising with stakeholders and supporting admissions and scholarship logistics.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in any field.
• Two to three years of experience with administrative and project management responsibilities, including coordinating events and communications, in a fast-paced and collaborative environment.
• Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree in education or communication/Graduate degree from an accredited institution.
• Experience developing communication assets for diverse audiences across a range of platforms (print, web, social media, etc.).
• Experience with event planning and/or advancement.
• Budget and personnel management experience.
• Technical skills in graphic and web design.
• Experience working with higher education procedures, policies, and systems.
• Experience and/or familiarity with honors programs/colleges.
• Experience working directly with college or university undergraduates in a higher education setting.

Responsibilities

• Manage the daily operations and logistics for the University Honors Program, including managing program spaces in Mary Gates Hall 211 (the Honors Program Suite) and 206 (the Honors Program Multipurpose Room).
• Design, implement, and manage program operations policies and processes and create training and operations policy resources.
• Create and implement processes and process calendars to improve program operations and services.
• Create office reception staffing coverage strategies and calendars.
• Liaise with Mary Gates Hall building coordinators, UAA IT, UW Facilities Services, Emergency Management Office and outside vendors.
• Manage and maintain program rooms and spaces for internal and external users, including overseeing CAAMS access.
• Manage purchasing for the Honors Program, ensuring fiscal responsibility and compliance with University rules.
• Manage annual Honors operations budgets, including creating procurement memos and purchasing/expenditure tracking documents, and lead purchasing with a university pro-card, as well as monitor staff purchasing and reimbursement requests.
• Advise and assist the Assistant Director/Director of Strategy & Operations on operations budgets strategic planning.
• Manage purchasing records and work with UAA Shared Environment staff to ensure procedure and policy compliance.
• Analyze annual purchasing patterns to make recommendations for budget and purchasing planning for each fiscal year and beyond.
• Lead Honors communications and marketing outreach strategies.
• Direct Honors’ overall communication strategy, including creating a long-term strategic plan for Honors Program communications.
• Produce and distribute Honors’ digital and print publications to support overall communications, fundraising objectives and other special initiatives.
• Manage design and production of promotional materials, ensuring alignment with UW brand guidelines.
• Represent UW Honors to UAA communications staff and external contractors.
• Train and provide guidance to Honors staff on university communication systems.
• Assess and report on communication, promotional materials, and engagement effectiveness by analyzing click and response rates, engagement and responses to individual events and messages, application numbers, and programming materials uptake.
• Manage contracting with external communications specialists (writers, photographers, graphic designers, videographers, editors, etc.).
• Oversee the Honors Program website and generate annual and long-term plans to review and update.
• Collaborate with the Honors web computing specialist to ensure the accessibility and accuracy of all program-related digital content.
• Analyze website traffic and engagement patterns to determine content and design effectiveness.
• Schedule and organize committee and staff meetings, including meeting logistics, agenda development, communications, facilitation, and information management.
• Administer, maintain, and retain administrative, student, financial, and electronic database records to ensure compliance with federal, state, and University policies and procedures, maintaining a high level of confidentiality and discretion.
• Support first-year and second-year admissions logistics and scholarship application evaluation and awarding logistics.
• Serve as the Honors Program Records Coordinator liaison to UW’s Records Management Services to ensure compliance with state and federal laws governing records, information, and data management.
• Direct the planning and production of events to align with the Honors Program’s strategic goals.
• Develop a long-term strategic plan for Honors Program events.
• Executes all program events, from design and promotion to production and analysis.
• Analyzes data for all events and uses that data to improve future event implementation.
• Produce Honors’ signature public event, the annual Global Challenges| Interdisciplinary Thinking lecture, requiring long-term planning to identify topics, recruit faculty and community expert speakers, secure and prepare the venue, prepare staff and speakers, all in coordination with linked Honors Advancement events and strategies.
• Oversee Honors events budgets, lead events purchasing and budget tracking.
• Coordinate with university and community partners on event production.
• Maintain internal and external events calendars.
• Oversee Honors staff participation in events.
• Hire and supervise vendors and student employees for event production.
• Recruit, train, supervise and maintain an event volunteer pool.
• Provide executive-level administrative support to the Honors Program Director and Assistant Directors including project management, calendaring, drafting correspondence, managing deadlines, special initiative design and implementation, data collection/report development, and stakeholder coordination.
• Oversee and facilitate visitation and engagement with special visitors, alumni, donors and Honors stakeholders.
• Direct Honors alumni and family outreach and promote alumni engagement with current students via events and communications.
• Research and create reports and special initiatives as requested.
• Liaise with Undergraduate Academic Affairs Dean’s office Communications and Advancement representatives on behalf of the Honors Program.
• Manage communications and scheduling to steward relationships with campus allies and off-campus stakeholders including parents, alumni, members of the Board of Regents, the President’s and Provost's offices, Deans and Department Heads, marketing and communication colleagues.
• Undertake special projects as assigned.
• Oversee hiring processes for permanent and temporary staff: organize application review, hiring committee logistics and calendaring, interview logistics, and applicant communications; oversee the creation, implementation, and assessment of standard onboarding and offboarding materials for all permanent and temporary staff; coordinate with UAA Human Resources staff to initiate hiring processes.
• Manage the recruitment and hiring of undergraduate and academic student employees, including all communications from the recruitment through hiring stages, providing clear hiring policy and procedures.
• Supervise student employees who are responsible for public reception and staff support: design and oversee training and materials for student employee onboarding and offboarding; provide clear instructions for professional staff to work with student employees; audit onboarding materials and implement onboarding surveys for new employees; liaise with all Honors Program staff to determine projects assigned to student employees; manage performance and personnel decisions related to student employees; direct and delegate projects to student employees.
• Read and evaluate applications for all Honors admissions cycles.
• Evaluate scholarship and other award materials.
• Attend all staff meetings and retreats.
• Participate in shared office and administrative duties like staff meeting facilitation and note-taking, kitchen maintenance, facilitating discussions, updating internal documentation and policy documents.
• Participate in committee work within Honors, UAA, with campus partners, or with professional organizations directly related to the position to support their strategic initiatives, mission and goals.

Benefits

• Outstanding benefits
• Opportunities for professional growth
• The chance to work in an environment known for its diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty
• Access to information about benefits for this position at https://www.washington.edu/jobs/benefits-for-uw-staff/

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 11-50 employees