Program Manager

First Student•Cincinnati, OH

About The Position

The Program Manager leads transformational enterprise programs within First Student and is accountable for program governance, implementation-partner performance, and senior-leader alignment to keep programs on schedule and deliver committed value. The role directs a matrixed team of First Student employees and partner resources and provides leadership with decision-ready recommendations. The Program Manager manages program planning and governance from charter through post-go-live, including integrated plans, stage gates, risks and issues, change control, executive steering committee cadence, cross-program dependencies, benefits, and KPIs. The role oversees implementation-partner scope, milestones, deliverable acceptance, requirements gathering, and remediation, while securing and coordinating the time of senior Finance, Operations, and IT process owners. The role also leads cutover readiness, including parallel cycles, data conversion, test exit criteria, go/no-go decisions, and hypercare. Other responsibilities may be required or requested. English proficiency is required for job-related training, safety communications, company policies, employment documents, and other communications.

Requirements

Minimum 7 years of program or project management experience, including at least 3 years as the accountable lead on high-value enterprise programs.
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent industry experience.
Led at least one enterprise-system implementation through go-live.
Managed cross-functional programs that included external partners.
Aligned senior leaders without direct authority and influenced executive decisions rather than only reporting to executives.
Ran testing, cutover, and go/no-go for a legacy-system replacement.
Demonstrated ability to build and manage relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all levels.
Significant demonstrated ability to drive process and performance improvements.
Complex problem-solving ability.
English proficiency is required.

Nice To Haves

PMP, PgMP, and additional certifications are preferred.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end program governance, including the integrated plan, stage gates, risks and issues, change control, and executive steering committee cadence.
Manage the implementation partner’s milestone-based statement of work, including scope, phase exit criteria, deliverable acceptance within contract windows, and remediation.
Direct requirements gathering with the implementation partner, ensuring sessions are appropriately scoped, the correct business owners attend, and requirements are traceable and signed off before build.
Secure and maintain time commitments from senior Finance, Operations, and IT leaders serving as process owners; escalate capacity conflicts before they cause schedule delays.
Bring systems, process, and change dependencies across programs into a single critical path.
Lead cutover readiness, including parallel cycles, data conversion, test exit criteria, go/no-go decisions, and hypercare.
Define and track benefits and KPIs from charter through post-go-live.
Provide leadership with decision-ready recommendations, not only status reports.
Direct a matrixed team of First Student staff and partner resources.
Perform other responsibilities as required or requested.