Project Manager II - Craft Education

Western Governors University•Nashville, TN

12d•$73,000 - $109,400

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 Craft Education as the next step in your career. Craft Education is on a mission to solve skilled labor shortages by powering work-based learning pathways for all. At Craft, we’re revolutionizing the apprenticeship degree, combining on-the-job learning with accredited instruction to create innovative educational pathways that accommodate working professionals and meet employer needs. Our flagship product - Craft Connect - helps organizations administer apprentice degree programs and address mission-critical data and reporting needs. Through the same platform, Craft is also transforming how on-the-job learning converts into academic credits. Our team of technology, education and workforce professionals also provides technical assistance to organizations looking to launch and manage apprenticeship degree programs. We are working tirelessly to accelerate the expansion of these programs along with the data infrastructure that underpins them. If you’re looking to join the work-based learning revolution, we’d love to talk with you. At Craft, you’ll have the opportunity to solve hard problems in a high-growth startup environment and make a lasting impact on the future of education and workforce development. We couldn’t be more excited to advance this work as a team of innovative, collaborative and mission-oriented professionals - we hope you’ll consider joining us. 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 308 Pay Range: $73,000.00 - $109,400.00 Job Description The Project Manager II oversees the execution and process of all projects for their department. The PM will work with multiple teams, project requesters, and creative teams to develop project plans according to strategic development priorities, as defined by project requesters and leadership. This position is accountable for ensuring that the scope, dates, commitments, and project plans are communicated to all stakeholders and updated as necessary. The individual monitors and reports project status—including risks, issues affecting project schedules, and milestone achievements—to stakeholders and departmental leadership. This role coordinates critical grant reporting requirements, working with internal and external stakeholders and will be responsible for monitoring delivery team's milestone evidence and documentation necessary by particular grants.

Requirements

Strong written and oral communication skills.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office.
Background knowledge/experience of curriculum.
History of successful execution of projects that impact an entire organization.
Professional integrity that represents the educational standards within higher education.
Excellent leadership and project management skills.
Works well in a team environment.
Ability to influence change and motivate others.
Solid technical and problem-solving skills.
Ability to plan and meet schedules.
Ability to use project management systems and tools.
Ability to identify and communicate critical path and obstacles to key parties.
Must be driven independently to meet requirements and ensure work maintains execution according to schedule.
Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
Three (3) years of experience as the assigned project manager of executive-sponsored projects, with sole responsibility for project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure.

Nice To Haves

Experience in higher education, WGU, and program development preferred.
Master’s degree from an accredited institution or higher in relevant field.
Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification preferred.
Green or Black Belt Certification.

Responsibilities

Maintains a thorough and detailed understanding of all department projects, purpose and status and ensures projects meet outlined processes.
Monitors, reports on, and makes visible project status, issues, resource requirements, dependencies, and project plans.
Keeps stakeholders and departmental leadership informed of project statuses, including, but not limited to, milestone achievements, toll gate progress, risks, and any issues that may adversely affect project schedules. Full transparency is essential and monitoring of critical path elements with limited direction and leading through influence are essential skills.
Documents project deliverables, outputs, and notes that capture why key project decisions were made and keeps project management records and systems accurate and up to date. Produce audit reports as necessary to provide to funders that are external. Professional writing and ability to translate technical terms in plain speak are essential.
Understands departmental strategic priorities and influences the actions and work efforts of team members in line with those priorities.
Works closely with product team, content creators and other department stakeholders to align priorities and progress on all projects.
Manages traffic of incoming new requests - validates that appropriate requirements are included.
Produces timely and accurate reports as directed. Regular weekly progress report of Project Tasks completed, priorities for upcoming week, dependencies.
Provides input to Product and Technical teams leadership to develop or refine project management procedures and processes for the purpose of improving efficiency and meet external parties’ requirements.
Develops realistic project plans and schedules by analyzing organizational process assets, enterprise environmental factors, task dependencies, resource requirements, work breakdown, and departmental strategy and priorities. This is in partnership with product and tech not unilaterally.
Ensures projects meet organizational standards and are managed in accordance with applicable policies, processes, and procedures.
Conducts retrospective work on closed/ completed projects to document lessons learned in conjunction with associate PJM, and prepares retrospective documentation, as well as recommendations, for review at the program level for consideration in future CQI efforts, and/ or potential redevelopment needs.
May conduct data analysis, research course and program level information as requested during the analysis phases of other projects.
May work to mentor Associate PJM and develops team leadership skills and team initiatives.
Track project costs to meet budget.
Facilitating change requests to ensure that all parties are informed of the impacts on schedule and budget.
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