Project Manager II

Western Governors University•Raleigh, NC

26d•$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 WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families. 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 Project Manager II 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. The Project Manager II develops project plans and schedules and ensures projects meet departmental requirements, standards, policies, and deadlines. This individual is expected to keep fully informed of departmental strategies and priorities and effectively influence the work of project team members in line with those priorities. The Project Manager II is responsible for tracking deadlines, monitoring incoming requests, managing commitments, and utilizing project management tools to ensure project timelines are met, issues are escalated, identified opportunities for efficiencies and process/decisions are documented.

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.
Problem Solving Skills: Investigates appropriate resources and involves partners when appropriate; future-oriented; assesses what will help/hinder achieving goals; focuses on what is important.
Interpersonal Skills: Deals with others in a considerate, respectful, and unbiased manner; approaches conflict proactively; solicits and shares feedback openly; listens with empathy and maintains composure.
Accuracy: Draws on factual information garnered from careful cultivation of a broad knowledge of WGU’s goals and processes; investigates beyond assumptions.
Adaptability: Course corrects behaviors and communication style to meet the needs of a wide range of situations; tackles obstacles appropriately; is comfortable with ambiguity.
Reliability: Accountable to others; does what it takes to get the job done; actions are consistent with words; follows through on commitments; exhibits exceptional integrity.
Attitude: Displays commitment to the organization and to personal growth; self-motivated and able to motivate and inspire others; asserts self appropriately to champion ideas; tells the truth in a direct and constructive manner.
Initiative: Self-directs with a strong bias for action; leads the way in improvement of performance or processes; displays keen interest in students and organization.
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.
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.
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 Project Management Office (PMO) manager to develop or refine project management procedures and processes for the purpose of improving efficiency.
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.
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 in order 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

eligible for bonuses
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