Senior Manager, Certification Operations, Data Center Learning

Amazon•Herndon, VA

About The Position

AWS Infrastructure Services owns the design, planning, delivery, and operation of all AWS global infrastructure. In other words, we’re the people who keep the cloud running. We support all AWS data centers and all of the servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment that ensure our customers have continual access to the innovation they rely on. We work on the most challenging problems, with thousands of variables impacting the supply chain — and we’re looking for talented people who want to help. You’ll join a diverse team of software, hardware, and network engineers, supply chain specialists, security experts, operations managers, and other vital roles. You’ll collaborate with people across AWS to help us deliver the highest standards for safety and security while providing seemingly infinite capacity at the lowest possible cost for our customers. And you’ll experience an inclusive culture that welcomes bold ideas and empowers you to own them to completion. Our Certification Operations team is seeking a Senior Manager, Certification Operations who is customer obsessed and believes there is always an opportunity to improve the way we assess and certify our builders' work-readiness. As the single-threaded owner of the Data Center Learning Certification program, you'll manage and develop teams of certification professionals building high-impact assessment methodologies for our AWS Data Center Communities (DCC) organization. This position requires constant collaboration with Senior Leaders in Data Center Operations, Safety, Security, Logistics, Planning, Delivery, and other teams to determine the right certification strategy and execution. Your team will ensure that we are building the most important, most impactful certification solutions that assess ~15,000 technicians across Data Center Operations (DCO), Data Center Engineering Operations (DCEO), and Logistics (DCMAT) job families. You will also launch the external AWS Data Center Operations certification that validates foundational competencies and technical knowledge to pre-qualify external candidates to work for AWS. We are looking for a professional who has demonstrated deep people management expertise and the ability to build high-performing teams across multiple time zones and cultures. The ideal candidate will have proven success leading teams through organizational change while establishing and improving operational metrics that drive excellence. You must be able to prioritize workstreams in alignment with organizational goals and push the boundaries of certification operations, sourcing and integrating the newest technology that drives productivity and value for our customers. As the Senior Manager you will represent our organization across AWS. This entails understanding the short, medium, and long-term certification and organizational goals, and translating these into an actionable vision, roadmap and people growth plans. Your role will be tasked with management of a team of experienced certification professionals – their growth and development as individuals and leaders.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent in a relevant field such as Instructional Design, Educational Technology, or Organizational Development
5+ years of team management experience, or a PMP certificate and 5+ years of program or project management experience
10+ years of blending product and program management skills to execute strategic initiatives about process creation, standardization, and improvement experience
Experience launching and building brand recognition of public certification programs

Nice To Haves

Experience creating and implementing large-scale programs
Expertise with industry-standard certification practices, assessment methodologies, and credentialing systems.
Familiarity and/or experience and with evidence-based assessment and certification research methodologies along with program management tools, learning management systems, certification management platforms, assessment authoring tools, and integration with operational systems.
A strong focus on internal customers' needs and satisfaction, with an emphasis in demonstrating return on investment in certification.
Experience building measures and metrics, and developing reporting solutions

Responsibilities

Develop and execute strategies and mechanisms to ensure effective development and delivery of creative and innovative certification methodologies that scale across multiple geographies and languages.
Work strategically with country and regional leaders to identify flexible, but consistent certification solutions to operational challenges and work toward ensuring only qualified builders access appropriate work requests.
Solve business problems with focus on understanding root causes and driving forward-looking opportunities in certification operations.
Leverage AI and emerging technologies to optimize certification workflows and enhance team productivity.
Drive utilization of assessment and performance data to support data-driven certification outcomes.
Design new metrics and enhance existing metrics to support the future state of certification operations.
Experiment with and successfully implement new methods and modes of certification that build upon academic and industrial best practices.
Integrate certification operations within centralized solutions (e.g. Boost) to enable efficient planning and management of work requests.
Coach, mentor, and develop the team, including establishing and overseeing new employee onboarding programs, and providing career development planning and opportunities.
Work with leading online training and certification platforms to develop and grow AWS Data Center Operations external certifications.
Communicate at all levels, including with Executive Management across Global Data Center Operations.
Own Strategy of the Certification Operations, including methodology, assessment, management, adoption, integration and inspection.
Prioritize Work in alignment with Strategic Initiatives across DCO, DCEO, and DCMAT job families.
Gather and Use Metrics to Drive Decisions on Certification Operations and Investments in Builder Assessment.
Manage Team Operations to Schedule and Budget across three main org capabilities: development, delivery, and integration with DC tools.
Create Comprehensive Certification Programs across a variety of Assessment Modalities and Work Environments.
Establish and monitor adoption and operational excellence metrics for certifications, including coverage and impact on safety, availability, capacity, cost and productivity.