Senior Manager, Education Operations

Sallie Mae•New Castle, DE

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Education Operations develops and leads the education strategy that builds employee capability, strengthens operational performance, and supports an exceptional customer experience across Operations. The role provides strategic leadership for new-hire education, continuing education, and ongoing skill development, ensuring programs align with business priorities, regulatory requirements, organizational changes, and evolving workforce needs. The Senior Manager partners with Operations leadership and teams such as Quality Assurance, Voice of the Customer, Compliance, Risk, and Process Management to turn business needs, performance trends, and emerging risks into effective education strategies. The role leads the evolution of Operations Education into a proactive, data-informed capability-building function. It also oversees education programs and resources, develops education leaders and professionals, supports operational change, and reports on learning effectiveness and business impact.

Requirements

Demonstrated experience leading learning, education, training, organizational development, or workforce capability programs in a complex operational environment.
Proven ability to develop and execute learning strategies aligned with organizational priorities and measurable business outcomes.
Strong leadership experience, including developing teams, managing competing priorities, and influencing across organizational boundaries.
Ability to use operational data, quality results, employee performance information, and other insights to identify capability gaps and develop solutions.
Strong understanding of instructional design, adult learning principles, curriculum development, facilitation, and learning evaluation.
Experience leading large-scale learning initiatives and organizational change efforts.
Strong project and program management capabilities, including managing multiple complex initiatives simultaneously.
Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and executive communication skills.
Strong consultative and relationship-management skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional partners.
Experience managing budgets, resources, capacity, and learning priorities.
Ability to translate complex business requirements into practical, scalable education solutions.
Demonstrated ability to operate strategically while maintaining appropriate oversight of execution and results.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in education, Learning and Development, Organizational Development, Business Administration, Organizational Management, Change Management, or a related field.
Progressive leadership experience in corporate learning, Operations education, learning and development, or a related discipline.
Experience supporting large-scale contact center or customer-facing Operations organizations.
Experience partnering with Quality Assurance, Compliance, Risk, Customer Experience, and Operations functions.
Experience with learning management systems, e-learning platforms, instructional design technology, and emerging AI-enabled learning or performance-support capabilities.
Professional certifications related to learning and development, instructional design, project management, or change management.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute an Operations Education strategy and roadmap aligned with organizational goals, operational performance, customer experience, risk, and workforce needs.
Establish a learning framework covering new-hire education, on-the-job learning, continuing education, skill development, and ongoing reinforcement.
Anticipate future capability needs and prepare employees for changes in processes, technology, products, regulations, and customer expectations.
Advise senior Operations leaders on workforce capability, learning priorities, and performance improvement opportunities.
Establish standards and governance that support consistency, quality, scalability, and effectiveness across education programs.
Partner with stakeholders to identify performance trends, capability gaps, customer experience opportunities, and emerging learning needs.
Translate performance data and business insights into education strategies, and establish measures for learning effectiveness and business impact.
Analyze education and operational performance data, recommend adjustments, and report insights and value to senior leadership.
Promote continuous learning and reinforcement throughout the employee lifecycle.
Provide strategic oversight for the design, development, implementation, and ongoing improvement of Operations learning programs.
Ensure curricula and learning experiences meet business requirements, procedures, compliance expectations, and customer experience standards.
Guide instructional approaches using instructor-led, virtual, simulation, practical, digital, and performance-support methods as appropriate.
Set standards for curriculum design, assessments, learning materials, and instructional delivery; evolve programs based on feedback and changing needs.
Lead, coach, and develop Education leaders and professionals; set expectations for instructional excellence, partnership, accountability, innovation, and improvement.
Develop talent and succession plans and build subject-matter and cross-functional expertise within the Education team.
Partner with Operations leaders and subject matter experts to align learning priorities with business objectives.
Support large-scale operational changes by determining education requirements and workforce readiness needs, and enabling adoption of new processes, systems, policies, products, and technologies.
Partner with AI Enablement & Content on technology and point-of-need knowledge opportunities for employee learning.
Represent Operations Education in cross-functional initiatives requiring learning, workforce readiness, or capability-building expertise.
Manage education resources, capacity, priorities, and budgets; prioritize requests based on risk, customer impact, business value, and organizational priorities.
Oversee education project portfolios, timelines, and resource allocation, and maintain required controls and documentation.
Monitor external learning trends, emerging technologies, and industry practices and assess their application to Operations education.

Benefits

Competitive base salaries
Bonus incentives
Generous PTO, floating holidays, and 12 observed federal holidays
401(k) with employer match
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance
Hospital indemnity and critical illness coverage
Pet insurance
Employer-paid short-term and long-term disability insurance
Employer-paid basic life insurance
Flexible hybrid working arrangements
Paid parental leave
Adoption reimbursement programs
On-site staffed fitness centers in Delaware and a gym subsidy for locations outside Delaware
Confidential counseling support (EAP)
Health Advocacy services
Wellness program with financial incentives
Tuition reimbursement
Family Scholarship Programs
Career development and training opportunities