Skills Ontology and Learning Recognition Project Lead

University of Maryland Global Campus

3d • $105,000 - $110,000 • Remote

About The Position

The Skills Ontology and Learning Recognition Project Lead supports implementation of UMGC’s learning-recognition initiative by coordinating the day-to-day work needed to operationalize the Director’s skills ontology, translation framework, and related project deliverables. Under the direction of the Skills Ontology and Learning Recognition Director, the role translates strategy into work plans, documentation, stakeholder follow-through, and coordinated delivery across academic, technical, and partner teams.

Working with the Director, faculty subject matter experts, data and interoperability specialists, and participating partner institutions, the Project Lead maintains project momentum, organizes cross-functional workstreams, supports crosswalks, standards mappings, and implementation documentation, and helps ensure consistent and transparent implementation with clear traceability and timely delivery. The role is grant-funded through a two-year Gates Foundation grant, and funding for the position is tied to that grant. It is also responsible for executing and delivering grant project initiatives in collaboration with cross-functional teams and aligning those initiatives with the university’s broader strategic goals.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Minimum 5–7 years of progressively responsible experience in project or program coordination, academic administration, learning recognition, workforce-aligned education, skills-related initiatives, or a related area.
• Experience managing project plans, workstreams, timelines, documentation, and stakeholder communication across multiple contributors and functional areas.
• Working familiarity with skills taxonomies, ontologies, competency frameworks, prior learning assessment (PLA), credentialing, or structured crosswalks; ability to support subject-matter work without serving as the primary methodological authority.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate faculty or subject matter expert engagement, including meeting preparation, work-plan management, follow-up, documentation, and review logistics.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and written communication skills, including experience producing status reports, meeting materials, technical documentation, implementation records, and process guides.
• Comfort working with project management tools, shared documentation environments, implementation artifacts, risk tracking, budget/resource monitoring, and transparent decision logs in a cross-functional setting.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in higher education administration, education, workforce development, project management, instructional design, information science, assessment, or a related field.
• Experience supporting grant-funded initiatives, multi-institution collaborations, or externally sponsored projects.
• Familiarity with military learning evaluation, workforce learning records, digital credentials, interoperability-related initiatives, or standards-mapping work.
• Exposure to AI-assisted recommendation or evaluation workflows, documentation traceability, data governance, or quality assurance practices.
• PMP certification, CAPM, Agile/project coordination training, or comparable experience managing complex project delivery.
• Experience partnering with Academic Affairs, faculty governance, sponsored programs, institutional research, assessment functions, or technical/data teams in a university setting.

Responsibilities

• Maintain the integrated project plan, timelines, milestones, dependency tracking, and action logs for learning-recognition workstreams.
• Coordinate day-to-day activities across faculty reviewers, subject matter experts, data and interoperability staff, advising, institutional research, Military and Veterans Programs, and other participating units.
• Track progress against deliverables, technical dependencies, and review cycles; escalate risks, delays, and implementation issues to the Director with recommended next steps.
• Support development and maintenance of working crosswalks, evidence tables, standards mappings, and version-controlled records that operationalize the Director’s skills-to-credit strategy.
• Document taxonomy research, standards and architecture decisions, implementation decisions, and process changes to keep methods transparent, auditable, traceable, and reusable.
• Coordinate review cycles, consolidate feedback, and maintain current working materials for project teams, technical contributors, and faculty reviewers.
• Identify, schedule, onboard, and coordinate faculty reviewers and external subject matter experts for mapping, policy review, and methodology implementation.
• Manage work plans, meeting schedules, contracts, stipends, and workload documentation in partnership with Academic Affairs, Human Resources, and other administrative offices.
• Prepare materials, agendas, and follow-up items to keep faculty and subject matter experts aligned on deliverables, review expectations, and deadlines.
• Prepare governance materials, status reports, meeting notes, decision logs, and traceability documentation for internal leadership, partner discussions, and sponsored reporting needs.
• Organize content and documentation for reports, toolkit materials, implementation guides, and other dissemination outputs.
• Maintain centralized records of requirements, use cases, approvals, and workflow artifacts, including documentation supporting transparent review of AI-assisted recommendation processes.
• Maintain the project risk register and support mitigation tracking with the Director and project leadership.
• Monitor personnel and non-personnel expenditures, resource needs, and administrative dependencies related to project operations and faculty engagement.
• Flag emerging issues and recommend sequencing or resourcing adjustments when timelines, dependencies, or review requirements change.
• Support coordination with partner institutions and ecosystem organizations by scheduling working sessions, documenting requirements, and tracking shared commitments.
• Coordinate logistics and follow-through for demonstrations, pilots, interoperability and standards discussions, schema or data-exchange working sessions, and other cross-institution activities.
• Work with data and interoperability specialists to organize materials related to reusable data structures, standards mappings, APIs, and partner-facing implementation discussions.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• 22 days of paid vacation, 15 days of sick leave, 3 personal days, and 16 paid holidays (17 during general election years); time off rates are prorated based on hours worked.
• Medical, vision, dental, and prescription plans for individuals and families, effective the first of the month following hire. Contingent II employees averaging 30 or more hours per week are eligible for subsidized state of Maryland medical and prescription benefits; those averaging at least 20 but less than 30 hours per week are eligible for a health-plan stipend.
• Term life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, and long-term disability insurance, subject to stated eligibility limits.
• Retirement stipend equal to 7.25 percent of base salary for Contingent II employees; employees may contribute to a supplemental retirement account.
• Supplemental retirement plans include 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), and Roth options; the university does not provide subsidies or matching funds.
• Immediate tuition remission eligibility for Contingent II employees at UMGC or University of Maryland College Park. Spouses and dependent children may qualify for undergraduate tuition remission after two years of service; benefits are prorated for eligible part-time employees.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level