Program Manager

Job Overview

Overview

Build the Future
At McGraw Hill, we are dedicated to delivering digital learning experiences that transform education for learners and educators. Our focus is on creating seamless, impactful products that truly benefit our users while supporting growth and collaboration across teams. We foster a culture that values innovation, teamwork, and a balance between career growth and personal well-being.

How can you make an impact?

The Program Manager is responsible for planning, scheduling, and tracking of one or more programs and/or projects in MHE's Digital Platform Group (DPG).  These programs/projects may be part of a larger program of projects.  This role will partner with technical product management, QA, engineering, and business partners to provide leadership in delivering innovative digital solutions to our customers.  This position will not only focus on the planning, communication, and coordination of the project but also go beyond the end date to the transitional and operational elements by providing leadership in implementing the program strategy.  This role requires strong user focus and empathy. This role is accountable to management and sponsors for schedule and quality of all program elements and is the primary facilitator of collaboration both within and across teams.

This is a remote position open to applicants authorized to work for any employer within the United States.

What You'll Do:

• Chief promise keeper for achieving agreed upon milestones in committed projects/programs, as well as maintained software
  • Proactively identifies and removes impediments to ensure successful delivery of team commitments across a program
  • Actively monitors schedule compliance – i.e., enforcing and/or monitoring, and escalating when there is a potential issue across a program
  • Owns and drives issue resolution and risk mitigation across a program
  • Ensures teams/stakeholders focus on both intermediate milestones and end-to-end delivery of the user experience
  • Drives commitments to completion on-time, on-scope, and on-quality across one or more program
  • Facilitates the successful release of projects/programs (e.g. Go/No Go meetings, documented release plans, etc.)
  • Monitors and drives tech ticket maintenance and resolution

• Coaches and facilitates one or more scrum teams, and also leads other Project Managers
  • Champions agile methodologies throughout the development process
  • Ensures understanding of and execution of the SDLC
  • Monitors team progress and redirects as needed for success
  • Actively shields the team from distractions during the sprint
  • Monitors and nurtures the health/morale of team
  • Effectively mentors Project Managers
  • Demonstrates skill in leadership, negotiation, conflict management, communication, and critical thinking
  • Provides leadership to Project Managers assigned to his/her projects or other projects
  • Coaches on agile practices across assigned programs. 

• Ensures all projects/programs are executed with excellence
  • Understands and tracks roadmap commitments after proper prioritization
  • Recognizes cross-project and cross-team interdependencies and communicates accordingly to expose and mitigate potential risks
  • Escalates issues across impacted projects and teams
  • Ensures the charter is complete, approved, and a living document to reflect the current state of a project/program
  • Establishes team norms that participants support
  • Maintains a precise and accurate decision log that is communicated to stakeholders to ensure visibility and traceability for key decisions
  • Executes successful kick-offs, iteration 0’s, and dependency resolution
  • Maintains project artifacts
  • Ensures transparency and buy in on key decisions across the program. 

• Effectively communicates within and across teams to ensure successful collaboration
  • Excels in leadership, negotiation, conflict management, communication, and critical thinking
  • Owns and manages communication plan within and across projects and programs
  • Adjusts communication style and delivery for team/audience
  • Diplomatically addresses issues with a wide variety of stakeholders
  • Works out dependency issues and escalates when necessary
  • Takes and shares accurate notes with the right level of detail for the intended audience
  • Owns agenda creation (establishing, circulating, and keeping refreshed), including appropriate attendee identification, invitation, and confirmation that required attendees can/do attend
  • Coordinates software development in orchestrating work between student input tools and content creation teams.
  • Assists with Product Operations requests as required (Rostering, Team and Program Metrics, CapEx and OpEx reporting, etc).
  • Provides program leadership to other Project Managers assigned to his/her projects in a program.

What You Bring:

• Bachelor's degree. Business, Information Technology, Computer Science or related field preferred. Advanced degree is a plus.
• Agile Project management experience required, demonstrated by a minimum of 7 years with progressively increasing responsibility a Project Manager, managing a project timeline, resources, and scope in order to meet business requirements. Familiarity with JIRA, Confluence, Slack a plus. 
• In depth knowledge of software development and adoption, ideally in Ed Tech.
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification or PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) certification is a plus.
• Self-motivated and well-organized; able to prioritize tasks and work well under pressure.
• Able to work with a wide group of stakeholders in a positive and collaborative manner.
• Clear communication to build consensus across teams and stakeholders; capable of communicating diplomatically with a wide audience of individuals and stakeholders while managing expectations, behaviors, and personalities.

• Possess a great balance of IQ and EQ to be able to solve both technical and social challenges; positive disposition and leadership style.

• Cross-disciplinary understanding of product management, software development, and quality assurance.
• Growth mindset, adaptable and open to change, interested in improving over time and flexible and adaptable to tools and ways of working
• Demonstrated skills in leadership, negotiation, conflict management, collaboration, organizational and critical thinking.
• Ability to work out complex dependency issues and escalate issues across impacted projects, programs, and teams.  Communicates up and down the chain as necessary.
• Capable of influence in a matrix structure where formal authority may lie elsewhere.

Competencies:

• Ability to work with cross-functional teams in an agile software development environment.
• Adept at leading dispersed team members across offices/time-zones.
• Adaptable to changes in business opportunities and priorities.
• Diplomatic in managing expectations, behaviors, and personalities.
• Ability to see the big picture of a large program, as well as the detail necessary to drive its successful delivery.
• Experienced with driving issues and risks to resolution/mitigation.
• Resilience in proactively removing impediments to ensure successful delivery of team commitments.

Why work for us?

The work you do at McGraw Hill will be work that matters. We are collectively building experiences that will help shape the future of education. Play your part and experience a sense of fulfilment that will inspire you to even greater heights.

The pay range for this position is between $124,350 - $165,000 annually, however, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location. An annual bonus plan may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical and/or other benefits, depending on the position offered. Click here to learn more about our benefit offerings.

McGraw Hill recruiters always use a “@mheducation.com” email address and/or from our Applicant Tracking System, iCIMS. Any variation of this email domain should be considered suspicious. Additionally, McGraw Hill recruiters and authorized representatives will never request sensitive information in email. 

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