Director, Functional Program Management

Summary of Position:

The Director, Functional Program Management, leads a team of functional program/project managers to successfully deliver products, platforms, and services across the full K12 School Assessment portfolio of state, district, and partnership accounts. The Director is responsible for establishing a team to work collaboratively with the customer-dedicated Portfolio Teams to deeply understand customer requirements and manage the schedule, cost, and quality of the customer deliverables for which the functional groups are responsible. This is a new position that reports directly to the Senior Vice President of Sales and Contract Management (SCM) in School Assessment.

This position is an opportunity for a driven, self-starter, who thrives on developing collaborative relationships, continuous improvement, and driving efficiency in how we deliver on our work while maintaining the highest quality standards and exceeding customer expectations.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Functional Program Management

• Establish and maintain positive and productive relationships with internal and external customers. Drive teams to be responsive and timely in understanding, documenting, and delivering on customer needs.
• Lead functional program/project managers to collaborate with the Portfolio Team(s) for completion of the project management plan, requirements documentation, risk management plan, communication plan, staffing plan, procurement plan and other documentation required to effectively manage program deliverables
• Lead a team of master schedulers responsible for schedule management across School Assessment. Develop protocols for schedule creation, baselining, capacity planning, and solutioning for on-time delivery.
• Direct changes to processes and tools that enact accountability and lead to efficiencies, while maintaining or improving quality of deliverables. Identify and provide inputs so functional leaders across Content, Psychometrics, Scoring, Publishing, Operations, and Technology have the information they need to plan and deliver work.
• Establish bridge between customer requirement documentation and functional requirements. Identify ways to continuously improve and automate the way in which requirements are captured and utilized, including as part of system validation.
• Regularly engage dedicated portfolio teams and functional managers to understand their opportunities and/or needs and identify ways to support their success.
• Interface and lead cross-functional teams when dealing with escalated issues and critical program-related events.
• Prepare and present internal and external reports on program status, risks and other program related issues including facilitation of Schedule, Risk, and Issue meeting.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

People Management

• Lead, mentor and grow functional program management team and individuals.
• Act as a strong team player, embracing ownership, accountability, and responsibility for the team’s work.
• Serve as a model for collaborative problem solving across groups.
• Assign individual responsibilities of core team. Provide leadership, including the ability to manage, train, develop and motivate team members.

Financial Management

• Support gathering functional manager inputs for program financials to meet revenue/margin goals, explaining trends and differences from original plan.
• Support cost collection and developing pricing estimates for scope changes using accepted Pearson practices.

As required by the Colorado Equal Pay Transparency Act, Pearson provides a reasonable range of minimum compensation for roles that may be hired in Colorado. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and specific office location. For the state of Colorado only , the range of starting pay for this role is $115,000 - $135,000. This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive program, and information on benefits offered is here.

Qualifications/Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree required or commensurate experience. Master’s Degree preferred.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification preferred or demonstrated understanding and application of Project Management Institute (PMI) principles
• 10 years people management experience, leading a team of highly engaged program/project managers and providing mentoring, professional development, and performance management
• Excellent analytical, financial, planning and execution skills.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple, potentially conflicting priorities.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, including listening, negotiation, meeting facilitation and the ability to develop and deliver presentations.
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Outlook, Excel, Visio, PowerPoint, as well as SmartSheets, KeyedIn
• Some travel required

Learning is the most powerful force for change in the world. More than 20,000 Pearson employees deliver our products and services in nearly 200 countries, all working towards a common purpose – to help everyone achieve their potential through learning. We do that by providing high quality, digital content and learning experiences, as well as assessments and qualifications that help people build their skills and grow with the world around them. We are the world’s leading learning company. Learn more at pearsonplc.com.

Pearson believes that wherever learning flourishes, so do people. We are committed to being an anti-racist company in everything we do. We value the power of an inclusive culture and a strong sense of belonging. We promote a culture where differences are embraced, opportunities are accessible, consideration and respect are the norm, and all individuals are supported in reaching their full potential. Through our talent, we believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion make us a more innovative and vibrant place to work. People are at the center, and we are committed to a sustainable environment and workplace where talent can learn, grow, and thrive.

To learn more about Pearson’s commitment to a diverse and inclusive workforce, please click here: http://www.pearson.com/careers/diversity-and-inclusion.html

Pearson is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and a member of E-Verify. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. All employment is decided based on qualifications, merit, and business need. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other group protected by law.

Job: PROJECT/PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT

Organization: Assessment & Qualifications

Schedule: FULL\_TIME

Req ID: 7893

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