OU Education Services is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to managing and expanding online learning for the University of Oklahoma System. They are seeking a Project Manager to drive key initiatives aimed at transforming the student experience, managing complex projects, and collaborating with various stakeholders to enhance recruitment and retention.
Responsibilities:
- Lead end-to-end delivery of technology, process, and university partnership initiatives — defining scope, timelines, resource plans, and risk mitigation from initiation through closeout
- Build and maintain portfolio roadmaps; communicate status at the right level of detail for leadership, project teams, and operations
- Apply waterfall, agile, or hybrid methodologies without dogma; maintain Jira and Confluence as reliable sources of truth
- Surface and escalate risks proactively; facilitate retrospectives and convert lessons into improved practices
- Serve as the primary OUES PMO liaison to OU stakeholders — faculty, deans, program directors, department chairs, and university administrators
- Navigate the culture and structure of a large research university with confidence — understanding how decisions are made and how to move work forward in an academic environment
- Represent OUES in joint working sessions, steering committees, and governance meetings; anticipate partner needs and bring solutions before they’re requested
- Lead the full lifecycle of OU-facing initiatives: new program launches, system integrations, cross-institutional process design, and collaboration sessions with faculty and academic leadership
- Lead process improvement initiatives end-to-end: current-state analysis, root cause identification, future-state design, and post-launch measurement
- Build professional process documentation in Lucidchart — swimlane diagrams, decision trees, and system integration maps for stakeholders at all levels
- Facilitate structured process workshops with both OUES and OU stakeholders; apply Lean or Six Sigma frameworks to prioritize opportunities
- Own change management for process transitions: impact assessments, communication plans, training coordination, and adoption tracking
- Develop and maintain PMO-wide templates, playbooks, and standard operating procedures
- Lead functional requirements discovery — stakeholder interviews, workshops, and synthesis into user stories, functional specs, and acceptance criteria — across both technical and academic stakeholder groups
- Validate proposed solutions against documented requirements with developers, architects, and Salesforce admins before build begins; maintain traceability throughout
- Own end-to-end UAT: test strategy, test plans, scripts, tester coordination, defect management, regression cycles, and formal sign-off
- Coordinate OU stakeholder participation in UAT; prepare academic partners for testing, gather feedback, and advocate for their experience in defect resolution
- Lead Salesforce projects (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Education Cloud) from requirements through configuration, testing, and adoption
- Manage telephony and contact center platform projects including migrations, vendor coordination, and CRM integration
- Oversee data and analytics initiatives — data governance, pipeline integrity, dashboard development, and reporting accuracy
- Lead OU-facing coordination for system integration projects, bridging OU institutional systems with OUES platforms and managing communication and change management for system changes affecting OU partners
- Hold vendors and third-party partners accountable to scope, quality, and delivery commitments
- Develop portfolio communications tailored to each audience: executive summaries for senior leadership, operational updates for working teams, and plain-language guidance for student-facing and academic staff
- Facilitate regular cadence meetings — prepare agendas, drive decisions, document outcomes, and track follow-through
- Translate complex OUES technical and operational decisions into language OU partners can understand and act on, and vice versa
Requirements:
- 10+ years of project management experience with at least 5 years in or alongside higher education institutions
- Demonstrated experience engaging university academic leadership — faculty, deans, or provost-level administrators — with the presence and preparation to be credible in those relationships
- Proven track record leading complex, multi-stakeholder program launches or institutional initiatives from planning through steady-state
- Proven experience leading process improvement initiatives with measurable outcomes
- Strong functional requirements gathering and documentation skills across multi-stakeholder technology projects
- Demonstrated UAT leadership: test planning, script writing, defect management, and stakeholder sign-off
- Hands-on Salesforce CRM experience in a student services, enrollment, or advising context
- Proficiency with Lucidchart (or Visio/Miro) for process mapping and workflow documentation
- Proficiency with Jira and Confluence; strong command of waterfall, agile, and hybrid methodologies
- Experience with telephony or contact center technology projects
- Working familiarity with data governance and analytics project lifecycles
- Demonstrated organizational change management experience: impact assessment, communication planning, adoption monitoring
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills — polished in an executive briefing, warm and direct in a team meeting
- OPM or continuing education environment experience
- Familiarity with higher education governance, accreditation timelines, or academic program development cycles
- Lean, Six Sigma, or formal BPM methodology knowledge
- Contact center platform migration experience (Five9, Genesys, Amazon Connect)
- SQL or data pipeline familiarity; Scrum Master or agile coaching background
- Background in enrollment management, academic advising, or student success
- PMP certification