Program Manager, Academia

Common Mission Project (CMP) is a nonprofit organization focused on building education and innovation infrastructure for national interest work. The Program Manager will oversee the flagship program Hacking for Defense, ensuring operational excellence and support for educators and students across a network of universities.

Responsibilities:

• Own program operational cadence across the university network: semester cycles, delivery milestones, and the tracking systems that show program health at a glance
• Produce weekly and monthly contract tracker reporting against the contract vehicle, keeping delivery visible, current, and audit-ready
• Manage the working relationship with the prime contractor on the vehicle: coordination, deliverable alignment, and clean information flow in both directions
• Ensure educators across the network have everything they need for delivery: onboarding and preparation packages, readiness assessment, materials, and answers when they need them
• Run the professional development rhythm for the educator network, in partnership with the Director of Education and Training and the Education Project Manager, including support for the tiered educator training structure and the Educator Forum
• Apply and maintain educator readiness assessment outputs and the educator impact metrics framework so the network's teaching quality is visible and improving
• Keep programs delivered with fidelity across the network: the methodology taught as designed, the course infrastructure current, and gaps surfaced to the curriculum owners for fixes
• Coordinate with the Center for Education & Research so curriculum improvements flow into delivery and field lessons flow back
• Work inside the Center for Programs & Network operating rhythm, keeping status current on the dashboard and coordinating with the Events & Partnerships and student ecosystem functions where H4D touches them

Requirements:

• 5+ years of program management or program operations experience, with direct responsibility for delivery cadence, reporting, and partner coordination
• Direct experience delivering university or high school entrepreneurship programs and the Lean methodology, or deep working knowledge of experiential entrepreneurship curriculum. University-environment delivery is the minimum
• A record of working directly with the people in your programs: educators, students, and practitioners, face to face and week to week. Program administration without direct user contact is not a substitute
• Demonstrated management of a deliberate volume of programming: multiple cohorts, sites, and concurrent cycles
• Experience with federal contract reporting or working inside federally funded programs, including partner or subcontract relationships
• Strong systems habits: trackers, dashboards, documentation, and processes that other people can follow
• Clear, professional communication with educators, partners, and program leadership
• This role requires full engagement during core business hours, Eastern time, and proactive communication as the operating norm
• Bachelor's degree required
• Due to the nature of our work, U.S. citizenship is required for this position