Project Manager

Project Delivery & Portfolio Management 

• 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. 

OU Partnership & Relationship Management 

• 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. 

Process Improvement & Workflow Design 

• 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. 

Requirements Gathering & UAT Leadership 

• 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. 

Technology Oversight & System Integration 

• 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. 

Communication & Reporting 

• 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. 

Required 

• 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. 

Preferred 

• 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.