Department: SEPO Academic Delivery
Reports To: Associate Director, Academic Delivery
Position Type: Permanent - Full-time (People Leader)
Location: Remote, US - Boston or New England area
About the Role
Reporting to the Associate Director, the Senior Program Delivery Manager (Senior PDM) is a senior individual contributor who owns delivery of the largest, most complex program in the senior executive (SEPO) portfolio, a senior executive learning journey serving hundreds of senior leaders and CXOs worldwide.
This role is for a deeply experienced program leader who can run a program of this scale and visibility end-to-end, while setting the bar for learner experience across SEPO. As a people manager, you will hire and develop a team of Program Delivery Managers, sharing playbooks, coaching through complex situations, and helping elevate delivery excellence across the portfolio.
You will work with a great deal of autonomy, operate at the intersection of university partners, executive-level learners, and a global cross-functional team, and shape how Emeritus delivers world-class executive education at scale.
How You Will Make an Impact
Team Management and Enablement:
• Serve as a people manager for a team of Program Delivery Managers dedicated to a portfolio within the SEPO line of business-build a culture of collaboration and open communication, develop individual capabilities, and provide feedback to help the team grow and improve.
• Influence and help shape delivery standards, SOPs, and quality playbooks used across the PDM team.
• Partner with the Associate Director on hiring and onboarding new PDMs.
• Lead knowledge-sharing forums so that innovations you develop scale across the portfolio.
Program Leadership and Delivery:
• Own the end-to-end delivery of a portfolio of senior executive programs: multi-cohort, 6-12-month learning journeys with hundreds of senior leaders and CXOs enrolled.
• Lead every phase of the program lifecycle: pre-launch readiness, kickoff, live sessions, capstones, electives, and on-campus programming.
• Own program health against a high bar across completion rate, engagement, learner satisfaction, and escalation resolution.
• Manage program economics including budget, course leader spend, and cost-to-deliver, partnering with leadership on forecasting and reporting.
• Act as the owner when something is off-track, surfacing risks early and driving resolution across functions.
Learner Experience and Engagement:
• Set and uphold the learner experience standard for executive-level cohorts so that every touchpoint reflects the expectations of senior leaders and CXOs.
• Identify at-risk learners early and personally drive targeted interventions to keep the cohort engaged and progressing.
• Systematically capture learner feedback and translate insights into program improvements.
Stakeholder & Partner Management
• Build trusted relationships with the university partner, faculty, and senior internal stakeholders (Outreach, Admissions, Design, Product, University Partnerships).
• Serve as the day-to-day Emeritus lead with the partner institution for this program, where executive-level partners expect executive-level responsiveness.
• Attend on-campus events (4-6 per year) and meet with partner staff and faculty to provide high-touch support for delivery needs.
• Provide proactive, data-backed updates on program health, risks, and wins and drive alignment on key decisions.
• Deliver detailed feedback on program content, faculty experience, and platform to help internal partners continuously improve.
Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement
• Oversee the full operational layer of the program including program setup, participant onboarding, program logistics, live session production, and completion status.
• Identify and lead cross-functional process improvement initiatives that reduce manual work, improve delivery efficiency, and make the learner experience more scalable.
• Partner with Technology and Product to influence the platform roadmap based on frontline learner and team needs.
• Codify what works on this strategic program into reusable playbooks for the rest of the portfolio.
Data & Performance Analytics
• Own the metrics that matter for this program across engagement, completion rates, escalation resolution, and cost-to-deliver.
• Use data to identify trends, prioritize improvements, and report on program health to senior leadership.
• Review reporting and dashboards and act on the right signals in real time.
What You'll Bring
Required Qualifications
• 6+ years of experience in program delivery, customer success, learning operations, or executive client management with a track record of owning complex, high-stakes programs end-to-end.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• Proven success delivering for high-profile, executive-level audiences including senior leaders, C-suite, board-level participants.
• Readiness to lead a team of individual contributors
• Exceptional program management and operational discipline with comfort juggling multiple complex workstreams simultaneously at a large scale.
• Fluency with data to drive decisions, diagnose issues, and improve outcomes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with comfort representing Emeritus to senior external stakeholders, including university partners and faculty.
• Strong influence and coaching skills with the ability to shape outcomes and elevate peers without having formal authority over them.
Preferred Qualifications
• Background in executive education, higher education, EdTech, or online learning delivery.
• 1-2 years of experience as a people manager.
• Experience building trusting working relationships with US university staff and faculty.
• Familiarity with learning management systems such as Canvas.
• Event management and community-building experience.
• Track record of launching new programs, markets, or large-scale initiatives.
Key Competencies
• Leadership presence with ownership of complex, high-visibility programs
• Learner-obsessed with a passion for executive-level customer delight
• Strong program management and operational rigor at scale
• Data-driven decision maker
• Cross-functional collaborator and influencer who leads without authority
• People developer who elevates the people around them
• Growth mindset with a drive to build, improve, and raise the bar
• Excellent communicator across cultures, functions, and seniority levels
• Effective executor in a fast-paced, high-growth, global organization
In press:
• https://inc42.com/buzz/edtech-startup-eruditus-fy23-revenue-crosses-inr-3000-cr-mark/
• emeritus harvard business school: Edtech unicorn Emeritus story now a Harvard Business School case study - The Economic Times (indiatimes.com)
