Job Description:As a Senior Project Manager, you are the operational heartbeat of a cross-functional product team. You are responsible for orchestrating the delivery of complex projects that can span software features, digital content, service design, and physical materials. You don't just follow a schedule; you own the critical path, anticipate risks before they become blockers, and ensure that our writers, designers, and other partners are working in perfect sync to hit launch and readiness milestones with excellence.
Responsibilities:- Orchestrate complex delivery - lead the end-to-end execution of large-scale initiatives (e.g., a full grade-band curriculum refresh, a major platform feature launch, ready to launch for a group of products), managing intricate dependencies between curriculum writing, software engineering, physical production, service readiness, and more, and the different teams themselves.
- Master the critical path - map out and manage the high-stakes timeline for large-scale initiatives, identifying the "long-lead" items-like print manufacturing or complex software integrations-and ensure the team is focused on the highest-leverage work to protect the launch date.
- Drive risk mitigation and problem-solving - proactively identify project risks, the development and implement mitigations that restore project health. Know when to escalate and ask for help.
- Facilitate high-impactrituals - design and lead planning and execution meetings that keep the team moving, ensuring every meeting has a clear objective and ends with documented ownership and follow through.
- Own physical, digital, and service readiness - work closely with Supply Chain to manage the "Bill of Materials" (BOM), making sure every physical kit component and digital lesson asset is tracked, QA'd, and ready for commercial launch.
- Optimize team throughput - analyze team velocity and capacity. Identify friction points in the workflow (e.g., a bottleneck in the editorial review process) and partner with the Lead to implement process improvements.
- Strategic resource planning - look 2-3 quarters ahead to anticipate long-term staffing needs, capacity constraints and production peaks to prevent burnout and impact on delivery.
- Manage vendors and partners - set up agreements, negotiate statements of work with performance expectations, and hold vendors accountable for deliverables. Evaluate vendor performance and make recommendations on renewals or changes.
- Communicate with precision - serve as the single source of truth for project status, giving stakeholders with clear, data-backed updates on progress, scope trade-offs, and resource needs.
How You Work...- You anticipate and adapt - seeing a delay coming three months away and adjust the plan today.
- You lead with influence - leading with logic and relationship-building. You can rally a team around a tight deadline without relying on direct authority and can negotiate priorities between competing departments without needing to escalate.
- You use data to drive improvements - using metrics to prove your process improvements and working and use findings to drive further adjustments.
- You are outcomes-oriented - ensuring deliverables meet our quality standards and definition of done.
- You are the calm in the storm - excelling in high-pressure environments, providing the structure and clarity the team needs to stay focused during crunch time.
- You are a systems thinker - looking for ways to automate administrative tasks, identifying patterns across projects, and improving process flows. You bring solutions that maximize the time you spend on high value work and benefit the broader organization.
Basic Qualifications:- 5-8+ Years of Experience: Proven track record of managing complex projects in EdTech, software, or creative publishing.
- Hybrid Methodology Fluency: Deep experience in Agile/Scrum for software development combined with the Waterfall/Stage-Gate discipline required for print and physical production.
- Master of the "Blended" Product: You understand the unique challenges of shipping products that live in both a web browser and a student's backpack.
- Advanced Tooling Skills: Expert-level proficiency in Jira and Smartsheet (or similar tools like Monday.com/Airtable). You can build the dashboards and trackers that the team relies on.
- Communication Powerhouse: You can explain a technical software delay to a content editor and a creative design constraint to an engineer with equal ease.
