External Relations Project Manager

About the role

The External Relations Project Manager serves as the division’s lead for project execution, operational improvement, and modernization initiatives across External Relations. This role provides senior-level leadership for divisional project intake, planning, tracking, and execution while driving continuous improvement efforts that strengthen operational performance, organizational effectiveness, and strategic alignment across the division.

Responsibilities

• Leads divisional project intake and planning processes by vetting new initiatives, proposals, and taskforce concepts and translating business priorities into project scopes, timelines, roadmaps, and recommended next steps.
• Serves as project lead for select divisional initiatives and manages planning, execution, implementation, and transition to operational ownership as appropriate.
• Monitors major initiatives, projects, and operational efforts across the division to ensure alignment with goals, timelines, deliverables, and intended outcomes.
• Tracks progress through dashboards, trackers, data visualizations, and regular check-ins with project owners to support accountability and sustained execution.
• Leads divisional initiatives focused on improving operational efficiency, service delivery, execution consistency, and organizational performance across External Relations.
• Evaluates workflows, identifies operational challenges, and implements practical improvements that strengthen coordination, efficiency, and service outcomes.
• Supports divisional accountability for project execution by monitoring milestone completion, surfacing roadblocks, and identifying at-risk efforts that require intervention or escalation.
• Prepares operational plans, project summaries, executive briefs, status reports, dashboards, and related documentation to support divisional leadership reporting and decision-making.
• Builds strong working relationships across External Relations and with internal stakeholders across TSTC to support project alignment, communication, and execution.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in business, public administration, project management, organizational leadership, higher education administration, or a related field.
• Four years of experience in project management, operational improvement, organizational effectiveness, or related work involving complex cross-functional initiatives.
• Two years of experience leading continuous improvement, modernization, service delivery improvement, operational transformation, or organizational effectiveness initiatives.
• Experience developing project plans, roadmaps, reports, dashboards, or other tools used to support executive visibility, project monitoring, and operational decision-making.
• Experience working with cross-functional stakeholders to plan, coordinate, and execute complex initiatives.

Qualifications

• Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma, Agile, Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), Prosci, or other related certification.
• Five years of experience in project management, operational improvement, organizational effectiveness, or related work involving complex cross-functional initiatives.
• Three years of experience leading continuous improvement, modernization, service delivery improvement, operational transformation, or organizational effectiveness initiatives.
• Experience in higher education, workforce development, public sector operations, or another complex multi-stakeholder environment.
• Experience supporting executive-level planning, organizational change, or divisional strategy implementation.

Skills

• Ability to manage multiple projects, competing deadlines, and shifting priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to analyze operational workflows, identify performance gaps, and develop and implement process improvement strategies.
• Ability to think strategically and develop innovative, practical, and sustainable solutions to operational challenges.
• Ability to interpret data, identify trends, and translate findings into actionable recommendations.
• Ability to collect, analyze, and present data and metrics to measure project impact and prepare reports and recommendations for leadership.
• Ability to develop project plans, implementation roadmaps, dashboards, and status reporting tools that support project execution and leadership visibility.
• Ability to facilitate cross-functional collaboration, planning, and problem-solving across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Ability to convey complex information clearly through written, verbal, and presentation formats to diverse audiences.