Senior Manager, Technical Delivery and Quality

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About the Role

Access Education Services (AES) is building the future of technology delivery in higher education services. As a separate legal entity and subsidiary focused on supporting the student journey across enrollment, financial aid, student support, technology services, career services, and alumni engagement, AES is transforming how technology teams deliver value. We are seeking a Senior Manager, Technical Delivery and Quality to lead a team of Technical Program Managers and Quality Engineers responsible for delivering strategic initiatives with predictability, transparency, and quality. This is a highly visible leadership role that sits at the intersection of product strategy, engineering execution, and business outcomes. The ideal candidate combines deep program management expertise with strong technical acumen, understands modern software delivery practices, and can lead through data, influence, and operational excellence.

This role executes the planning and operating rhythm for the delivery organization, including quarterly and fiscal year planning, commitment management, and monthly/quarterly business reviews. The Senior Manager manages to headcount and budget targets while maximizing team capacity and delivery throughput.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of Technical Program Managers and Quality Engineers responsible for delivering strategic initiatives across the software development lifecycle.
• Manage delivery flow across value streams, identify bottlenecks, mitigate risks, and optimize throughput to improve execution outcomes.
• Drive planning and operating rhythms, including quarterly planning, annual planning, commitment management, capacity planning, and resource allocation.
• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, and business leaders to translate priorities into executable roadmaps, milestones, and delivery commitments.
• Establish and continuously improve delivery and quality standards, frameworks, metrics, and best practices across the organization.
• Monitor delivery performance using key operational metrics, communicate status and forecasts to leadership, and drive accountability for outcomes.
• Act as the primary escalation point for delivery challenges, coordinating mitigation plans and resolving impediments that impact execution.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in a related field, or relevant work experience and certification(s).
• 7+ years managing programs and projects.
• 3+ years leading and managing people and teams.
• Program Management Professional (PMP) certification or equivalent.
• Proven leadership ability to organize, coordinate, and direct teams while driving accountability and delivering business outcomes.
• Strong understanding of modern product delivery practices including software development lifecycle (SDLC), project-to-product principles, value streams, flow management, quality engineering, and program management methodologies.
• Strong analytical and data-driven mindset with the ability to leverage operational, delivery, and quality metrics to drive decisions and continuous improvement.
• Experience managing organizational resources, including headcount planning, budgeting, capacity planning, and resource allocation.
• Outstanding communication, relationship-building, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence across highly matrixed organizations.
• Ability to lead through ambiguity, manage competing priorities, and effectively drive organizational change.
• Experience working with delivery and collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence, and reporting platforms used to measure and improve delivery performance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's Degree in a related field.
• Experience leading technical program or project delivery within a higher education environment.
• Previous experience in software engineering, software development, or technical delivery leadership roles supporting engineering organizations.

Equivalent relevant experience performing the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements. Generally, equivalent relevant experience is defined as 1 year of experience for 1 year of education and is at the discretion of the hiring manager.

Pay

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. A reasonable estimate of the current range is: $151,800.00 - $250,500.00.

Schedule

• Full-time, in-office position requiring five days per week in our Salt Lake City, Utah office.
• Occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year). Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed.

Benefits

• Bonuses.
• Medical, dental, vision, telehealth, and mental healthcare.
• Health savings account and flexible spending account.
• Basic and voluntary life insurance.
• Disability coverage.
• Accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages.
• Legal and identity theft coverage.
• Retirement savings plan.
• Wellbeing program.
• Discounted WGU tuition.
• Flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual.
• Flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual.
• 11 paid holidays.
• Up to 12 weeks of parental leave.