Sr Program Manager

About the role

The Program Manager is responsible for overseeing the delivery of consulting services and technology solutions to schools, school districts, and state education agencies/ministries of education in the Mid-South region. They manage projects, coordinate with cross-functional teams, and ensure client satisfaction.

Responsibilities

• Oversee engagement strategies to build and maintain strong professional relationships with clients.
• Understand clients' key strategic business initiatives and pain points.
• Identify actionable insights to improve client results and inform team strategy.
• Manage meetings, content, facilitation, and communication with clients and executive stakeholders.
• Lead client success team engagements through on-site visits and virtual meetings, ensuring meeting minutes capture decisions, next steps, deadlines, and task owners.
• Prepare and communicate contract updates; review contracts and monitor variances in commitments.
• Review and approve invoices; act as the escalation point for unpaid invoices.
• Participate in gap analysis and strategic planning conversations with clients as needed.
• Identify upsell opportunities by anticipating client needs.
• Service Delivery Oversight
• Hold cross-functional teams accountable for performing high-quality and on-time services.
• Coordinate with program, operations, and production management teams to ensure services meet client needs and contractual obligations.
• Ensure service delivery processes are followed and continuously improved across teams.
• Monitor work activities to ensure completion by agreed-upon deadlines.
• Determine and implement changes to support operations as business needs evolve.
• Ensure all reported issues are submitted and documented using the appropriate task management tools (e.g., Zendesk, JIRA).
• Ensure accountability for following SLAs, including Response Time and Resolution Time commitments.
• Project & Portfolio Management
• Monitor the state of projects and manage changes to scope, schedule, cost, quality, and risk.
• Manage and communicate planned and approved work using established task management processes.
• Prepare client/production support status reports and lead related internal and external meetings.
• Carefully coordinate and communicate production support activities across functional teams.
• Monitor planned work progress and escalate risks or delays to corresponding Program Managers.
• Coordinate with Program Management staff to align account management processes and promote consistency across teams.
• Issue, Risk & Change Management
• Identify, monitor, and resolve issues and risks related to client(s).
• Escalate risks and issues to the Service Management Director and collaborate on resolution strategies.
• Manage the intake and organization of change requests, ensuring compliance with the defined change management process.
• Ensure that all team members follow established issue resolution protocols and risk mitigation procedures.
• Provide timely responses and follow-up on escalated issues and risks, particularly those involving SLAs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Education, Project Management, Information Systems, Public Administration, or related field required.
• Master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 8–10 years of progressive project or program management experience.
• Minimum of 5+ years managing complex, multi-workstream programs or portfolios.
• Experience leading large-scale implementations, enterprise initiatives, or statewide/district-level programs.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams and coordinating work across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent projects, priorities, and timelines.
• Experience facilitating executive-level communication and stakeholder engagement.
• Experience with risk management, issue resolution, governance, and escalation management.
• Experience developing and maintaining project plans, status reporting, and executive summaries.
• Experience leading process improvement and operational initiatives.

Skills and Abilities

• Strong program and portfolio management capabilities.
• Strong executive communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to influence without direct authority.
• Strong client relationship management skills.
• Ability to manage ambiguity and shifting priorities.
• Strong problem-solving and critical-thinking abilities.
• Strong organizational and operational planning skills.
• Ability to facilitate collaboration across teams and functions.
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills.
• Experience using project management and reporting tools such as JIRA, Workday, Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, or similar platforms.

Leadership Expectations

• Strategic thinking and sound judgment.
• Builds trusted relationships internally and externally.
• Leads through influence and collaboration.
• Drives accountability and execution.
• Supports talent development and mentorship.
• Creates structure, clarity, and alignment across teams.

Compensation

Compensation for roles at Public Consulting Group varies depending on a wide array of factors including, but not limited to, the specific office location, role, skill set, and level of experience. As required by applicable law, PCG provides a reasonable range of compensation for this role. In addition, PCG provides a range of benefits for this role, including medical and dental care benefits, 401k, PTO, parental leave, bereavement leave. Range: $79,000 - $125,000

Equal Opportunity Employer

Public Consulting Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer dedicated to celebrating diversity and intentionally creating a culture of inclusion. We believe that we work best when our employees feel empowered and accepted, and that starts by honoring each of our unique life experiences. At PCG, all aspects of employment regarding recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, compensation, benefits, transfers, layoffs, return from layoff, company-sponsored training, education, and social and recreational programs are based on merit, business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion or belief, national, social, or ethnic origin, sex, gender identity and/or expression, age, physical, mental, or sensory disability, sexual orientation, marital, civil union, or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, citizenship status, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law. PCG will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. PCG believes in health, equality, and prosperity for everyone so we can succeed in changing the ways the public sector, including health, education, technology and human services industries, work.