Program Manager

Job Description

Location: Remote

ITHAKA’s mission is to expand access to knowledge and education around the world. Our services — Artstor, JSTOR, Portico, and Ithaka S+R — enable people everywhere to learn, to grow, and to overcome historical barriers to education. In carrying out our mission, as employees we feel a deep responsibility to each other and our well-being, and are committed to building and sustaining a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.

Ithaka S+R, a service of ITHAKA, is a non-profit research and consulting service that helps the academic and cultural communities serve the public good and navigate economic, technological, and demographic change. Team members in our Educational Transformation Program study and support the adoption and scaling of policies, practices, and innovations that improve student postsecondary access and success. Our growing team offers unique opportunities for your research skills and project management talent to play a vital role in shaping the national postsecondary educational landscape and improving the lives of students. Examples of our current projects include the American Talent Initiative; evaluations of data-informed student success interventions; equity-focused research on student debt; innovations in student and institutional financing of higher education; student veterans access and success; community college transfer; higher education in prisons; and state and federal education policy analysis.

The Role

More than 80 percent of students who begin their postsecondary education in community colleges aspire to earn at least a bachelor’s degree. Yet, only 13 percent of students successfully transfer and earn a bachelor’s degree within six years of entering community college. One challenge is that when students transfer from one college to another they frequently are unable to count their previously earned credits toward degree requirements at their new institutions, jeopardizing these students’ ability to earn their degrees. Nationally, 43 percent of credits are wasted during transfer, and students who lose that many credits are far less likely to graduate than students who are able to transfer most of their credits.

Ithaka S+R is recruiting for a Program Manager to drive the next phase of our Articulation of Transfer Credit (ACT) project, a collaboration with the City University of New York (CUNY) to help transfer students count more of their transferred credits toward their new degree programs through improved information, advising, and processes. Over the next three years, we will be working to enhance the project’s ground-breaking transfer information tool, Transfer Explorer, and expand its use within and beyond CUNY.

We seek an emerging leader who is passionate about improving postsecondary student access and success, especially for historically marginalized students. The Program Manager should have a deep understanding of the challenges that transfer students face and the complexities of the community college transfer ecosystem. You are a strategic thinker, a sophisticated project manager, adept at using and interpreting data, and effective at navigating the politics and convening stakeholders across many institutions. Candidates with related experience in technical product development are encouraged to apply.

In addition to your role in ACT expansion, the Program Manager will be an integral member of Ithaka S+R, working with experienced colleagues, leaders, and researchers to produce high-quality deliverables that have an impact on the field and contributing to a portfolio of mission-aligned projects in postsecondary attainment, adult learners, and community college transfer. To start, this position will report to the Vice President, Educational Transformation.

Responsibilities:

• Strategic advising
• Approach complex projects with thoughtfulness and efficiency, engaging internal and external stakeholders in key decisions.
• Provide partners with evidence-based guidance on strategies for improving student access and success.
• Produce high-quality reports, presentations, processes, and other deliverables on tight deadlines.
• In collaboration with other technical experts, develop new tools and products to streamline transfer and improve transfer credit efficiency.
• Maintain awareness of major community issues that may impact our projects.

• Project management
• Track the activities of numerous stakeholders across many institutions and propose ideas for process improvement.
• Design tools and resources to distill and act on information gathered from stakeholders.
• Maintain project plans and keep collaborators on track to meet deadlines, including engaging senior managers in key activities.
• Supervise team members in the context of projects for which you are responsible.

• Data analysis and research
• Bring a data and research-focused mindset to the development of all project-related tools and processes.
• Collect and analyze project-related data to inform next steps and provide insights to stakeholders.
• Synthesize secondary research to recommend innovations and contextualize project inputs and outcomes.
• Coordinate with internal and external researchers to evaluate project outcomes and continuously improve.
• Reporting and communications
• Write emails, memos, and briefs to communicate concepts and processes to internal and external stakeholders.
• Create compelling reports and presentations of project approaches, outcomes, and recommendations.
• Represent Ithaka S+R at conferences, networking events, and partner meetings, with travel for research, reporting, and representation purposes amounting to 5-10%.

Experience and Skills

Any combination of professional experience, volunteer work, coursework, and other transferable skills may be applied toward these qualifications. Candidates need not demonstrate all criteria to be considered for the role.

Academic training and at least three (3) years of professional work experience that demonstrate proficiency in the following knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Researching, implementing, or navigating state, system, and/or institutional policies and their effect on students, especially community college transfer students.
• Managing projects that involve collecting and analyzing data using IPEDS and other student and institution-level data sources (e.g., state longitudinal education data systems, institutional data, or national surveys).
• Managing the implementation of large-scale, complex projects, navigating varied stakeholder interests and making sense of ambiguity.
• Project managing the development of technology products (e.g., apps, websites, etc.) that are used to address barriers or provide information in postsecondary education.
• Translating complex concepts and research data into compelling and accessible reports and engaging presentations.
• Effectively supervising the work of others in the context of your projects.
• Prioritizing and managing your own work, performing under pressure, and meeting deadlines, while ensuring acute attention to detail and accuracy.
• Working in an open, collaborative, and team-oriented culture.

Compensation and Benefits

At ITHAKA we believe in openness and equity. Part of living those values is our commitment to clarity about salary, so candidates know what to expect. Base pay may vary with job-related knowledge, skills, experience, market location, and geography. Our total compensation package includes a no-cost health insurance premium option, an employer-funded retirement plan, and a generous paid time off program for all benefits-eligible staff.

A Cover Letter must be submitted along with the application. The deadline to submit your application is November 7, 2022.