Job Description

About us…

NWEA® is a research-based, not-for-profit organization that supports students and educators worldwide by creating assessment solutions that precisely measure growth and proficiency—and provide insights to help tailor instruction. For 40 years, NWEA has developed innovative pre-K–12 assessments, including our flagship interim assessment, MAP® Growth™; our progress monitoring and skills mastery tool, MAP® Skills™; and our reading fluency and comprehension assessment, MAP® Reading Fluency™. Educators trust our professional learning offerings to accelerate student learning and our research to support assessment validity and data interpretation. Our tools are trusted by educators in more than 9,500 schools, districts, and education agencies in 145 countries.

About this role…

As a Program Manager, your key areas of work are to execute the Account Owner’s vision and overall strategy for the program. In this role, you are an individual contributor leading across functional teams in a loosely matrixed environment to execute program objectives. You will be responsible for planning and implementing complex, strategic and/or large-scale activities and utilizing strong communication skills. An understanding of the educational services market will contribute to your success in this role. This position works with other partner-facing members of the organization to include sales, technical support, custom reporting, and professional learning. Note: For this role, you may work in our Portland, OR. headquarters or be a remote worker, anywhere in the U.S.

About the Program Management Team…

The Program Management team is responsible for the vision and communication surrounding the execution of all program components. With demonstrated knowledge in project and program management, this team leverages tact and organization to ensure the program deliverables stay aligned with the expectations of our stakeholders. The right candidate will join a successful, cohesive team of professionals with a proven track record. Our Program Management team is comprised of dedicated PMP-certified and program-focused individuals located across the United States. They are dedicated to both the partners we serve and the work that we do and strive for excellence and raising the bar in delivery of our products and services. They are collaborators, problem-solvers, leaders and strong communicators. The Program Management Team is responsible for leading the contracts for our largest partners at the district level.

Must haves…

• Demonstrated program management skills in accordance with those outlined by PMI
• Demonstrated experience working with and leading matrixed teams
• Strong verbal, presentation, and written communication skills
• Must possess passion for education and partner-focused attitude
• Willing to learn and seek out new information quickly and apply to program
• Define, plan and manage the program from end to end, to include producing thorough, complete, and timely documentation, including agendas, meeting notes, and customized partner content maintained in a shared document repository (e.g., SharePoint)
• Collaborate with program stakeholders to create/maintain program schedule
• Ability to track and ensure completion of open actions
• Keep program management leadership informed of potential risks, active issues, missed deadlines, or partner dissatisfaction
• Coordinate status of projects into program reporting to internal and external stakeholders, including custom contractual reports
• Hold face to face status meetings, providing supporting documentation as appropriate
  Ability to be a self-starter and manage work and establish relationships from a remote location and while traveling
• If a remote worker, must have dedicated office space
• Ability to embrace and lead change in a growing organization
• Must have the ability to travel, up to 25%, sometimes at irregular intervals

Traits for success…

• Plan and align: Plan and prioritize work to meet commitments aligned with organizational and program goals
• Manage complexity: Make sense of complex high quantity and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems to include process analysis and improvement
• Action-oriented: Take on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, high energy and enthusiasm.
• Communicate effectively: Develop and deliver multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding
• Customer focus: Build strong internal and external relationships to deliver partner-centric solutions
• Drive results: Consistent achieve results even under tough circumstances
• Collaborate: Build partnerships and work collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives
• Instill trust: Gain the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity, and authenticity
• Demonstrate self-awareness: Use a combination of feedback and reflection to gain productive insight into personal strengths and weaknesses
• Manage ambiguity: Operate efficiently when things are not certain, or the way forward is not clear

Education and experience…

• Bachelor’s degree is required
• PMP preferred
• Familiarity with NWEA products and services is highly preferred
• Strong knowledge of the K–12 education market
• Minimum 3 years practical experience in program management with demonstrated results
• Knowledge of MS Office Suite including SharePoint; MS Project required
• Experience in using Salesforce preferred
• Experience working with on-line, secure assessment delivery systems

What we can offer you…

At NWEA we not only offer a competitive base salary, we offer a 15% contribution of eligible employees’ base salary to a defined contribution 403(b) retirement savings plan; career development opportunities; an awesome work culture and environment; we also offer industry leading benefits and perks that are focused on supporting our employees’ holistic wellbeing. 

NWEA endeavors to make www.nwea.org accessible to all users. If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please call us at (503) 624-1951 or e-mail us at onlineaccommodations@nwea.org and let us know the nature of your request, your location and your contact information. This is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.

NWEA is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. For our EEO Policy Statement, please visit our website.

If you’d like more information on your EEO rights under the law, please visit the EEOC website