Higher Education Implementation Project Manager Consultants

Campusworksinc; Columbia (MD); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

CampusWorks partners with higher education institutions to optimize people, processes, policies, and technologies. The Project Manager leads initiatives through full lifecycle, adapting PMI principles, coordinating stakeholders, and ensuring on-time, on-budget delivery.

The role may serve as project, program, or portfolio manager with frequent travel to client locations. A detailed, proactive professional excels in communication and issue resolution in a dynamic academic IT environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree; advanced degree preferred.
• Experience managing project portfolios or enterprise software implementations in higher education (e.g., HR/Payroll, Finance, Student, CRM, Advancement).
• Strong experience in project oversight, governance, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Expertise in the full project lifecycle, including initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure.

Responsibilities

• Lead the planning, execution, and closure of large-scale implementation projects across the full project lifecycle.
• Evaluate and prioritize projects, ensure alignment with strategic objectives.
• Balance resources across projects and report portfolio performance to executives.
• Oversee day-to-day activities to ensure alignment with scope, timelines, and objectives.
• Drive project decisions and maintain momentum to meet deadlines.
• Manage project risks, issues, and escalation paths for stability and success.
• Ensure vendors fulfill contractual obligations and deliver high-quality outputs.

Skills

Project management

Stakeholder engagement

Communication skills

Time management

PMI principles

Higher ed IT familiarity

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

MS Project

Smartsheet

Wrike

Jira

Excel

Job description

CampusWorks partners with higher education institutions to optimize their people, processes, policies, and technologies. Through close collaboration with institutional teams, CampusWorks consultants analyze current operations, design improved future-state processes, and deliver technical and process-based solutions that drive transformation and client satisfaction.

The Project Manager plays a key role in leading these initiatives through the full project lifecycle—ensuring timely, on-budget, and high-quality delivery. Depending on the project, you may act as project manager, program manager, or portfolio manager. This role requires a detail-oriented, proactive professional who excels in communication, stakeholder engagement, and issue resolution. Grounded in PMI project management principles, the Project Manager adapts CampusWorks’ methodology to meet client-specific needs, aligns stakeholders, and maintains clear, consistent communication throughout the project to ensure its success.

CampusWorks consultants engage with our clients in higher education to assist them in fully leveraging their people, processes, policies, and technologies. We work collaboratively with clients’ functional and technical teams and our CampusWorks colleagues to evaluate current processes, design future-state optimal processes, and to architect, develop, test, train, and rollout process and technical solutions that delight our clients.

A hybrid presence may be required with frequent travel to client locations.

Job Duties

• Lead the planning, execution, and closure of large-scale implementation projects across the full project lifecycle.
• Evaluate and prioritize projects, ensure projects align with strategic objectives.
• Balance resources across projects, report portfolio performance to executives.
• Oversee day-to-day activities to ensure alignment with project scope, timelines, and objectives.
• Drive project decisions and ensure continued momentum to meet deadlines.
• Manage project risks, issues, and escalation paths to ensure project stability and success.
• Ensure vendors fulfill contractual obligations and delivers high-quality, validated outputs.
• Monitor institutional staff task completion and resource allocation.
• Establish and maintain project governance structures in collaboration with stakeholders.
• Develop core project documents including the Project Charter, Risk Register, Stakeholder Register, and Project Plan (Quality Assurance, Change Management, Communication, Procurement, Data Conversion).
• Create and maintain detailed project schedules and work plans.
• Facilitate weekly status meetings and deliver regular reports to stakeholders and internal leadership.
• Communicate progress, risks, and decisions effectively to all levels, including the client steering committee and executive sponsors.
• Collaborate with change management leads to ensure organizational readiness.
• Adapt CampusWorks methodologies to align with client-specific project management practices and policies.
• Conclude projects with formal closure, including documentation and lessons learned.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Strong ability to simplify complex technical information for non-technical audiences.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills as well as problem identification and resolution.
• High attention to detail, with strong time management and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and manage competing priorities.
• Effective at decision-making and stakeholder engagement at all organizational levels.
• In-depth understanding of higher education operations and IT environments.
• Familiarity with higher education procurement practices and vendor relations.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office tools, including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook.
• Proficiency in project management tools such as MS Project, Smartsheet, Wrike, and Jira.

Experience & Education

• Bachelor’s degree; advanced degree preferred.
• Proven experience managing project portfolios orenterprise software implementations in higher education (e.g., HR/Payroll, Finance, Student, CRM, Advancement).
• Strong experience in project oversight, governance, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Expertise in the full project lifecycle, including initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure.

Preferred Experience

• 3+ years with a consulting/professional services firm preferred and experience consulting with Higher Education a plus
• PMP or other project management certifications.

What You Can Expect from Us

At CampusWorks, we don't just help our clients succeed; we help our employees succeed. Competitive pay, robust benefits for full-time employees, and professional development opportunities are a few of the many reasons that CampusWorks is a great place to build your career.

Our employees enjoy:

Meaningful work.

Our employees often tell us that their work gives them a sense of purpose because it makes a difference in the lives of students and educators. CampusWorks Inc., as a large consulting firm, provides its employees with an opportunity to work both onsite and remotelywith our clients across the United States and in Canada. With the nature of our clients’ work evolving quickly, we’re all being asked to support larger CampusWorks initiatives. Upon joining CampusWorks in a consulting role, your talent and expertise may be applied to a range of projects, assignments, and clients.

A CEO who cares.

Chairman and CEO Liz Murphy has made it her mission to create a culture that appreciates and takes good care of its people. As a result, being an employee of CampusWorks feels like being a member of a big family.

A virtual and onsite workplace

In an effort to reduce our environmental footprint, CampusWorks became a virtual company in 2012. As such, our team members are located across the U.S. and Canada, where they work from their home offices and at client sites.

Flexibility.

We value work-life balance because we know that happy employees create happy customers. That's why CampusWorks offers both full-time and part-time 1099 consulting career opportunities to fit life's unique demands.

A company that gives back.

Every year CampusWorks proudly supports numerous charitable fundraising initiatives that align with our vision to make higher education accessible to everyone.

At CampusWorks, we value the unique backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives each CampusWorker (we call ourselves CampusWorkers) brings to our workplace each day. We believe everyone deserves a fair shot at success and appreciate the experiences each person brings beyond the traditional job requirements.

About CampusWorks

Founded in 1999, CampusWorks is dedicated to helping higher education overcome business and technological challenges that stand in the way of student success and completion. We work with community colleges, technical colleges, four-year public and private institutions, multi-college districts, and statewide higher education systems to tackle problems big and small. Our services are rooted in systems thinking and reach across the institution—from Student Services to Human Resources to Finance to Academics—to achieve transformative results.

Want to learn more about life at CampusWorks? Visit https://www.campusworksinc.com/about/ to see how we empower Higher Education to reach its full potential

Friendly Note to External Agencies:

At CampusWorks, we kindly request that you please refrain from submitting blind submissions or resumes/CVs on behalf of recruitment agencies. To ensure a smooth and effective collaboration, we would like to inform you that any candidates sent to us without a signed agreement in place will regrettably not be accepted or considered as a submission.

Notice to all Applicants:

CampusWorks, Inc. provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.

-Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal

-Employee Polygraph Protection Act

-Your Employee Rights Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

-E-Verify Participation

-Right to Work