Military Higher Education Program Manager

Harkcon, Inc.; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Harkcon, Inc. is seeking a Program Manager to support a military-affiliated higher education initiative.

You will coordinate academic activities, institutional relationships, student tracking, communications, data quality, and leadership reporting while guiding education pathways alongside military training and career development. The role requires coordinating with academic partners, government and military stakeholders, and managing program databases, dashboards, and reports.

Qualifications

• Four-year degree from an accredited college or university.
• At least three years of experience in project support, analysis, or administrative functions related to education or training programs.
• Experience tracking participants, cohorts, course activity, program actions, and performance data.
• Ability to coordinate effectively with academic, government, military, and operational stakeholders.
• Strong written communication, research, presentation, organization, and customer-service skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, Excel, Teams, SharePoint, databases, and structured tracking tools.
• Ability to meet federal background-investigation, credentialing, and system-access requirements and remain eligible to obtain a Secret security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Manage schedules, milestones, risks, actions, deliverables, and communications for higher education and workforce-development initiatives.
• Coordinate with military organizations, colleges, program offices, academic partners, advisors, registrars, instructors, and student-support personnel.
• Track student cohorts, participation, course progress, completions, issues, requests, and required follow-up actions.
• Maintain accurate program databases, shared workspaces, correspondence logs, document repositories, and management reports.
• Support curriculum and course reviews, degree-pathway mapping, transfer-credit discussions, articulation activities, and alignment with workforce requirements.
• Develop guides, frequently asked questions, presentations, outreach materials, briefing products, and executive summaries.
• Manage program inboxes or service channels and ensure questions are researched, routed, answered, and documented promptly.
• Analyze participation, progression, completion, service-demand, and issue data to identify trends and recommend improvements.
• Support meetings, webinars, orientations, advising events, working groups, and program reviews.
• Create and maintain student databases and coordinate information with academic and government representatives.
• Evaluate cohort-tracking processes and recommend improvements that reduce redundant data entry and information gaps.
• Support implementation and maintenance of an automated education-management system.

Skills

Project coordination

Stakeholder management

Data tracking

Written communication

Microsoft Office/SharePoint/Teams

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Microsoft Excel

SharePoint

Teams

Databases

Power BI

Job description

Harkcon, Inc. is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business that helps federal organizations improve workforce performance, strengthen programs, modernize processes, and manage complex mission-support activities. We value sound judgment, clear communication, accountability, and practical solutions that help customers accomplish their missions.

We are seeking a Program Manager to support a military-affiliated higher education initiative serving geographically dispersed students. This role will coordinate academic program activities, institutional relationships, student and cohort tracking, communications, data quality, and leadership reporting while helping participants navigate education pathways that complement military training and career development.

Location

This position is primarily at federal customer facilities in Norfolk, Virginia, and Washington, DC. Remote work or telework is subject to government approval and is not guaranteed.

*** This position is contingent upon award of a contract to Harkcon ***

Key Responsibilities

• Manage schedules, milestones, risks, actions, deliverables, and communications for higher education and workforce-development initiatives.
• Coordinate with military organizations, colleges, program offices, academic partners, advisors, registrars, instructors, and student-support personnel.
• Track student cohorts, participation, course progress, completions, issues, requests, and required follow-up actions.
• Maintain accurate program databases, shared workspaces, correspondence logs, document repositories, and management reports.
• Support curriculum and course reviews, degree-pathway mapping, transfer-credit discussions, articulation activities, and alignment with workforce requirements.
• Develop guides, frequently asked questions, presentations, outreach materials, briefing products, and executive summaries.
• Manage program inboxes or service channels and ensure questions are researched, routed, answered, and documented promptly.
• Analyze participation, progression, completion, service-demand, and issue data to identify trends and recommend improvements.
• Support meetings, webinars, orientations, advising events, working groups, and program reviews.
• Create and maintain student databases and coordinate information with academic and government representatives.
• Evaluate cohort-tracking processes and recommend improvements that reduce redundant data entry and information gaps.
• Support implementation and maintenance of an automated education-management system.

Required Qualifications

• Four-year degree from an accredited college or university. Preferred fields include Business, Education, Public Administration, or a related discipline.
• At least three years of experience in project support, analysis, or administrative functions related to education or training programs.
• Experience tracking participants, cohorts, course activity, program actions, and performance data.
• Ability to coordinate effectively with academic, government, military, and operational stakeholders.
• Strong written communication, research, presentation, organization, and customer-service skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, Excel, Teams, SharePoint, databases, and structured tracking tools.
• Ability to protect student and personnel information and follow applicable records-management requirements.
• Ability to meet federal background-investigation, credentialing, and system-access requirements and remain eligible to obtain a Secret security clearance. An active clearance is not currently required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting military-connected students or military education programs.
• Knowledge of academic advising, student services, transfer credit, prior-learning assessment, curriculum mapping, articulation agreements, or institutional accreditation.
• Experience working with community colleges, universities, registrars, military training organizations, or credentialing bodies.
• Experience developing dashboards or reports using Excel, Power BI, or similar tools.
• Project-management or higher education administration certification.
• Experience with data cleansing, metrics development, and performance tracking.

Work Environment

This is a full-time position which may support a distributed team through a combination of remote work and activities at federal customer locations. The employee must be able to participate in virtual and in-person meetings, work during normal customer business hours, travel periodically, and use customer-approved collaboration and information systems. Specific location, travel, and access requirements will be confirmed before placement.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Harkcon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or disability.