Program Director

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co; California (MO); Remote; USD 95,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player seeks a strategic leader to enhance program management and drive platform initiatives. This fully remote position offers the opportunity to work with cross-functional teams, ensuring the successful delivery of educational technology solutions. The ideal candidate will possess extensive experience in Agile methodologies, program management, and conflict resolution, contributing to improved outcomes for educators and students alike. Join a forward-thinking company dedicated to empowering educators and unlocking student potential while enjoying a competitive salary and a supportive work environment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of program management experience in a leadership role.
• Expertise in Agile methodologies and development processes.

Responsibilities

• Drive strategic platform initiatives and manage program schedules.
• Facilitate collaboration between delivery teams and stakeholders.

Skills

Program Management

Agile Methodologies

Conflict Resolution

Communication Skills

Organizational Skills

Education

Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification

Certified Scrum Master (CSM)

Six Sigma Black Belt Certification

Tools

Jira

Smartsheet

Job description

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) is a learning technology company committed to delivering connected solutions that engage learners, empower educators and improve student outcomes. As a leading provider of K–12 core curriculum, supplemental and intervention solutions, and professional learning services, HMH partners with educators and school districts to uncover solutions that unlock students’ potential and extend teachers’ capabilities.

HMH serves more than 50 million students and 4 million educators in 150 countries. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com

Location:
Fully remote Position – May be performed from any State in the US.

Overall Objectives:
In this key leadership role, you will spearhead the integration of cross-functional teams and drive the process in which we work across multiple business units. Your primary responsibility will be to drive strategic platform initiatives that deliver tangible value to our customers. Through expert program management, you will ensure enterprise-level programs remain on track while maintaining team focus on developing platform features that foster adoption, usage, and ultimately gross renewal rate (GRR).

Key Responsibilities:

1. Strategic Roadmap:
   Develop and maintain a long-term platform roadmap in collaboration with stakeholders, product management, design, and engineering.
   Work with Product Managers to break down large initiatives into actionable projects with detailed plans and timelines.
   Manage and own program-level schedules for strategic themes, while communicating status and alleviating dependencies and risks to plans.
   Develop mitigation strategies to minimize delays and deliver ongoing value to customers.
2. Platform Advocacy:
   Champion a platform mindset where success is measured by increased adoption and usage, improved NPS scores, and positive outcomes for admins, teachers, and students.
   Working with platform team members, ensure platform operational model governance by having appropriate reviews, documentation, and collaboration that supports successful delivery and customer adoption.
   In service of the Lean Agile methodology, drive the research that makes the case for strategic initiatives that prioritize the work that is most valuable.
3. Collaboration and Execution:
   Facilitate activities between delivery teams and downstream partners (e.g Marketing, Sales & Support) in service of delivering successful platform feature releases.
   Maintain seamless collaboration and ongoing focus on strategic initiatives.
   Regularly review Sagas and Epics to ensure they map back to the platform strategy and roadmap – keeping focus on what matters most.
4. Planning and Prioritization:
   Facilitate business unit participation in annual planning activities.
   Regularly communicate updates on plans and priorities to senior stakeholders.
   Understand and drive processes to gather user feedback and usage data to inform priority and planning discussions with Product Management.
   Analyze cross-team capacity to align business needs with achievable delivery goals within time-driven activities.
5. Leadership and Communication:
   Improve reporting mechanisms that effectively track and communicate program-level status to senior management and various stakeholders.
   Possess excellent written and verbal communication skills.
   Demonstrate strong organizational skills, including attention to detail and multi-tasking abilities.
   Exhibit strong conflict resolution skills and the ability to find consensus when faced with competing priorities or impediments.
   Lead and guide large enterprise-level digital projects from conception to launch.

Qualifications:
• Minimum of 10 years of program management experience.
• In-depth knowledge of development processes, methodologies, and best practices.
• 10 years of experience working with Lean and Agile software development methodologies.
• Proficient in Jira and Smartsheet.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification and Certified Scrum Master (CSM) qualifications.
• Six Sigma Black Belt certification is a plus.
• Experience gathering metrics and data to help inform priorities.

Additional Experience:
• Demonstrated experience with “scrum of scrums” and running Agile in large organizations.
• Proven ability to find consensus and apply conflict resolution skills when faced with competing priorities.
• Extensive experience collaborating with developers, product managers, UXD, marketing, sales and customer support teams.
• Strong understanding of education technology (K-12) industry trends, user experience (educators, students, and administrators), and classroom needs.

Physical Requirements (US Only):
• Might be in a stationary position for a considerable time (sitting and/or standing)
• Constantly operate a computer.

Compensation Range:
$95,000 - 105,000.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) is fully committed to Equal Employment Opportunity and to attracting, retaining, developing and promoting the most qualified employees without regard to race, gender, color, religion, sexual orientation, family status, marital status, pregnancy, gender identity, ethnic/national origin, ancestry, age, disability, military status, genetic predisposition, citizenship status, status as a disabled veteran, recently separated veteran, Armed Forces service medal veteran, other covered veteran, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. We are dedicated to providing a work environment free from discrimination and harassment, and where employees are treated with respect and dignity. We actively participate in E-Verify.