Senior Enterprise Program Manager

First Student, Inc.; Cincinnati (OH); On-site; USD 130,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

First Student, Inc. in Cincinnati seeks a senior Program Manager to lead enterprise programs from governance to go-live, ensuring milestones are met and value is delivered.

You will coordinate among Finance, Operations, and IT leaders, manage external partners, and drive decisions with executive stakeholders to keep initiatives on schedule and within scope. The role demands seven+ years in program management and hands-on large-scale implementations, with PMP/PgMP preferred.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in program or project management, including 3+ years as the accountable lead on high-value enterprise programs
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent industry experience
• Led at least one enterprise-system implementation through go-live
• Managed cross-functional programs including external partners
• Aligned senior leaders without direct authority and changed executive decisions rather than just reporting to executives
• Ran testing, cutover, and go/no-go for a legacy-system replacement
• Proven ability to build and manage relationships with all levels of internal and external stakeholders
• Significant, demonstrated ability to drive process and performance improvements
• Complex problem-solving ability
• PMP, PgMP, and additional certifications preferred

Responsibilities

• Owns end-to-end program governance: integrated plan, stage gates, risks and issues, change control, and the executive steering committee cadence
• Manages the implementation partner's milestone-based SOW: scope, phase exit criteria, deliverable acceptance within contract windows, and remediation
• Directs the partner's requirements gathering so sessions are scoped, the right business owners attend, and requirements are traceable and signed off before build
• Secures and keeps time from senior Finance, Operations, and IT leaders serving as process owners; escalates capacity conflicts before they become schedule slips
• Brings cross-program dependencies (systems, process, and change) into a single critical path
• Leads cutover readiness: parallel cycles, data conversion, test exit criteria, go/no-go decisions, and hypercare
• Defines and tracks benefits and KPIs from charter through post-go-live
• Gives leadership decision-ready recommendations, not just status reports
• Directs a matrixed team of First Student staff and partner resources
• Other responsibilities as required or requested

Skills

Program management

Stakeholder management

Leadership

Risk management

Communications

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

First Student, Inc. in Cincinnati seeks a senior Program Manager to lead enterprise programs from governance to go-live, ensuring milestones are met and value is delivered.

You will coordinate among Finance, Operations, and IT leaders, manage external partners, and drive decisions with executive stakeholders to keep initiatives on schedule and within scope. The role demands seven+ years in program management and hands-on large-scale implementations, with PMP/PgMP preferred.