Sr Program Manager, Higher Ed Disciplines

Cengage; Ohio; Hybrid; USD 117,000 - 187,000; Full time

Job summary

Cengage is seeking a Sr. Program Manager to lead multi-functional programs from planning through customer rollout across Higher Education disciplines.

The role emphasizes aligning priorities, dependencies, risks, and decisions while driving reusable capabilities and a clear roadmap for capabilities rollout. The position involves coordinating Product, Content, Engineering, Go-to-Market, and other teams, defining measurable outcomes, and communicating with senior stakeholders to ensure successful

Qualifications

• Experience leading complex programs across product strategy, content, technology, and commercial teams.
• Experience establishing operating models, governance, planning processes, and decision frameworks for complex multi-functional initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to translate strategy into coordinated portfolios, roadmaps, workstreams, and measurable outcomes.
• Ability to identify patterns and common needs across multiple initiatives and drive alignment around shared capabilities and reusable solutions.
• Strong relationship-building and partner management skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across functions and levels of the organization.
• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex information, frame tradeoffs, and facilitate decisions among senior stakeholders.
• Experience operating in a matrixed organization where authority is distributed across multiple teams and leaders.
• Strong facilitation, problem-solving, and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Preferred PMP, PgMP, or similar certification.
• Proficiency with Jira, Confluence, or similar delivery tools.
• Experience managing vendors and third-party partners.

Responsibilities

• Maintain a portfolio view across disciplines, connecting priorities, opportunities, capability needs, and planned work to create visibility and alignment across groups.
• Identify common capability needs across subjects and disciplines, surface opportunities for reuse, and coordinate prioritization and sequencing to support shared capabilities and aligned roadmaps.
• Define and track objectives and measurable outcomes, connecting program progress to business and customer impact.
• Identify and manage dependencies, risks, and unresolved questions across disciplines and workstreams, ensuring they are visible and driven to resolution.
• Surface decisions and tradeoffs, bring together the right stakeholders and information, and drive alignment on a path forward.
• Coordinate Product, Content, Engineering, Go-to-Market, and other teams through delivery, launch, and adoption of new capabilities.
• Facilitate communication and collaboration across teams to remove blockers and drive execution.
• Ensure work is prioritized, well-defined, and aligned with strategic priorities and business goals.

Skills

Program leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive communication

Matrixed organization

Vendor management

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

We believe in the power and joy of learning At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping learners around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

What you’ll do here:

We are looking for an accomplished and dedicated Sr. Program Manager to join our team. Cengage is accelerating how we bring new innovations and capabilities to our Higher Education customers, and this role will be central to making that happen. You will work across Higher Education disciplines to connect priorities, identify shared capability needs, and coordinate complex, multi-functional programs from planning through customer rollout. This high-visibility role will create alignment across discipline groups and functional teams, bringing insight to priorities, dependencies, risks, and decisions. You will establish a repeatable approach for planning across disciplines and managing capability rollouts across Higher Education.

Key Responsibilities

• Maintain a portfolio view across disciplines, connecting priorities, opportunities, capability needs, and planned work to create visibility and alignment across groups.
• Identify common capability needs across subjects and disciplines, surface opportunities for reuse, and coordinate prioritization and sequencing to support shared capabilities and aligned roadmaps.
• Define and track objectives and measurable outcomes, connecting program progress to business and customer impact.
• Identify and manage dependencies, risks, and unresolved questions across disciplines and workstreams, ensuring they are visible and driven to resolution.
• Surface decisions and tradeoffs, bring together the right stakeholders and information, and drive alignment on a path forward.
• Coordinate Product, Content, Engineering, Go-to-Market, and other teams through delivery, launch, and adoption of new capabilities.
• Facilitate communication and collaboration across teams to remove blockers and drive execution.
• Ensure work is prioritized, well-defined, and aligned with strategic priorities and business goals.

Qualifications

• Experience leading complex programs across product strategy, content, technology, and commercial teams.
• Experience establishing operating models, governance, planning processes, and decision frameworks for complex multi-functional initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to translate strategy into coordinated portfolios, roadmaps, workstreams, and measurable outcomes.
• Ability to identify patterns and common needs across multiple initiatives and drive alignment around shared capabilities and reusable solutions.
• Strong relationship-building and partner management skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across functions and levels of the organization.
• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex information, frame tradeoffs, and facilitate decisions among senior stakeholders.
• Experience operating in a matrixed organization where authority is distributed across multiple teams and leaders.
• Strong facilitation, problem-solving, and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Preferred PMP, PgMP, or similar certification.
• Proficiency with Jira, Confluence, or similar delivery tools.
• Experience managing vendors and third-party partners.

Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws. Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at [e-mail].

About Cengage

Cengage, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Cengage, a global edtech company, supports learners, educators and institutions across more than 100 countries. With products serving nearly 16 million digital users across the Higher Education, School, Work and English Language Learning markets, we’ve built a learning ecosystem that connects education to employment. We combine trusted content, AI-powered insights and scalable digital platforms to power learning for every future and drive meaningful outcomes at every stage of the learning journey.

Compensation

Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range. In this position, you will be eligible to participate in the company’s discretionary incentive bonus program. This position's bonus target amount, which is not guaranteed and is dependent on individual performance and overall company results among other factors, is provided below.

• 20% Annual: Individual Target $117,100.00 - $187,300.00 USD