Pre-Employment Training Program Manager at Cognizant in New York, New York

Job title

Pre-Employment Training Program Manager

Level

Sr. Manager

Summary

Reporting to Director of Pre-Employment to lead Cognizant’s efforts in building STEM skills across North America and in turn continuing to build an alternative talent supply channel to meet business demand.

Program Manager you will be responsible for managing the development, implementation, and administration of the training programs to support the organization’s skill needs and will work closely with managers and employees of Cognizant and represent them with the external Vendor partners – hence will be required to build effective relationships to assist in meeting the Company’s objectives and be able to manage their own time to meet deadlines.

You will be responsible for the day-to-day management and smooth operation of various training programs. For this position, we expect you to be a tech-savvy professional with an in-depth understanding of how technology skilling can help us achieve our business goals. You should be methodical and have excellent time management skills. As a program manager, you should also use your communication skills to collaborate effectively with various teams.

Ultimately, you should be able to manage and deliver our training programs within quality, time and budget requirements.

Activities

Program Management:

o    Provide end-to-end Program management for Training Programs; Scope project requirements and highlight agree on terms, timeline, cost and quality (exit criteria). Goal is to ensure that all programs deliver the desirable outcome to our organization.

o    Coordinate cross-project activities Work with the Procurement, Legal team to ensure contract, BU Agreement and paperwork to support the solutions.

o    Support creation of skilling programs in partnership with Vendors and SMEs overseeing the process of Learning Content, Assessments and Curriculum Development

o    Execute Skilling curriculum and track progress in training classes and publish weekly/monthly tracking reports. Also reports on learning and training KPI’s.

o    Develop a detailed project plan and monitor progress; Deliver projects on agreed schedule and ensuring quality standards are met

o    Develop and control deadlines, budgets and activities;

o    Apply change, risk and resource management; Develop supporting documentation including risk logs and requirement specifications; Highlight potential risks or malfunctions and act proactively to resolve issues

Relationship Management:

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  • Build deep relations as Partner with BU to understand their business challenges and skill demand projections - Skillwise, location wise, and details for each quarter. Formulating, organizing and monitoring inter-connected projects.
  
  
  • Monitor course completion and hiring process to ensure department needs are met.
  
  
  • Assess program performance and aim to maximize ROI; Resolve projects’ higher scope issues; Prepare reports for management review
  
  
  • Seek opportunities for improvement and suggest new projects
  
  
  
  

Consulting:

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  • Manage, strategize, and prioritize solutions and engagement models,
  
  
  • Decide on suitable strategies and options to meet the BU demand and requirement.
  
  
  • Work with Vendors to provide alternatives and recommendations
  
  
  
  

Communication & Compliance:

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  • Communicate with the team and ensure all members are on board with delegated tasks
  
  
  • Ensure overall training meets legal, regulatory and company expectations. Track invoicing to closure.
  
  
  • 
    Assume responsibility for the program’s people and vendors also acts as a single point of contact for BU and Human Resource.
    
  
  
  • Document and maintain processes to help ensure continuity and for reference.
  
  
  • Keep track of updating the Intranet page to ensure all information is accurate at all times.
  
  
  • Research industry trends, methodologies, and best practices and integrates those into professional practices.
  
  
  • Adhere to privacy, confidentiality, and proprietary company policies and procedures.
  
  
  
  

Overall expectations:

·         Handle all duties with a high degree of integrity, professionalism and confidentiality

·         Lead by example in adhering to Cognizant’s cultural values  

Experience and skills required

Required:

·         Minimum 8-10 years’ of related learning program design and development and program management experience with exposure to workforce development, corporate operations, IT leadership, training and development, consulting, project management, and business analysis. Candidates may currently be a working in a key role for a smaller organization with aspirations to support a Fortune 500 global company, a successful project manager with experience working closely with top level executives, or an operations manager with experience working in large multi-national organizations.

·         The ideal candidate will be an excellent leader and will have experience in collaborating with people of different disciplines to produce results in a timely manner. They will also be able to develop efficient strategies and tactics.

·         Must be able to establish and maintain productive, positive and cooperative relationships with employees at all levels, partners, and outside vendors. Includes resolving interpersonal conflicts, correct misunderstandings or errors and apply basic staff etiquette in dealing with others.

·         Innovative, motivated, organized, high-energy team player, leadership and organizational skills

·         Ability to perform a high volume of repetitious work and to work under deadline without losing accuracy

·         Ability to read, write, analyze, and interpret reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals

·         Organized and detail-oriented with the capability of multi-tasking, prioritizing and meeting deadlines in a fast-paced environment

·         Ability to maintain confidentiality and data accuracy when handling sensitive information and/or situations

·         Ability to use independent judgment and discretion to identify a resolution process for system issues, process improvement, etc.

·         Ability to make general decisions independently, based on standard procedure or policy

·         Proven experience as a Program Manager or other managerial position

·         Thorough understanding of project/program management techniques and methods

·         Excellent Knowledge of performance evaluation and change management principles

·         Must be well organized, detail-oriented and flexible and have the ability to perform under emergency or high-pressure conditions.

·         Able to work flexible hours and be available after hours if needed for urgent matters and international conference calls

·         Exemplary time management and prioritization skills:  able to juggle regular daily operational cadence, strategic projects and variety of ad hoc tasks, and able to change direction quickly

·         Able to work well with all levels of internal management and staff across geographies

Preferred:

·         Familiarity with IT services industry, market and business trends

·         Experience in a corporate office supporting senior executives

·         Strong business writing and structured communications

·         Strong proficiency in Microsoft office products

·         Strong general business background including an MBA or other solid business foundation

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and related work experience


• PMP or Agile Certification preferred


• SHRM-CP or PHR Certification preferred


• 5+ years of HR-related experience in learning and development programs


• Experience includes program design and curriculum development


• Working knowledge of program/project management software (MS Project etc.) is a strong advantage

Home Office

Any, Eastern time zone preferred

Travel

20%