Program Manager I, Alabama Onsite Program Liaison at ACT, Inc in Birmingham, Alabama

Job Description:

Overview


We are seeking a Program Manager I, Alabama Onsite Program Liaison with at least 2 years of program management experience to help us fulfill our mission of helping people achieve education and workplace success.


The Alabama ACT Onsite Program Liaison is an important entry-level program management role. The Onsite Program Liaison employs strong communication, interpersonal, and collaboration skills to support the delivery of a statewide assessment program to meet the needs of the state client, its constituents, members of the extended ACT program team, and the overall business.


This position is remote within the state of Alabama, preferably close to Birmingham, Alabama.



What you will be working on:

• Works remotely within Alabama to support ACT and the state by communicating state-specific assessment program information and requirements to the ACT program manager, extended program team, and assigned testing staff


• Supports school and district testing staff in completing required processes and delivers accurate information to ensure successful test administrations


• Engages with a variety of external customers and/or internal stakeholders to add value to and/or promote ACT products and services


• Represents ACT in presentations related to the products and services provided by ACT as part of the contract between the state and ACT


• Supports the planning, implementation, and ongoing delivery of small to mid-size programs from initiation to closeout, following established program/project management methodologies.


• Supports the development and maintenance of program management work products including, but not limited to, a program management plan, project schedule, communications plan, risk register, issues log, change log, and customer-facing status reports


• Supports both ACT and the state client in efforts related to any peer review and/or alignment studies


• Ensures public facing and internal resources accurately reflect the details of the assigned contract

This could be the job for you if you have (minimum requirements):

• Ability to develop and maintain a working knowledge of product and contract specific details necessary to articulate processes to clients and utilize systems to support successful test administrations


• Ability to travel to customer site(s) and/or to locations for customer-facing events, approximately 20-30% of time throughout year


• A customer-centric focus and a strong sense of urgency while working through a complex matrix organization to ensure success for the customer, organization, and team members


• Tenacity and persistence to bring closure to customer requests in a timely manner


• Ability to learn and utilize full lifecycle project management skills and methodologies to initiate, plan, implement, manage, and close out assigned programs


• Collaboration - ability to build and maintain positive working relationships with customers and internal stakeholders, which often includes cross-functional teams, by encouraging and supporting collaboration


• Communication - solid interpersonal, written, verbal communication and facilitation skills; tactful, direct, articulate, and thoughtful communicator with the ability to communicate effectively across all levels of the organization


• Decision making - acts decisively with sound judgement; uses data to analyze options and form opinions


• Information literacy - uses subject matter knowledge and skills to effectively acquire and apply information


• Optimization - ability to apply continuous improvement to existing processes and programs


• Innovation - develops ideas that are new, better, or unique; embraces and promotes diverse perspectives


• Change management - ability to manage change and navigate positively in an environment experiencing change at a fast pace


• Initiative - uses self-starter approach, ability to multi-task, proactively anticipates and acts on information and details needed, completes tasks with little to no direction


• Self-development - remains current in area of expertise, seeks opportunities to expand and grow skills


• Accountability - takes responsibility and follows through on commitments; acknowledges and learns from mistakes without blaming others; recognizes the impact of one's behavior


• Bachelor's degree in Business, Education or related area of study, or an equivalent combination of education and experience from which comparable knowledge and abilities can be acquired


• At least two (2) years of program management experience that includes client-facing responsibilities

It's a plus if you have:

• Experience in educational assessment industry


• A Project Management Professional (PMP) credential through the Project Management Institute (PMI)


• Experience working in a matrix environment with a diverse group of internal stakeholders to deliver contracted products and services

Your Work Makes a Difference


ACT team members are part of an organization dedicated to an important mission: Helping people achieve education and workplace success.


Everything we do contributes to this mission, including team member events, professional development resources, community outreach opportunities and solid benefit offerings. Helping team members achieve education and workplace success of their own advances the ACT mission on a daily basis.


You will be joining a team of program management professionals with skills and expertise in working with and developing strong relationships with external clients; following PMI-aligned methodologies to plan, implement, and manage the ongoing delivery of large-scale statewide assessment programs; employing keen business acumen to retain and grow the business; thinking strategically to support customers, team members, and stakeholders; and having some fun along the way.


About ACT


When ACT was founded in 1959, it disrupted the assessment industry with a new approach to helping students better understand their readiness so they could take steps to improve it. By leveraging our expertise and authority in assessment and research, we will again disrupt the industry-helping more people learn, better measure their progress, and improve their navigation through life's transitions.


More than ever before, ACT is fulfilling its mission of helping people achieve education and workplace success. We're doing it by pushing the boundaries of learning innovation through the work of our people, who we call team members because we're all in this together.


We know transformation does not come without challenge. That's why ACT invests in a variety of experiences for team members to strengthen their connections, explore ideas, learn from customers, and celebrate success.


Learn more about working at ACT at act.org!


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