Fast Facts

WGU is seeking a Manager of Academic Product Management to lead the strategy and development of curricular and instructional improvements while ensuring alignment with academic standards and effective student outcomes.

Responsibilities: Oversees the program development process, evaluates learning experience quality, manages a team, and prepares business reports while ensuring alignment with budget and timeline requirements.

Skills: Demonstrated management in highly dynamic environments, excellent collaboration and coaching abilities, project management skills, and strong analytical capabilities.

Qualifications: Minimum of a Bachelor's degree in a related field and five years of experience in online education program development; a Master's degree and higher education experience are preferred.

Location: This position will be located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and involves a hybrid work schedule of 4 days in the office and 1 day remote.

Compensation: $85100 - $140500 / Annually

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

Grade: Management_Executive 606Pay Range: $85,100.00 - $140,500.00

Job Description

The Manager, Academic Product Management oversees the strategy, development, and improvement of curriculum, assessments, and instructional models that are focused on successful learning outcomes. Partners with department leaders to establish program success metrics and quality measures and evaluates program effectiveness. The Manager, Academic Product Management leads initiatives to improve product success within timeline and budget requirements and collaborates with program and product teams to ensure quality and consistency across all academic programs.

Location: This position will be located in our Salt Lake City, Utah office and would require you to work a hybrid schedule in the office 4 days a week with one day remote.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• Manages the program development process for multiple academic products at scale.
• Evaluates program and learning experience quality; assesses program, course, assessment, and learning resource performance against student achievement.
• Manages a team which includes hiring, training, developing, coaching, mentoring, and managing performance.
• Assists in defining curriculum and assessment approaches, including new instructional and assessment techniques and innovations.
• Monitors projects’ status, budget, and resources; partners with project teams and provides input to ensure projects and initiatives are aligned with budget and time requirements.
• Keeps academic leaders across WGU updated on academic program development requirements regarding budgets and timelines.
• Analyses program health and wellness data; prepares monthly and quarterly business reports inclusive of fiscal and success metrics; presents findings, trends, and recommendations to leadership teams.
• Ensures the strategies and development of curriculum and assessments align with academic program accreditation and regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with colleagues to establish efficient, consistent operations across projects and colleges.
• Partners with academic leadership and project teams to ensure project estimates are accurate and in line with budget requirements. 
• Gather stakeholder feedback on projects to define expectations and program needs; keeps stakeholders updated on project status and budget throughout the project and product lifecycle.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Demonstrated management in an environment with competing demands and limited resources
• Excellent collaboration and consensus-building abilities to bring together a diverse group of constituents
• Ability to organize, coordinate, and manage team activities and results
• Ability to coach and develop direct reports
• Ability to work effectively in a highly matrixed organization
• Ability to build relationships and influence at all levels
• Ability to be an agent of change in a rapidly changing environment
• Proven ability to analyze data to identify trends and drive innovative process improvement
• Demonstrated sound judgement and decision-making skills
• Demonstrated skills in project management, course development, and program evaluation
• Ability to interact effectively on cross-organizational teams

Job Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Higher Education, Instructional Design, Education Technology, a related field, or equivalent work experience
• Five (5) years of experience in developing online education programs and curriculum, implementing new, innovative learning models, process development and implementation, change management or a closely related field, which includes two years supervising a team

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Instructional Design, Learning Science, Assessment Development
• Experience in a college specific area—education; healthcare; business, information technology
• Experience in a higher education environment
• Experience stabilizing and structuring diffuse and ambiguous situations

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Must be able to lift to 15 pounds at times

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Position & Application Details

Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

Additional Information

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at [email protected].

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.