Senior Manager, Academic Production & Improvement

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 609

Pay Range: $113,200.00 - $203,800.00

Job Description

Job Description

Responsible for leading the design, development, and continuous improvement of the various academic programs offered to students. Leveraging both domain knowledge and leadership expertise, this role directs a cross-functional team of managers in new program development, program redevelopment, existing program maintenance/improvement, and portfolio project management. The teams consist of experts in instructional design, assessment design, learning engineering, instructional media, authoring, and AI-enabled design/development processes. Leading their team of managers, this role aligns with department OKRs for quality, delivery, innovation, timeline, instructional outcomes, stakeholder relationships, and delivery-at-scale. Additionally, this role plans capacity and optimizes the use of internal and vendor resources. 

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.

Primary Responsibilities

• Operationalizes department strategy by leading a management team to implement existing processes and change initiatives to deliver outcomes for production and student success.

• Functions as a player-coach who understands the need for first-hand contribution and close (shoulder-to-shoulder) proximity to the programs at every stage of production and improvement.

• Manages the portfolio of work across their management team in terms of high-level objectives, project plans, budgets, resource allocation, vendor engagement, instructional quality, use of technology, and more.

• Leads in solving complex issues that require significant analysis, troubleshooting, and negotiation (for which exceptions or revisions to established processes and procedures may need to be made).

• Maintains an authoritative coaching relationship not only with their management team but with their managers’ production teams and contractors (~25+ resources)

• Builds upon their individual domain expertise in assessment, instructional design, educational psychology, AI, or learning project/program management to develop cross-disciplinary fluency and provide expert insight across the full range of skills essential to program production.

• Ensures that the vendors and contractors used by their management team have detailed requirements upfront and that they deliver at the level of quality agreed upon and within the established timeframe

• Works laterally with other leaders on process engineering, innovation, quality, team culture, and other shared objectives.

• Represents and curates the best work of their managers and their teams, curating their most innovative work for purposes of advocacy, credibility, and cross-departmental education.

• Shares responsibility for fostering positive relationships with program stakeholders but provides specific consultation to anticipate and respond to concerns, troubleshoot issues, negotiate solutions, etc.

• Performs other job-related duties as assigned.

This job description includes a general representation of job requirements rather than a comprehensive inventory of all required responsibilities or work activities.  The contents of this document or related job requirements may change at any time with or without notice.

Qualifications

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Experience in leading and developing first-level leaders

• Expertise in instructional psychology and technology, with specialization in some aspect of online program development

• Consultative rather than transactional stakeholder communications

• Leadership of digital transformation with a high degree of complexity and a high degree of personal accountability

• Effective change management and readiness enablement skills with the ability to promote, evaluate, and develop these skills on their management team

• Fluency in production, learning analytics, and reporting

• Strong aptitude for learning new technology and implementing it on their team

• High degree of financial acumen and experience in managing fixed budgets across a diverse program portfolio.

Education

• Master’s degree in educational psychology, instructional design, or other related discipline (alternative credentials plus relevant work experience will also be considered)

• Evidence of successful learning program leadership that demonstrates both cross-disciplinary knowledge and specialist domain expertise

• Hands-on experience with project management applications, course authoring tools, and related technologies

• Background in online higher education preferred, but relevant or overlapping experience in corporate, government, or other non-profit contexts may also be considered.

Experience

• 7 years of demonstrated experience.

• Evidence of successful learning program leadership that demonstrates both cross-disciplinary knowledge and specialist domain expertise

• Hands-on experience with project management applications, course authoring tools, and related technologies

Preferred Education

• Doctorate in a relevant discipline, paired with demonstrable expertise in program development with stellar student outcomes

Preferred Experience

• 10 years of leadership experience in higher education program development

• 3 years of leading other managers to achieve outcomes

• Background in online higher education preferred but relevant or overlapping experience in corporate, government, or other non-profit contexts may also be considered

• Experience in leading AI transformation of both the program development and student learning experience

• A mix of online higher education experience and corporate learning experience to support the organization’s workforce-relevant approach

Physical Requirements

• Onsite collocation is required in Salt Lake City, UT

• Travel up to 15-20% may be required on an ad hoc basis

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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 recruiting@wgu.edu.

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