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The Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) at the University of Michigan is seeking a Project Manager Senior to support the strategic coordination and execution of Michigan Online, a university-wide initiative advancing access to world-class learning opportunities. This position will provide dedicated project leadership across the entirety of the Michigan Online portfolio, serving as a connective thread across multiple workstreams and teams to ensure alignment, identify and mitigate risks, and uphold project excellence at scale. This position is within the Online Learning Domain on the Design Management team and reports directly to the Associate Director of Design Management.

Through curricular innovation, tools for student success and equity, and educational research and analytics, the University of Michigan Center for Academic Innovation is building the future of education. Our vision is a future in which education connects and empowers learners everywhere to reach their full potential throughout their lives. To realize our vision, we make it our mission to collaborate across campus and around the world to create equitable, lifelong educational opportunities for learners everywhere.

About the Online Learning Team at CAI

The Online Learning teams within CAI include five teams that collaborate with others across the Center and University to design and develop online learning experiences that support the future of education for a global community. We work with faculty and academic unit leaders to envision how they can expand reach and impact, advance innovative teaching, and support greater access and lifelong learning through the design and development of integrated online learning experiences. Our teams focus on the following areas:

• Strategic sourcing of new opportunities for online learning
• Developing internal and external partnerships that promote engagement with learning experiences
• Providing program management services throughout degree program development and operations
• Supporting end-to-end design and development of learning experiences, including design management, learning experience design, and iteration of learning experiences after they have launched
• Supporting learners' success and engagement in live courses and programs

For more information, please visit our website: Academic Innovation.

Excellent benefits are available, for details, see http://benefits.umich.edu/

Project Leadership and Coordination

• Provide centralized project management across Michigan Online squads and workstreams by building and maintaining integrated timelines, milestones, and deliverable tracking.
• Collaborate closely with squad and workstream leads, and technical project and product managers, to identify critical interdependencies, surface risks, and support cross-team coordination.
• Proactively flag issues related to scope creep, timeline shifts, or resource bottlenecks, and drive resolution strategies in partnership with relevant stakeholders.
• Lead recurring initiative-wide planning meetings, workstream alignment check-ins, and risk assessment reviews.
• Support Michigan Online senior leadership team in establishing initiative-wide project reporting to CAI leadership and university stakeholders.

Strategic and Initiative Planning

• Partner with CAI leadership to contribute to long-term planning for Michigan Online's goals, processes, and impact.
• Partner with product and engineering leadership to translate strategic goals into iterative delivery roadmaps, support prioritization frameworks, and maintain ongoing alignment with learner-centric outcomes.
• Support policy documentation and internal coordination of initiatives in areas such as vendor management and platform optimization.
• Contribute to internal process refinement and best practices across Michigan Online operations.
• Leveraging experience and education, supporting establishment of project-level profit and loss (P&L) models to inform strategic decision-making, integrating financial forecasting, cost-benefit analysis, and ROI assessments to ensure alignment with organizational goals, financial sustainability and long-term value creation.

Communication and Reporting

• Develop and maintain initiative-level communication plans, dashboards, and reports that provide clarity on project health, milestones, emerging risks, actions needing to be taken, and action item assignments.
• Ensure consistency in project documentation, status reporting, and communication cadence across Michigan Online efforts.
• Provide leadership with insights and updates that enable informed decision-making and strategic alignment.
• Support tooling decisions and governance around project lifecycle platforms such as Asana, Jira, and data dashboards.

• Bachelor's degree and 6 or more years of project management experience.
• Familiarity with project management tools such as Asana or other similar tools.
• Proficiency in Google Workspace, specifically Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
• Familiarity with online learning platforms, open educational resources, and learning management systems such as Coursera and Canvas.
• Excellent organizational, interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills demonstrated in interactions with senior level professionals.
• Ability to manage workload constraining timelines with competing priorities.
• Excellent critical thinking and adaptability skills within a consultative environment.
• Proven ability to manage relationships with multiple stakeholders with a collaborative and customer focused mindset.
• Experience aligning cross-functional teams around roadmap priorities, risk mitigation, and outcome-based planning.

Positions that are eligible for hybrid or mobile/remote work mode are at the discretion of the hiring department. Work agreements are reviewed annually at a minimum and are subject to change at any time, and for any reason, throughout the course of employment. Learn more about the work modes.

Candidates must have legal authorization to work in the United States. The mode of work for this position is Hybrid. The work requirements for this position allow both onsite and offsite work and you will have an expected regular and recurring onsite presence. On occasion, you may be required and must be available to work onsite more frequently if necessitated by our center's policy and domain leadership or by your job requirements.

Must have legal authorization to work in the United States.

Salary Information

The general salary range for this position is $90,000 - $95,000. Candidates can expect to be paid a competitive and equitable salary. Factors used to determine salary include education level, experience, knowledge and skills for the position and internal equity within the unit. All candidates are encouraged to discuss salary questions to honor alignment and transparency throughout the recruiting process.

The salary for this position will be based upon the selected candidate's education and experience.

Organizational Statement on Harassment

We believe all individuals deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and have the right to work in a professional atmosphere that promotes mutual respect and a safe space for collaboration. Any concerns shared with Individuals with Reporting Obligations in the Center for Academic Innovation will be reported to the Equity, Civil Rights, & Title IX Office to be reviewed and addressed, and the Center for Academic Innovation encourages reporting of any forms of harassment including sexual and gender-based harassment.

The University of Michigan conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer and may use a third party administrator to conduct background checks. Background checks will be performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days.  The review and selection process may begin as early as the eighth day after posting. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

Applications will be reviewed as received throughout the posting period and continue until the position is filled.

The University of Michigan is an equal employment opportunity employer.