Project Manager - Higher Education

We are seeking an experienced Senior Project Manager for a hybrid position in Sacramento, CA, with an expectation of being onsite 1-2 days per week (additional onsite days may be required during key project phases such as workshops, go-live readiness, or executive steering meetings)to lead large-scale organizational and technology transformation initiatives within a higher education environment, with a strong emphasis on community college districts.

This role is responsible for driving end-to-end project execution across multiple departments and stakeholder groups, establishing project governance, building integrated implementation roadmaps, managing risks and dependencies, and ensuring organizational readiness for change.

Experience in community college districts is essential. ERP modernization/implementation experience is highly desirable (not required).

Key Responsibilities

Project Leadership & Transformation Strategy

* Lead planning, coordination, and execution of enterprise transformation initiatives (organizational, process, and technology).

* Develop project roadmaps, implementation strategies, schedules, milestones, and resource plans.

* Establish governance structures including decision-making forums, roles, responsibilities, and accountability models.

* Manage scope, timelines, budgets, risks, issues, dependencies, and deliverables to ensure successful outcomes.

* Align project objectives to institutional priorities, operational needs, and long-term strategy.

Higher Education Stakeholder Management

* Partner with executive leadership, academic administrators, and cross-functional teams to drive alignment and outcomes.

* Coordinate activities across Finance, HR, Student Services, IT, and other departments.

* Facilitate executive steering committees, stakeholder workshops, and working sessions to resolve issues and drive decisions.

* Navigate complex governance structures and decentralized stakeholder environments.

* Ensure sustained business ownership, participation, and accountability.

Project Planning & Execution

* Build and maintain integrated project plans spanning process improvement, requirements, data readiness, OCM, procurement, testing, and go-live preparation.

* Coordinate multiple workstreams across business, functional, and technical teams.

* Assess organizational capacity, resource needs, readiness, and dependencies.

* Proactively identify delivery risks and implement mitigation strategies.

* Provide executive-level reporting, performance measures, and status communications.

Organizational Transformation & Implementation Readiness

* Support modernization efforts involving business process redesign, operational improvements, and technology enablement.

* Partner with Organizational Change Management teams on communications, training, stakeholder engagement, and readiness planning.

* Coordinate with vendors/consultants and internal teams to support solution evaluation, procurement, and implementation activities.

* Support development of budgets, staffing plans, business cases, and implementation approaches.

* Ensure changes are sustainable and deliver measurable institutional improvements.

Requirements

* 10+ years managing large-scale projects in transformation, modernization, business process improvement, or enterprise initiatives.

* 7+ years leading complex initiatives across multiple departments/functions/entities.

* 5+ years building/managing project roadmaps, integrated plans, governance structures, and resource plans.

* 5+ years facilitating executive-level stakeholder engagement, decision-making, prioritization, and executive reporting.

* 5+ years overseeing requirements, BPR, OCM, procurement, vendor coordination, testing, and readiness activities.

* Demonstrated project management experience in higher education.

* Direct experience working with community college districts (modernization, operational improvement, and/or transformation).

* Strong leadership, facilitation, communication, and cross-functional coordination skills.

Preferred

* ERP implementation/modernization/replacement project experience in higher education or public sector.

* Familiarity with Oracle Cloud ERP, Workday, PeopleSoft, or similar platforms.

* Experience spanning Finance, HR/HCM, SIS, and higher-ed administrative functions.

* Experience supporting ERP planning, RFP development, solution selection, SI selection, and implementation preparation.

* Experience in California higher education or similarly complex public sector organizations.

* Experience developing business cases, cost models, staffing plans, budgets, and forecasts.

* Certifications: PMP, PgMP, Prosci, SAFe (or similar).