Role Overview
We are looking for a driven and people-focused
Senior Program Manager 6 Student Operations to lead and manage end-to-end student operations. This role is critical in ensuring a seamless learner experience 6 from onboarding to program completion 6 while driving efficiency, accountability, and continuous improvement across all student-facing processes.
Key Responsibilities
- Own and manage end-to-end student operations, ensuring smooth onboarding, engagement, and retention. Set and drive measurable goals for these areas (e.g., onboarding completion, attendance, engagement, retention) and report progress against quarterly targets.
- Act as the primary point of contact for student-related operational escalations and resolutions, ensuring SLAs are met and root-cause actions are implemented.
- Lead, mentor, and manage a team of 4-6 operations executives/coordinators (typically 3-5 direct reports); set clear performance KPIs and conduct regular reviews to drive improvement. This role reports to the Head of Student Success / Senior Director, Student Operations and will maintain close (dotted-line) partnerships with Academic and Placement leads.
- Design, optimize, and document processes to improve student experience and operational efficiency. Prioritize improvements based on impact metrics and implement measurable pilots before scaling.
- Work closely with academic, placement, finance, and support teams to ensure alignment and shared ownership of cross-functional KPIs.
- Track and own key operational metrics and KPIs, including but not limited to: onboarding completion rate, weekly/monthly attendance (%), engagement score (platform interactions or activity rate), program drop-off rate, cohort retention rate, student CSAT/NPS, escalation rate, and average resolution time. Define target values for each KPI and maintain dashboards for weekly and monthly reporting.
- Identify bottlenecks using data-driven analysis and proactively implement scalable solutions; measure impact by comparing pre/post KPI performance and iterate accordingly.
- Ensure timely communication, documentation, and reporting across teams; establish regular cadence for KPI reviews and action-tracking until targets are met.
Team & Reporting Structure
- Team size: responsible for a core student operations team of 4-6 professionals, with typical direct reports numbering 3-5.
- Reporting line: this role reports to the Head of Student Success / Senior Director, Student Operations. The role will have dotted-line collaboration with Academic, Placement, and Finance leads to align cross-functional KPIs and initiatives.
- Span of influence: owns the operational delivery across one or more program cohorts and partners with program managers to scale processes across additional cohorts.
Deliverables & Timeline
- 30 days: Complete onboarding and stakeholder introductions; conduct an operational audit of current student workflows; deliver a prioritized list of top 5 quick-win process improvements; establish baseline dashboards for core KPIs (onboarding completion, attendance, escalation rate, CSAT).
- 60 days: Implement 1-2 prioritized pilots (e.g., onboarding automation, standardized escalation playbook); reduce average time-to-resolution for escalations by a measurable amount (target: 20-30% improvement over baseline); present interim results and recommended next steps.
- 90 days: Scale successful pilots into documented processes with defined SLAs; ensure dashboards and reporting cadence are operational; demonstrate measurable improvements in at least two core KPIs (e.g., onboarding completion, engagement, or reduction in escalation rate).
- 6 months: Deliver on medium-term targets aligned with the roles success metrics (for example: CSAT >= 4.5/5 or NPS >= 20, average escalation resolution <24 hours, cohort retention uplift of 5-10 percentage points). Have a clear roadmap for automation and scaling that covers >80% of common workflows.
Key Skills & Competencies
- Strong people management and stakeholder management skills
- Excellent communication and conflict-resolution abilities
- High ownership mindset with attention to detail
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, high-growth environment
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; comfortable interpreting and acting on operational metrics
- Comfortable using dashboards, CRMs, LMS platforms, and operational tools
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
- Bachelors degree in Education, Business, Operations, Data Analytics, or a related field.
- 3+ years of relevant experience in operations, student success, customer success, or program management with demonstrated ownership of end-to-end processes.
- Proven experience managing or mentoring a small operations team and setting performance KPIs.
- Proficiency with spreadsheet and analysis tools (Excel / Google Sheets) and the ability to work with data; ability to write basic SQL queries is expected.
- Practical experience using at least one CRM (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot), one LMS or learning platform (e.g., Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard), and one support/ticketing tool (e.g., Zendesk, Freshdesk).
- Experience building and maintaining dashboards and reports using BI tools (e.g., Looker, Tableau, Power BI) or native analytics dashboards.
Preferred Qualifications
- Masters degree in a relevant field (Business, Education, Analytics) is a plus.
- 5+ years of experience, particularly in edtech, higher education, or large service-based organizations.
- Experience with Salesforce (or Gainsight), product analytics tools (Mixpanel, Amplitude), and familiarity with automation tools or workflows (Zapier, scripts, or workflow automation within CRMs).
- History of scaling operations for large cohorts, implementing automation, and increasing retention/engagement through data-driven experiments.
- Experience designing SLA-driven processes and tracking performance in cross-functional environments.
What Success Looks Like
Student satisfaction and experience metrics meet defined targets (e.g., average CSAT >= 4.5/5 or NPS >= 20 within 6 months of role start). Smooth day-to-day operations with minimal escalations: average time-to-resolution for operational escalations <24 hours and escalation rate <5% of active student issues.
Well-defined, documented, and scalable operational processes covering the majority of student workflows (e.g., >80% of common workflows automated or documented with defined SLAs). Measurable improvements in engagement and retention: increase cohort retention by 5-10 percentage points and reduce program drop-off rate by a measurable margin within the first 6 months; maintain average attendance >=85%. High-performing, motivated operations team meeting agreed productivity and quality KPIs (for example, QA score >=90%, on-time task completion >=95%) and clear development plans in place.
Skills: escalation,completion,teams,reporting,accountability,continuous improvement,communication,skills,automation,onboarding,analytics,metrics,operations,management,dashboards,conflict
