Implementation State Program Manager - TX

Job Description, Implementation State Program Manager - TX

Background

Learning Ally is a leading nonprofit education solutions organization that transforms the lives of struggling learners by delivering proven solutions that help students reach their potential. Since our founding over 75 years ago, Learning Ally has represented the critical difference between isolation and integration, between frustration and pride, and between struggle and success for millions of people. Today, we continue our mission by providing Solutions that enable learning through listening and which reach 2,400,000+ students annually making the critical difference in their academic success and social emotional well-being.

The importance of state contracts towards growing impact

Learning Ally solutions achieve impact when they are able to engage educators and their students effectively. In order to reach students throughout the country, Learning Ally engages in contracts with state departments of education. Engaging in contracts at the state level ensures Learning Ally has the opportunity to reach students throughout the state and create real impact at scale.

We follow a consistent approach in the design, execution, and management of programs to fulfill state contracts. This includes a) Data First - programs seek or respond to data that leads to insights with the goal of finding opportunities to scale our impact; b) Clear Goals, Objectives, and Execution Plans- state contracts have clear definitions of success accompanied by a delivery plan that takes into account the resources, deliverables, and dates that must be achieved; c) Ongoing Evaluation - state contracts always have leading indicators that help us measure progress towards delivery and tracking towards program outcomes which enable us to evaluate and report our success back to our state partners.

Accountability

The Implementation State Program Manager plays a crucial role in ensuring Learning Ally successfully partners with state departments of education by assisting in responses to requests for proposals, delivering, and operating programs that ultimately lead to greater usage of our solutions and deliver results to students in the state. The role requires both strategic planning and tactical execution.

Specifically this means they are held accountable to ownership of State Contract Programs which can be summarized as follows:

• Ensure 100% of deliverables specified by the contract are met by
  • Delivering professional learning
  • Fostering the Learning Ally brand by attending conferences
  • Engaging in direct marketing to reach educators throughout the state
• Ensure 100% of revenue is achieved through efficient delivery of requirements of the contract
• Ensure that all customer procedures related to stewardship of the contract are met
• Ensure renewal of the contract by supporting any Requests For Proposal (RFP) responses as required
• Ensure effective customer service engaging with educators across the state. The role is responsible for initiating and nurturing relationships with state contract administrators as well as school level educators and administrators throughout the state
• Support contract growth by partnering with the Learning Ally Government Relations team as requested
• Deliver impact programs which prescribe the levels of usage which need to be achieved in order to satisfy customers and also meet Learning Ally internal goals
• Strategically channel potential relationships with people who offer influence in helping Learning Ally achieve its contract deliverables and/or Impact goals to the team leader to ensure effective opportunities to grow the partnership
• Provide information on customer needs as it pertains to product roadmap. As an example, we learn the needs of our customers as it pertains to specific features available in our audiobook solution. By understanding and documenting our customer needs, we can inform planning of our product roadmap to build new features or enhance existing features such as our customers ability to manage access to specific titles in our library of available books.
• Provide information on state and local trends that have influence on our contract. For example, identifying school, district or state policies which can impact how schools may use our solutions such as specific legislation for students with Dyslexia.
• Collaborate enterprise wide across Learning Ally internal teams including Finance, Solutions, Technology, Marketing, and Government Relations.
• Ensuring excellence in program design: State Contract Program Managers have clear goals, objectives, thoughtful consideration of the users we are trying to serve, and use explicit design frameworks (use cases, logic models, canvases, user research, data), while ensuring alignment with strategic choices, data-driven insights, and organizational goals. They identify opportunities and risks, recommend, develop, implement and support programs which offer solutions.
• Ensuring success in the delivery and execution of programs: State Contract Program Managers begin with the end in mind and ensure success in their programs by demonstrating excellence in planning and execution. They collaborate and communicate with colleagues across the organization to coordinate resources among multiple workstreams, cross-project initiatives, and activities.
• Ensuring programs have clear measures of effectiveness - State Contract Program Managers evaluate the effectiveness of their programs by devising key performance indicators and outcomes and tracking progress to their completion. The State Contract Program Manager actively supports the resolution of ambiguous, complex problems that cross organizational boundaries.
• Ensuring strong alignment on vision and communicating progress - State Contract Program Managers reinforce alignment across staff at Learning Ally by constantly reinforcing the 'Why' behind a program, its alignment to our strategic goals, providing updates on its progress, and partnering towards creating messaging and materials for external audiences.

Key deliverables

As part of ensuring success of State Contract Programs, this role can expect to regularly provide these deliverables:

• Creating program design instruments - these include using frameworks like logic models, value proposition, and user canvases to ensure sound design.
• Conducting effective business analysis - leveraging their intellectual curiosity and business acumen, State Contract Program Managers are able to understand strategic goals Learning Ally is trying to achieve and lead organized inquiry around identifying barriers to be solved.
• Generating insights based on user research - leveraging their expertise in K-12 instructional environments, State Contract Program Managers should expect to help lead qualitative research efforts towards identifying user insights and opportunities.
• Creating schedules and budgets- this includes fiduciary responsibilities and ability to self manage and organize time in order to effectively comply with contract requirements. State Contract Program Managers are responsible for managing expenses and prioritizing their time to deliver contract requirements on time and within budget.
• Preparing and delivering effective communications both written and verbal to internal and external audiences- proficiency in professionally communicating cross collaboratively within the organization and with customers in a timely fashion. State Contract Program Managers are responsible for ensuring effective communication to external audiences at the school, district and state level as well as internal audiences including colleagues across departments.
• Assisting in the preparation of RFP responses in pursuit of large district and/or state contracts. Implementation State Program Managers will provide analysis of requirements and preparation of written materials.
• Designing and executing user acceptance testing plans requires State Contract Program Managers to outline procedures from beginning to end to ensure products are ready for educators in their specific state market.
• Creating unique and engaging content which motivates educators to effectively engage in using Learning Ally Solutions. State Contract Program Managers leverage their professional knowledge to produce content that supports and enhances the deliverables of the contract.
• Defining goals, objectives, and key performance indicators ensures that state contracts are delivered according to requirements. State Contract Program Managers demonstrate the ability to effectively communicate progress towards deliverables using program management tools.
• Engaging with external stakeholders which can include leaders within school, district, and administrative settings. State Contract Program Managers leverage expertise in K-12 instructional environments to effectively engage with customers at all levels of educational environment.

Technical skills
The Implementation State Program Manager possesses key technical skills necessary to deliver effective programs including:

• Project management
• RFP response
• Project management expertise across various project management software tools including but not limited to: Notion and Jira
• Effective navigation of Learning Ally internal Systems including but not limited to: Netsuite, Outreach, Marketo, The Ed Portal, Power BI, Jira, The Hub, JitBit Technology ticketing system, Google Suite, Typeform, Calendly, Excalidraw
• Learning Ally Solution knowledge inclusive of the Audio Book Solution, Excite Reading and Professional Learning.
• Facility with frameworks and design tools including the Value Proposition Canvas, the Business Canvas, Logic Models, the Why/What/How/What if communication framework, Use Case Outline, Test Case framework, Creative Brief, Google Sheets and Excel, and Data Analysis tools.
• Technical acumen in understanding and communicating details about integration of technology platforms including Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) including, but not limited to: Safari Montage, Clever, and Classlink.
• Data analysis skills and manipulation of data in Excel and Google Sheets. Ability to engage with data across disparate systems including Netsuite, PowerBI, Data Mart, Marketo, Outreach, and Glide Apps to derive insights and implications for program design and development.
• Familiarity with basic statistics including average, mean, mode and the cold brutal logic that is the normal curve.
• Basic Business Acumen including familiarity with Revenue, Operating Expenses, Contracts, Total Addressable Market and Customer Journey
• Written communication skills including the use of specific frameworks and tools such as slide deck presentations, memos, emails, and reports designed to achieve the purpose of the communication: Inform, Persuade, influence and/or Celebrate
• Content and video creation facility with content creation software including but not limited to Loom, Camtasia, and Canva
• Survey design including leveraging the flexibility of typeform and google forms to effectively gather data to inform program design.

Interpersonal and Leadership Skills

• Demonstrated effectiveness in Interdepartmental leadership and collaboration
• Ability to influence and inform cross-functional leadership
• Effective verbal and written communication
• Excellent time management skills
• Demonstrated track-record with concrete examples of effective critical thinking and problem solving
• History of successful relationship development and nurturance with school, district and state level educators and administrators
• Success working independently and also pulling teams across a finish line.
• Experience as a Texas public school educator is required. Experience as a school leader or administrator is preferred.

Candidates must be residents of the state of Texas.

Travel: 20%

Work Conditions:

This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets, and fax machines.

This position profile identifies the key responsibilities and expectations for performance. It cannot encompass all specific job tasks that an employee may be required to perform. Employees are required to follow any other job-related instructions and perform job-related duties as may be reasonably assigned by his/her supervisor.

Learning Ally is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.