Lead Academic Program Manager (Department Chair), WGU School of Technology – Cyber Security
Western Governors UniversityAbout the role
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:
Job Description
Location: Salt Lake City HQ
About the role
WGU's IT degree programs prepare students for careers in high growth technology domains. As Lead Academic Program Manager, you will be accountable for these programs from concept through continuous improvement. That means you're as comfortable ideating about a new degree as you are in a data dashboard tracking student outcomes six months post-launch.
This is a high-ownership individual contributor role focused on product management across the entire product lifecycle – from program concepts and market research through curriculum development, marketing, launch, support, and student experience. You'll lead by influence across a complex, matrixed organization -- working with our program development team, instructional faculty, program mentors, marketing, and external partners.
Primary Responsibilities:
Product strategy: Conduct market research, competitive analysis, skills and competency definitions, segmentation analysis, and positioning. Define the product roadmap for one or more academic programs.
Product development: Lead cross-functional work with subject matter experts, the program development team, and the broader organization to build degree programs that deliver strong student outcomes and labor market relevance.
Post-launch performance: Track KPIs including applicants, enrollment, progress, retention, key financial metrics, and alignment with employer needs.
Stakeholder alignment: Align cross-functional stakeholders on priorities, decisions, and execution.
What success looks like:
Based on analysis and understanding of key metrics and their underlying driv
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