Design Manager Senior

How to Apply

A cover letter and resume are important submissions for the hiring team to get a sense of your experience. In the cover letter, in two pages or less, please let us know how this role aligns with your career aspirations and skill set. Submit both a cover letter and resume as one file. 

What You'll Do

The Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) at the University of Michigan is seeking a qualified Design Manager Senior to manage the end-to-end design process of the development of online courses and a wide range of academic innovation projects. As a skilled project manager, this role utilizes relationship management skills, creative problem solving, and risk management techniques to create consensus and communicate clear decisions among stakeholders, including CAI colleagues and U-M faculty members. In addition, the Design Manager Senior contributes through independent management of important division initiatives and supervisory duties of Design Management colleagues and/or Design Management Student Fellows. The Design Manager Senior will report to the Design Management Lead. 

Mission Statement

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) is committed to inclusion in our organizational work, culture, climate, and the products we create. We strive to recruit, develop, and retain a diverse team as a reflection of our commitment to our work designing equitable and inclusive learning and work environments that are necessary for the university community to make progress on solving societal challenges. CAI draws on each of our team member's unique backgrounds and experiences to guide our everyday work in the center, and our team collaborates with students, staff, and faculty on projects that center our commitment to DEIJ work. All interested applicants, including those from groups historically marginalized by educational privilege, are encouraged to apply.
 

Organizational Statement
The Center for Academic Innovation will not tolerate any forms of harassment including sexual and gender-based 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 

Who We Are

About the Center for Academic Innovation 

The Center for Academic Innovation is where creativity, excellence, and the University of Michigan's aspirations for societal impact combine to reimagine the future of higher education. Through curricular innovation, educational data and research, and educational technology, we position U-M as a global leader in academic innovation to create and inspire change in higher education and to reinforce an engaged and informed society. 

About Online Learning at CAI 

The Online Learning teams within CAI collaborate 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: sourcing new opportunities for online learning, developing internal and external partnerships, providing program management services and operational support for degree programs, supporting end-to-end design and development of online learning experiences, and enabling learners' success and engagement in live courses.

For more information, please visit our website: Academic Innovation

Responsibilities*

Project Management
 

• Apply project management skills such as stakeholder communication, relationship management, process management, design, quality assurance, and consultative skills in collaboration with faculty, course teams, administrators, vendors, and other stakeholders.
• Manage complex project tasks including project scoping, scheduling, communication plans, budget management, and resource allocation to ensure timely execution and consistency of deliverables across CAI's online learning portfolio.
• Align diverse perspectives and relationships, including those of faculty partners, external partners and collaborators, CAI colleagues, and other U-M and external stakeholders at a project level.
• Ensure projects are in alignment with current copyright, accessibility, and diversity, equity, and inclusion standards.
• Coordinate policy documentation for CAI initiatives in collaboration with the Design Management Lead, including executing Memorandums of Understanding, amendments, and release and/or waiver forms.
• Coordinate and manage financial project components, including expense reimbursements and budget management for the online learning portfolio.
• Organize and build project elements into various platforms and learning management systems.
   

Supervision, Leadership, and Initiatives Management

• Provide supervision and coaching of direct reports on the Design Management Team by ensuring consistency in processes, providing oversight of workload, communication of role expectations and regular feedback on individual performance, including co-developing and supporting goals and individual assessments in the annual performance review process.
• Hire and supervise students for individual projects in consultation with faculty and school/college administration.
• Lead planning and implementation of important division and Design Management team initiatives through facilitation of working groups, development of process roadmaps, and stewardship of current initiatives.
• Develop training materials for managed initiatives to be shared widely across the Design Management and CAI teams.
   

Strategic Planning and Operations

• Partner and actively collaborate with the Design Management Lead and CAI leadership to contribute to strategic planning for the online learning portfolio within CAI.
• Operationalize strategy around online and hybrid program projects, open learning initiatives, and internal CAI initiatives by managing important division projects related to internal processes in the following areas: project pipeline, partnership development, vendor evaluation, and process development by working closely with CAI colleagues across the organization and other stakeholders beyond CAI.
• Lead internal teams to develop, align, refine, and evaluate internal processes and best practices in designing and developing online and hybrid program projects, open learning initiatives, and internal CAI initiatives.
• Contribute to cross-functional working groups within CAI to help align processes and share best practices, such as an Extended Reality Working Group or a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion working group

Additional Information

• This is a hybrid position with a standard schedule of 3 in-person days and 2 remote days per week.
• This is a 5 year term limited position.
• Must have legal authorization to work in the United States. 

Salary Information

• The general salary range for this position is $70,000 - $75,000. 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.
• Excellent benefits are available; for additional details see http://benefits.umich.edu/

Background Screening

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.

Application Deadline

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.

Decision Making Process

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

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.