Project Manager

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is a district on the rise, serving over 320,000 students in 500+ schools and employing over 44,000 people, most of them teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life. In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans: academic progress, financial stability, and integrity. Six core values are embedded within these commitments – student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

The Office of Portfolio Management (OPM) ensures every student in Chicago has a choice of well-resourced schools in their neighborhood that best meet their unique learning needs by building coherent and aligned systems for enrollment, regional school planning, incubation of quality school options, and school accountability across the district. As an integral department of OPM, the Office of Access and Enrollment (OAE) is responsible for managing the application, selection, and notification process for all district elementary schools, and district and charter high schools, including managing GoCPS, which is the District’s highly complex and technical annual admissions process that more than 50,000 families participate in.

Job Summary:

Reporting to the Executive Director, Access & Enrollment, the Project Manager will lead the strategy and implementation of midsize to large-scale projects within OAE, including the communication and management of tasks for all phases of the parent/student application and selection cycle. Additionally, the Project Manager will serve as a subject matter expert and resource to the team on the details of the GoCPS platform and will interface with the vendor to develop and communicate system enhancements.

This Job Will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

• Strategize, manage, and execute a comprehensive communications strategy for OAE.
• Oversee development of OAE communications guidelines.
• Develop and implement tailored communications to diverse stakeholders, communicating and distilling OAE policy and complex admissions priorities and outcomes to a variety of audiences.
• Develop an overall training strategy for all stakeholders including school administration, counselors, clerks, families, call center staff, etc.
• Create training materials that can be used by staff throughout the department.Oversee the management and improvement of the GoCPS website and school profile pages.
• Manage the GoCPS platform on behalf of the department, serving as a subject matter export and liaison with the vendor.
• Create and maintain detailed documentation of GoCPS business rules and internal procedures.
• Oversee the annual set up of the system and create and manage a comprehensive testing plan to ensure seamless delivery to families and school administrators.
• Manage the overall department timeline annually and ensure that all team members are aware of upcoming milestones and on track to timely completion.
• Manage OAE operational activities, ensuring current, accurate, and quality project information across the department.
• Demonstrate a willingness to collaborate and support OAE peers and leadership
• Create and execute project work plans and revise as appropriate to meet changing needs and requirements
• Initiate and manage multiple projects in parallel and with multiple dependencies
• Use influence to eliminate bottlenecks and potential resource alignment problems
• Manage projects within standard project management methodologies to time, quality, and budget
• Identify resources needed and assigning individual responsibilities for various projects in the office
• Identify and implement process improvements to enhance the parent/student application experience.
• Other duties as assigned

Education Required:

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience required
• CAPM or PMP Certification preferred
  
  
  Experience Required:
• Minimum of five (5) years of professional work experience
• Previous experience in Project Management
• Previous experience in an urban school district or nonprofit supporting urban education is preferred.
• Experience in Education (K-12) project or program work is preferred
  
  Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
• Knowledgeable about organization and process structures
• Proficient in Project Management practices, principles, and tools
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience developing training materials for adult learners
• Ability to apply process standards
• Self-motivated/willingness to take initiative
• Proven ability to build positive working relationships within own team and other areas of business
• Ability to effectively communicate with customers, project and functional management to identify needs and evaluate alternative solutions
• Ability to work as a Project Manager on multiple simultaneous projects
• Ability to work independently towards established goals

Conditions of Employment:As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to:

• Establish/Maintain Chicago Residency - Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district. The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary/part-time positions, however, all CPS employees must be residents of Illinois.