Project Manager, Business Operations

The role:

• We are looking for a Project Manager to join our Business Operations team. 
• Reporting to the Manager of Business Operations, you will be responsible for driving structured project execution across teams by creating and maintaining key project documentation, including project charters, scope definitions, timelines, and resource plans. You will collaborate closely with business partners to define, document, and optimize business solutions. Your work will include developing process models and business requirements, ensuring clarity and alignment across stakeholders. 
• You will also proactively assess risks, track milestones, and establish contingency plans for high-risk deliverables. You will communicate priorities, risks, issues, and schedules to leadership while developing presentation materials to facilitate decision-making. Your ability to anticipate challenges, drive alignment, and adjust project timelines as needed will be critical to ensuring the successful and timely delivery of key initiatives.

Why you’ll love this role:

• You will have the opportunity to work across multiple functions within Newsela, managing high-impact projects that improve operations and enhance the solutions we provide to our customers. You will work closely with stakeholders from Sales, Customer Success, Product, and Engineering, helping to optimize the systems and processes that drive business efficiency.
• Your contributions will play a key role in expanding and improving how Newsela’s products are adopted in K-12 classrooms nationwide. By implementing structured project management best practices, you’ll help ensure that engaging, culturally responsive learning content reaches more students and teachers.
• Project Management
• Responsibility: 
• Ensure timely delivery of project deliverables by managing dependencies, resolving escalations, and taking corrective actions as needed.
• Define project scope, objectives, and deliverables in collaboration with stakeholders.
• Set and track project milestones; proactively manage unforeseen delays, adjusting schedules and expectations as necessary.
• Assess risks, manage issues, track key milestones, and create contingency plans for high-risk deliverables.
• Provide clear, concise project status reports to relevant stakeholders.
• Maintain project documentation in JIRA and Confluence, ensuring transparency and traceability.
• Key Goals/KPI: 
• Develop and maintain project timelines for all assigned projects.
• Deliver weekly project status reports to stakeholders.
• Successfully manage multiple projects simultaneously, maintaining high execution quality.
• Team Dynamics
• Focus is on team collaboration - this isn’t a management role, but a leadership role. Working with and supporting the team to achieve project objectives, effectively communicate, and coordinate are primary goals.
• This person will be working as part of the Business Operations team and closely with teams across the Organization (Sales, Customer Success, Product, and Engineering) and extensively with external vendors and contractors.

Why you’re a great fit:

• 5+ years of experience in project management, ideally within an Agile/Scrum environment.
• Must have a strong background in Vendor Management with the ability to manage 15-20+ vendors at a time. 
• Highly organized, detail-oriented problem solver with a passion for improving processes through structured project management.
• Proven track record of successfully leading cross-functional initiatives, collaborating across teams to drive impactful outcomes.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills enable you to create clear requirements documentation, process flows, and project plans that drive alignment and execution.
• Thrive in fast-paced, dynamic environments, demonstrating professionalism and adaptability when faced with ambiguity or high-profile challenges.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and projects simultaneously, while maintaining a keen focus on delivering value, will make you a critical asset to the team.
• Strong planning, organization, and communication skills.
• Ability to learn quickly and work in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience in Education/EdTech preferred, but not required.
• Experience with Jira is preferred, but not required. 
• Experience with Gsuite and Google Sheets is preferred, but not required.

Base Compensation: $73,000 - $82,000. Total compensation for this role also includes incentive stock options and benefits. This compensation range may be adjusted based on actual experience. 

Why you’ll love working at Newsela:

• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive medical benefits with employer contribution to premiums and to HSA accounts. Additional benefits such as pet insurance, free access to the Calm app, and more to help you stay healthy: mind, body, and soul. 
• Work From Home: We are a fully remote company. We provide a monthly tech stipend to support your WFH needs!
• Supporting ALL Families: Inclusive benefits to support you and your family, including parental leave, fertility support, adoption, and more! 
• Financial Wellbeing: Invest in your future with our 401(k) plan, which includes a employer match to help you build long-term financial security.
• Time Off: Flexible PTO plus 10 company holidays plus winter break (Dec 24th - Jan 1st), and Sabbatical Leave offered at tenure.
• Professional Development: Newsela offers an annual learning and development allowance to employees to attend external training sessions, classes, workshops, conferences, and educational materials to foster professional growth within their current role and career aspirations at Newsela.
• Make A Difference: No matter your role or department, the work you do each day helps share the future of education and improves the lives of students and teachers.

Newsela takes authentic, real world content from trusted sources and makes it instruction ready for K-12 classrooms. Each text is published at five reading levels, so content is accessible to every learner. Today, over 3.3 million teachers and 40 million students have registered with Newsela for content that's personalized to student interests, accessible to everyone, aligned to instructional standards, and attached to activities and reporting that hold teachers accountable for instruction and students accountable for their work. With over 15,000 texts on our platform and multiple new texts published every day across 20+ genres, Newsela enables educators to go deep on any subject they choose.

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