Senior Program Manager

Role Description

CDI seeks an experienced, highly organized Senior Program Manager to serve as the operational backbone of the Leadership Institute (LI), CDI's program to equip senior higher education leaders with the strategy, tools, and peer network to advance cultures of inquiry and dialogue on their campuses. This full-time, remote role works closely with the Vice President of Leadership Programs to run LI's full-year arc: the fall Summit, monthly institutional coaching, quarterly Peer Learning Communities, and each cohort's measurement and reporting cycle.

In your first 90 days:

• Learn LI end-to-end by shadowing coaching calls and supporting Summit planning.
• Get fluent in our systems and templates.
• Plan for the year-long engagement.
• Independently manage scheduling and logistics for our Leadership Institute partners by month three.

By month six:

• Manage the operating rhythm for the full cohort year.
• Track institution progress and flag risks to the VP.
• Run day-to-day partner communication.
• Recommend process improvements.

Within your first year:

• Be a trusted first point of contact for campus teams on coordination and progress.
• Be a trusted operational partner with the VP.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of program or project management experience, ideally spanning cross-functional or partner-facing work in education, consulting, or nonprofit settings.
• Comfortable managing a complex, multi-institution portfolio and tracking multiple workstreams at once.
• Track record of independently identifying and proposing improvements.
• Comfortable liaising directly with external partners on defined pieces of work.
• Able to pull information from multiple sources into a clear, decision-ready narrative.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, calibrated for both internal teams and senior higher-ed leadership.
• Enthusiastic about CDI's mission and comfortable operating in an environment of continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Comfort with project management systems and CRMs (e.g., Asana, HubSpot).

Benefits

• Compensation: $85,000 - $95,000 annually.
• A Mission-Driven Culture: Work culture reflects our mission, characterized by intellectual humility, continuous improvement, and open-mindedness.
• Remote-First: Founded as a remote-first organization, maintaining a strong team culture across vast distances.
• Unlimited PTO: Along with 13 company holidays.
• Remote Work Support: Up to $500 reimbursed for home office equipment and up to $50/month reimbursed for home internet or cell phone expenses.
• Other Benefits: Employer-supported health, vision and dental plans, subsidized parental leave, 3% 401k match, short- and long-term disability insurance, life and AD&D insurance, $1,000 annual professional development budget.

Role Specs

• Reports to: Vice President of Leadership Programs
• Schedule: Full-time, flexible within U.S. time zones
• Target start date: ASAP
• Location: Remote, must be based in the U.S.