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Columbia University

Program Manager

🇺🇸 Morningside, IA

🕑 Full-Time

💰 $75K - $80K

💻 Project Management

🗓️ June 18th, 2025

Edtech.com's Summary

Columbia University is hiring a Program Manager for the Climate School. The role involves managing day-to-day operations, communication, and logistics for the MA in Climate and Society and MS in Climate programs while supporting academic program coordination and launching new initiatives.

Highlights
  • Manage administrative coordination for curricular and co-curricular academic programming.
  • Advise students on program requirements, registration, and connect with university offices.
  • Assist faculty with course planning, scheduling, and systems access.
  • Support tracking of satisfactory academic progress using Stellic.
  • Coordinate registration and student instructional hires alongside the Registrar’s Office.
  • Provide logistical and budgetary support for senior academic leadership.
  • Analyze data, produce reports, and handle communication with students, faculty, and administrators.
  • Required skills include proficiency in Microsoft Word and Excel and strong customer service orientation.
  • Qualifications include a Bachelor's degree with 2–4 years of related experience; Master's degree preferred.
  • Salary range is $75,000-$80,000 annually for a full-time (35 hours per week) Officer of Administration role.

Program Manager Full Description

  • Job Type: Officer of Administration
  • Regular/Temporary: Regular
  • Hours Per Week: 35
  • Salary Range: $75,000-$80,000

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Position Summary
Reporting to the Director of Enrollment and Data Strategy, the Program Manager supports the Office of Academic Affairs in its wide-ranging educational mission spanning the student enrollment cycle for all current and future Columbia Climate School programs.  The incumbent assists with the coordination and execution of the school’s academic programs, with an emphasis on the MA in Climate and Society and MS in Climate. Though the incumbent is specifically focused on the day-to-day management, communication, and logistical follow-up for the MA and MS programs, they may support colleagues across the Climate School’s academic programs, offices, and constituencies.  They will support and be part of a team that identifies and launches new academic initiatives.

Responsibilities
  • Provides day-to-day administrative coordination for a wide range of curricular and co-curricular programming, activities, and instructional support across academic programs.
    • Examples include but are not limited to: advising current students on program requirements, registration, and connecting with other Climate School or University offices as appropriate, assisting Academic Affairs staff and faculty on course planning and scheduling; assists Senior Director of Academic Programs in tracking satisfactory academic progress (SAP) for the MS in Climate and MA in Climate and Society in Stellic; supporting faculty and instructors on systems access; coordinating registration and other related transactions in partnership with the Registrar’s Office; facilitates instructional-related student hire procedures (e.g. teaching assistants and course assistants).
  • Provides detailed logistical and budgetary support to the senior director and director by engaging with a wide range of administrative processes, protocols, and related databases.
  • Ensures follow-up is complete by both people and processing systems for each task and project assigned.  
  • Analyzes data, produces reports, and engages in correspondence and communications with current students, faculty, administrators, and others in pursuit of the above areas of responsibility. 
  • Academic Affairs cross-program support - Works with the director and senior director of academic programs to develop links and synergies across all programs at the Climate School as well as across university offices, including the Registrar, Student Financial Services, Columbia Information Technology, and others. With support, works across programs at the Climate School on various projects, initiatives, and efforts intersecting with academic administration.
  • Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications
  • Bachelor’s degree and/or its equivalent required. 2 - 4 years related experience.
  • Excellent verbal and written skills required. Goals, procedures, and parameters will be established through regular weekly supervision, but the program manager must be able to work independently. 
  • Must be knowledgeable and adept at working in Microsoft Office programs with a focus on Word and Excel. 
  • Must have a strong customer-service orientation and demonstrate a high degree of tact, discretion, and diplomacy.  

Preferred Qualifications
  • Master’s degree preferred.
  • The successful candidate will be an outgoing self-starter with exceptional interpersonal skills, as a large part of the job requires interacting with and advising students, and supporting faculty.
  • Excellent organizational, time management, financial management, and written/oral communication skills are essential.
  • Must be extremely detail-oriented and able to manage multiple projects with ease, while maintaining quality and accuracy, and adhering to set deadlines.

Other Requirements
  • Commitment to sustainability and addressing climate change is desirable. 
  • Preference will be given to candidates who have familiarity/experience in higher education, and an interest in environmental, climate, and/or sustainability issues.
  • Occasional weekend and evening work, as well as school-wide and university-wide service expected. 

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran
Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.