Program Director

About Ellucian

Ellucian is a global market leader in education technology. We power innovation for higher education, partnering with more than 2,900 customers across 50 countries and serving over 20 million students. Ellucian's AI-powered platform, trained on the richest dataset available in higher education, drives efficiency, personalized experiences, and strengthened engagement for all students, faculty and staff. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. These solutions and services span the entire student lifecycle, from student recruitment, enrollment, and retention to workforce analytics, fundraising, and alumni engagement. Ellucian's innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners, and user community of more than 45,000 provide best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes.

Values Rooted in Purpose

We embrace the power to lead, the courage to innovate, and the determination to grow. At our core, we believe in humanizing our approach, recognizing that our people are our greatest strength. With a shared vision of transformation, we endeavor to shape a brighter future for higher education.

About The Opportunity

The Program Director is a senior leadership position responsible for the successful delivery of large-scale, complex software implementation programs within the higher education sector, with a particular focus on Student Management Systems. The successful candidate will be an accomplished project management professional with a proven track record in managing high-value, multi-stream programs, integrating diverse teams, and delivering exceptional customer outcomes.

With deep experience in managing major ERP or Student Management System implementations, the Program Director will oversee a team of approximately 35 onshore and offshore professionals, ensuring seamless integration between Ellucian and client teams on Ellucian Student Implementations.

Where You Will Make an Impact

• Program Leadership: Lead the planning, direction, and coordination of all activities required to manage and implement complex, high-profile programs from contract initiation through to business-as-usual integration.
• Schedule & Activity Management: Develop, maintain, and manage comprehensive schedules and activity plans, ensuring all deliverables are achieved on time and are aligned with the program’s critical path.
• Project Management: Apply standard and adaptive project management methodologies (including Agile where appropriate) to oversee large, complex software implementations, with a focus on SaaS solutions for higher education.
• Resource Coordination: Coordinate and optimize the deployment of resources across multiple time zones, leveraging both onshore (primarily Melbourne-based) and offshore teams to ensure delivery excellence.
• Risk & Issue Management: Proactively identify, assess, and mitigate program risks and issues, ensuring early escalation and resolution to maintain program momentum and quality.
• Stakeholder & Partner Management: Build and maintain strong relationships with demanding and mature customers, as well as executive stakeholders, ensuring clear communication and effective management of expectations.
• Team Integration: Foster a unified team culture, integrating Ellucian and client teams to operate as one, and championing diversity and collaboration across the region.
• Parallel Stream Oversight: Manage multiple parallel workstreams with evolving methodologies, ensuring effective coordination between product development, solution, and technical streams.
• Reporting & Communication: Deliver exceptional communication and reporting (both verbal and written) at all levels, providing regular status updates, milestone tracking, and risk assessments to internal and external senior management.
• Continuous Improvement: Guide and drive the project management team towards optimal resource utilization, process improvement, and adoption of best practice planning tools (Smartsheet proficiency desirable).
• Governance & Financial Management: Set and oversee governance arrangements, monitor and control resources, revenue, and capital costs against project budgets, and provide accurate revenue forecasting on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.
• Professional Growth: Demonstrate an ongoing commitment to professional growth in program/project management, enablement, customer success, and related areas.
  
  

What You Will Bring

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or significant experience as a Senior/Principal Project Manager.
• 15+ years of related work experience, with specialized knowledge in managing complex, high-value programs.
• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale program implementations in higher education, ideally with Student Management or ERP systems.
• Expertise in managing schedules, activities, resources, and risks for complex software implementations.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, executive presence, and the ability to manage high-profile customer relationships.
• Experience managing and integrating diverse teams, including onshore and offshore resources.
• Exceptional communication and reporting abilities, with a proactive and organized approach to time management.
• Advanced program management skills; experience with SaaS software product implementation in higher education highly desirable.
• Experience with partner management and the ability to work collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience with Agile delivery and student domain knowledge highly desirable.
• Smartsheet proficiency desirable.
• Commitment to fostering diversity and a collaborative, high-performing team culture.
• Willingness to travel as required.
  
  

What makes #Ellucianlife

• 20 days annual leave plus public holidays
• Competitive superannuation and life cover
• Private Medical and Dental family cover
• Thrive Flex Program that allows you to contribute towards your health, financial or learning interests
• 5 charitable days to support the community that supports us
• Wellness
• Headspace (mental health)
• Wellbeats (virtual fitness classes)
• RethinkCare - caregiver support
• Diversity and inclusion programs that promote employee resource groups such as: Women in Technology, Pride and Go Green to name a few.
• Parental leave
• Employee referral bonuses to encourage the addition of great new people to the team
• We Foster a learning culture with:
• Education Assistance Program
• Professional development opportunities