Nittany AI Advance Program Lead Specialist

• CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• CURRENT PENN STATE STUDENT (not employed previously at the university) and seeking employment with Penn State, please login to Workday to complete the student application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• If you are NOT a current employee or student, please click "Apply" and complete the application process for external applicants.

JOB DESCRIPTION AND POSITION REQUIREMENTS:

Does the opportunity to lead an experiential learning program focused on team-based projects focused on the practical application of artificial intelligence (AI) to address real business problems get you excited?

Then consider joining Nittany AI Alliance to support and oversee the Advance program projects from inception to completion, acting as a coach and mentor to student teams to ensure successful outcomes and positive experiences. This role collaborates closely with project stakeholders, sponsors, and Nittany AI Alliance staff. As the Advance Program Lead Specialist, you will serve in the role of leader, mentor, and liaison, ensuring successful project execution while fostering professional growth among student participants.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Program Management

• Oversee the portfolio of projects, assisting and mentoring student project leaders (PLs) in their duties as scrum masters, participating in bi-weekly sprint meetings with client, and helping to achieve project success.

• Works with SPM and AED to help set the strategic direction for the program as it relates to program focus, partner focus and alignment of resources.

• Engage with industry partners to help identify new and project extension opportunities to support the expansion of the Advance program.

• Evaluate opportunities for improving the Advance program as it relates to improving key outcomes: student skill development and value to partners.

• Other duties as assigned.

Project Portfolio and Pipeline Management

• Work with the strategic partner manager (SPM) to develop and secure new projects with industry, internal and other partners.

• Helps to maintain the pipeline of projects with existing partners, engaging partners on how existing projects might expand to add more value or addressing new challenges.

Project Management

• Provide leadership through the full project life cycle, helping teams stay on track, resolve obstacles, and maintain high performance.

• Assist PLs in creating and maintaining project schedules, milestones, and deliverables, while ensuring team engagement and individual contributions.

• Monitor project progress across all teams to ensure alignment with semester timelines.

• Creates and executes project discovery workshops, develops project charters with SPM and revises as appropriate to meet changing needs and requirements.

• Work closely with the AI Solution Architect to ensure the proper technology support is provided for each project.

• Provide PLs with guidance on risk management and problem-solving to maintain project continuity.

• Provides weekly progress and status reporting to AED.

• Reviews final project results prepared by team and conduct project debrief meetings with the clients.

Student Engagement and Project Definition

• Engaging students in successfully executing multiple projects, with multiple teams, serving multiple stakeholder groups.

• Involving multiple industry/corporate partners in each project and setting the proper expectations.

• Interviewing, selecting, and placing interns.

• Working with industry partners to prepare project charters that will define the scope of the project.

• Monitoring team performance, conflict resolution, and making changes with project teams when required.

Training and Development

• Design and deliver workshops for student project leaders on leadership, communication, and technical skills (working with AI solutions architect).

• Introduce students to the latest tools and technologies for solution development.

• Provide ongoing training to adapt to emerging trends in innovation and automation.

Administrative Duties

• Manage program budgets, ensuring efficient allocation of resources across projects.

• Conduct Advance program orientation meeting for new student interns and a celebration and recognition meeting at the conclusion of each semester.

• Work with the program coordinator in ensuring that student hours are tracked daily for each project.

• Determine project resource requirements and work with office manager to resolve scheduling conflicts.

• Organize and execute the recruitment process to recruit students for each project, working closely with program coordinator, Challenge program manager and SPM, ensuring project resource requirements are met.

• Continue the existing peer-to-peer evaluation process for project teams.

• Implement a 360-degree project rating process, enabling clients and students to rate the success of the project from their perspectives.

• Prepare reports each semester on program progress, outcomes, and areas for improvement.

Qualifications

• This position requites a bachelor's degree (minimum) and at least 3 years of experience or equivalent education and experience.

• Experience in project management; consulting or IT experience is a plus, as well as an advanced degree.

• Experience working with students or managing educational programs is highly desirable.

• PMP certification preferred; ScrumMaster certification preferred.

• Proven ability to function in a small team, solution development environment.

• Agile development methodology, software development life cycle experience, working with GitHub and Kanban is required.

Required Skills and Qualifications

Core Skills:

• Leadership: Ability to inspire and guide diverse teams toward achieving shared goals.

• Communication: Strong verbal and written skills to interact effectively with students, clients, and stakeholders. These include both business and technical communities.

• Project Management: Proficiency in agile methodologies, timeline management, risk assessment, and resource/budget allocation. Ability to manage a portfolio of projects.

• Collaboration: Skilled at fostering teamwork among part-time students and building strong client relationships.

• Strategic Thinking: Capable of aligning program activities with broader organizational goals.

Technical Skills:

• Familiarity with project management tools (e.g., GitHub, Kanban) and collaboration platforms (e.g., Teams).

• Knowledge of AI-enabled development tools, large language models (LLMs) or machine learning (ML) algorithms is a plus.

• Familiarity in cybersecurity best practices of data management, access, development, version control, associated technology costs, and evaluating and mitigating risks as necessary.

Location

• Based at University Park Campus, expected to work at least 3 days a week on campus.

• This position is on-site to provide direct support to student teams. The program manager must be available during standard work hours as well as occasional evenings or weekends based on program needs.

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Penn State offers competitive benefits to full-time employees, including medical, dental, vision, and retirement plans, in addition to tuition discounts (75% discount for spouse and children), and paid holidays. Please visit https://hr.psu.edu/current-employee/benefits for more detailed information.

The salary range for this position, including all possible grades is:

Salary Structure - additional information on Penn State's job and salary structure.

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