Senior Program Officer

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior Program Officer based in the United States.

This is a high-impact program leadership opportunity supporting a federally funded initiative focused on strengthening international education and higher education partnerships. You’ll lead day-to-day implementation across a national small grants competition and a higher education partnerships initiative. The role combines grants management, stakeholder engagement, program design, monitoring, reporting, and event coordination. You’ll work closely with government stakeholders, U.S. higher education institutions, grant recipients, consultants, and internal cross-functional teams. Your work will help expand meaningful study, internship, apprenticeship, research, and international partnership opportunities aligned with workforce and national priorities. This is an opportunity for an experienced program professional to shape implementation, support institutional capacity, and contribute to measurable outcomes in international education.

Accountabilities: Lead the day-to-day implementation of the program in coordination with senior leadership and program, finance, operations, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning teams.

Manage annual workplans, implementation calendars, deliverables, concurrence items, reporting deadlines, internal updates, briefing materials, meeting notes, and required external reports.

Oversee the grant-making process, maintain relationships with grant recipients, and coordinate closely with relevant government stakeholders on program design, outreach, selection, monitoring, communications, and adaptive management.

Develop and manage the national Request for Proposals, applicant guidance, eligibility criteria, evaluation rubrics, FAQs, templates, and outreach materials.

Coordinate applicant support through webinars, office hours, proposal clinics, and targeted assistance for institutions with limited federal grant or international programming experience.

Manage eligibility screening, reviewer recruitment and orientation, conflict-of-interest documentation, proposal scoring, panel deliberations, and government concurrence packages.

Support the negotiation, execution, monitoring, and closeout of subawards to accredited U.S. higher education institutions.

Provide technical assistance to subrecipients on workplans, partnership development, credit-bearing program design, workforce alignment, sustainability, risk management, and reporting.

Monitor subrecipient performance through regular check-ins, quarterly reports, documentation reviews, technical assistance tracking, and selected monitoring visits.

Lead the development of public seminars, resource products, and a higher education partnerships toolkit.

Manage recruitment and selection processes for U.S. higher education participants and coordinate with relevant stakeholders regarding international participant nominations.

Serve as the lead coordinator for an in-person higher education partnerships forum, overseeing agenda development, speakers, participant communications, logistics, and follow-up activities.

Manage follow-on microgrant processes, including guidance, application review, award documentation, monitoring, deliverable tracking, and closeout.

Coordinate short-term consultants, speakers, reviewers, and subject-matter experts as needed.

Implement performance monitoring activities and collect data aligned with government indicators and organizational measures.

Track program outputs and outcomes, including partnerships, program models, strategic plans, student mobility pathways, microgrant deliverables, and resource dissemination.

Use surveys, reports, evaluations, technical assistance records, and follow-up data to inform adaptive management, technical assistance, peer learning, and program reporting.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field is required; a master’s degree in international education, higher education administration, international relations, public policy, workforce development, nonprofit management, or a related discipline is preferred.

At least 5 years of relevant professional experience managing U.S. Government-funded programs.

Demonstrated experience managing subawards or small grants, including RFP development, application review, compliance tracking, reporting, and subrecipient support.

Familiarity with U.S. higher education systems, study abroad, international partnerships, workforce-aligned academic programming, or applied international education is preferred.

Experience supporting institutions with varying levels of administrative capacity, such as community colleges, regional public universities, minority-serving institutions, rural-serving organizations, technical colleges, or smaller private institutions, is advantageous.

Strong knowledge of U.S. Department of State/ECA programs, 2 CFR 200, federal grants compliance, or MODE performance monitoring is highly preferred.

Strong writing, facilitation, communication, and organizational skills, with the ability to produce clear program materials and engage diverse stakeholders.

Demonstrated ability to manage multiple workflows, deadlines, stakeholders, and deliverables within a cooperative agreement environment.

Excellent judgment and attention to detail, particularly when managing grant processes, compliance requirements, reporting, and sensitive stakeholder relationships.

Ability to collaborate effectively across program, finance, operations, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning teams.

Strong relationship-building skills and the ability to provide constructive technical assistance to organizations with different levels of capacity.

Ability to work independently while maintaining strong communication and coordination with internal and external partners.

Must reside in, or be able to establish residency before employment begins in, one of the eligible jurisdictions: Arkansas, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, or Virginia.

Must be legally authorized to work and perform the role from an approved jurisdiction.

Benefits

Competitive salary commensurate with experience and the organization’s compensation structure.

Competitive benefits package.

Fully remote work arrangement.

Opportunity to contribute to a federally funded initiative with national impact in higher education and international education.

Opportunity to collaborate with government stakeholders, higher education institutions, grant recipients, and subject-matter experts.

Meaningful professional development and exposure to grants management, program implementation, monitoring, and stakeholder engagement.

Candidates relocating to an eligible jurisdiction may apply, although relocation expenses are the responsibility of the candidate.

How Jobgether works: We use an AI-powered matching process to ensure your application is reviewed quickly, objectively, and fairly against the role's core requirements. Our system identifies the top-fitting candidates, and this shortlist is then shared directly with the hiring company. The final decision and next steps (interviews, assessments) are managed by their internal team. We appreciate your interest and wish you the best!  Why Apply Through Jobgether?    Data Privacy Notice: By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Jobgether will process your personal data to evaluate your candidacy and share relevant information with the hiring employer. This processing is based on legitimate interest and pre-contractual measures under applicable data protection laws (including GDPR). You may exercise your rights (access, rectification, erasure, objection) at any time.     #LI-CL1