Advanced Specialist, Project Management

Pearson is hiring an Advanced Specialist, Project Management to lead delivery of strategic initiatives across multiple squads. The role coordinates planning, dependencies, risks, releases, and stakeholder communication, while improving delivery predictability across distributed teams.

Responsibilities:

• Lead end-to-end delivery for a medium-to-large program or multiple squads
• Own cross-squad dependency management, critical-path management, and risk mitigation
• Coordinate release planning and execution across squads and platforms
• Provide executive-ready delivery transparency — status, risks, and decisions needed — as a single reliable view of what is in flight and at risk
• Align squads to business priorities, contractual obligations, and platform investments
• Facilitate program ceremonies, planning, and cross-team alignment
• Drive delivery process improvements and predictability across squads
• Use AI and PM tooling for planning, reporting, and risk intelligence
• Carries meaningful people-influence responsibilities without direct reports: mentors and coaches project managers, leads cross-team without formal authority, participates actively in interviewing and hiring, and contributes input to performance and development conversations for people they coordinate. These behavioral markers are real and expected at this level even though the role has no people-management authority

Requirements:

• Advanced program / delivery management: planning, dependency and risk management, release coordination, and executive reporting
• Technical fluency (e.g., cloud, microservices, APIs, CI/CD) sufficient to facilitate decisions — not a hands-on developer
• Strong executive communication, stakeholder management, facilitation, negotiation, and conflict resolution
• Ability to drive delivery across globally distributed onshore and offshore teams
• Leadership and influence without formal authority; mentoring and coaching capability
• Ability to resolve ambiguity and balance competing priorities and constraints
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience
• 5+ years of project, program, or delivery management experience
• Experience leading enterprise software delivery and scaled / Agile delivery environments
• Demonstrated success managing complex, cross-functional programs and globally distributed teams
• PMP, PgMP, SAFe, or equivalent certification strongly preferred