Fast Facts

The Associate Program Manager for the ODAAE will oversee the implementation and coordination of a scholarly project focused on documenting African American English, responsible for ensuring project success and collaboration with various stakeholders.

Responsibilities: Key responsibilities include planning and managing the ODAAE program, collaborating on editorial workflows, and ensuring project milestones are met efficiently and effectively.

Skills: Exceptional project management skills and experience with African American English or related fields are essential, along with strong communication and stakeholder management abilities.

Qualifications: Preferred qualifications include a project management professional certification and experience with managing project budgets.

Location: This position is fully remote within the United States, with no additional travel required.

Compensation: $67200 - $96000 / Annually

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ABOUT THE ROLE

The Oxford Dictionary of African American English (ODAAE) is a landmark scholarly initiative documenting the lexicon of African American English (AAE) in a dictionary based on historical principles. The ODAAE is being compiled and edited by a team of researchers, lexicographers, and editors sponsored and supported by the OED and Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. The joint team applies the depth and rigor of the OED’s historical methodology specifically to the study of AAE in order to create a dictionary to further illuminate the history, meaning, and significance of this body of language.

The Associate Program Manager (ODAAE) is responsible for driving, planning, and coordinating the ODAAE Program in its second phase culminating in the launch of the online dictionary resource, as per decisions and priorities set out by the program’s steering group. This role is responsible for driving forward and monitoring progress of the program as a whole, as well as scoping, managing, and delivering individual projects under the umbrella of the ODAAE Program, including editorial work and the scoping and development of the new online dictionary product. This role is also responsible for executing administrative and operational tasks to ensure the program runs smoothly.

The Associate Program Manager (ODAAE) will work in a central team with other Project and Program Managers in Oxford Languages (OL) and will utilize central best practices and methodologies for consistent execution. In addition to working with internal ODAAE and OL colleagues based in the US and UK, this role will be responsible for liaising with external institutions and stakeholders, including colleagues in other parts of OUP; project team members and senior staff at the Hutchins Center; the Editor-in-Chief and Advisory Board; external academic consultants and subject-matter experts; and grant award bodies including the Mellon Foundation and the Wagner Foundation. This is a 12 month fixed-term contract with the possiblity to extend.

Key Accountabilities include:

• Plan, drive, and coordinate the implementation of the ODAAE program in Oxford Languages, as per decisions and priorities set out by the ODAAE Steering Group. This includes monitoring and measuring progress, and ensuring all aspects of the program are delivered to specification, schedule, and budget, and are aligned with and always deliver departmental strategic objectives and key results.

• Design, plan, and manage projects to deliver Program objectives. Manage end-to-end projects to time, scope, quality and budget, taking corrective action if progress is not on track. Includes working with other Project Managers to balance resources and dependencies.

• Collaborate with OED project management to monitor the editorial workflow and ensure that it is compatible with the existing OED (Oxford English Dictionary) workflow. Measure editorial outputs to ensure that editorial progress is on-track to achieve targets and objectives.

• Work with the Executive Editor (ODAAE) and the Product Owner (Editorial Systems) to ensure the lexicographers have access to and are effectively utilizing the editorial toolkit they need to maximize progress, including research databases and corpora, editorial systems and tools, and tools for AI-assisted lexicography; and to prioritize, plan, and manage the further development of dictionary data and editorial tools.

• Plan, manage, and monitor the creation of additional content for the Dictionary, such as stub entries, pronunciation models, and (in collaboration with the Lead Advisory Editor) frontmatter essays; working with cross-functional stakeholders to identify opportunities to accelerate content creation through data conversion and acquisition of content.

• Collaborate with the ODAAE Product Manager to drive forward scoping and setting the product requirements for the online dictionary resource and any print publications; and subsequently roadmap, coordinate, and manage all aspects of their development with internal technical teams, any external provider, and stakeholders in other areas of OUP.

• Complete administrative responsibilities thoroughly and on-time, such as annual Mellon grant reporting; coordinating and chairing regular meetings of the ODAAE Advisory Board, Steering Group, and Business Group; liaising with central OUP functions such as Group Legal and Group Finance, as well as external institutions and stakeholders; drafting formal agreements and maintaining accurate and up-to-date records.

• Initiate, drive, and coordinate any necessary recruitment. Liaise with US-based HR team to complete end-to-end recruitment process.

• Manage, mitigate and communicate risks with precision across programs and projects.

• Communicate progress, achievements, risks, milestones of the program proactively and strategically using appropriate and effective communication tools and frameworks.

ABOUT YOU

Experience with or knowledge of African American English, African American literature, and African American culture.
Exceptional project management skills with a track record of successful management and delivery of technical and non-technical projects.
Experience in designing, establishing, overseeing and executing the implementation of successful programs that involve multiple workstreams, stakeholder levels, and business risk.
Able to construct and communicate a compelling business case.
Self-starting, organized, and able to prioritize activities.
Track record of excellent stakeholder management experience and keen skills in developing relationships internally and externally.
Strong analytical and creative problem-solving abilities.
Excellent communication and presentation skills.
Results-driven mindset with a focus on achieving and measuring outcomes.
Experience in establishing and measuring KPIs to inform progress and activities.
Project and/or Program Management professional qualification desirable.
Experience in managing project/program budgets desirable.

BENEFITS

We care about work/life balance at OUP. We offer 15 days of vacation time that rises with service, 10 sick days, plus floating holidays, personal days, company holidays, and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect of working hours and the use of technology to support regular remote working, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies.

We care for you and your dependents by offering health, dental, and vision insurance plans to our full-time employees. Each plan has multiple levels of coverage to fit your needs and has a high level of contribution made by OUP. In addition, we offer Employee Assistant Programs for all full-time employees, regardless of whether you elect in health insurance. We also offer life insurance and disability insurance.

We help make your money go further by providing a non-elective contribution on your behalf to your retirement plan of 7% of your salary and a matching contribution to the retirement plan of 50% on the first 6% of employee contributions on based earnings.

This is a 12 month fixed-term contract with the possiblity to extend.

Position Location: This role can be remote in the United States.

GJC Level: I6 (for internal purposes only)

Salary: $67,200 - $96,000 dependent on skills and experience

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Associate Program Manager, ODAAE