General Summary:
The Project Manager, Connected Futures, is a full-time grant-funded, professional staff position in the Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The incumbent will lead day-to-day implementation of a multi-campus peer mentoring and navigational support initiative designed to improve retention, belonging, help-seeking, and academic progress among transfer and first-year students across UMass Boston, UMass Amherst, UMass Dartmouth, and UMass Lowell.
Working closely with the Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator, campus coordinators, and project partners, the Project Manager will oversee implementation planning, staffing support, project coordination, student-facing workflows, training logistics, communication processes, reporting, and coordination with research, compliance, and technical teams. The position is well suited to a candidate with strong project management and research coordination experience, especially in participant-facing, student-facing, public-serving, health, mental health, or higher education settings.
Examples of Duties:
•Coordinate day-to-day implementation of Connected Futures across four UMass campuses, including planning, launch, ongoing operations, and monitoring of project timelines and deliverables.
•Work closely with project leadership to ensure that implementation activities remain aligned with grant milestones, operational priorities, and university expectations.
•Support the recruitment, onboarding, training, and supervision of project staff, student employees, fellows, research assistants, volunteers, and campus-based personnel, as assigned.
•Coordinate communication among internal and external partners, including campus student success offices, advising leaders, institutional research personnel, research staff, and technical partners.
•Manage operational workflows related to student or participant intake, outreach, onboarding, communication, and ongoing support.
•Support implementation of peer mentor training and program procedures, including guidance related to proactive outreach, student engagement, escalation pathways, and technology use.
•Coordinate project logistics for meetings, trainings, evaluation activities, surveys, focus groups, and partner communications.
•Assist with IRB-related documentation, compliance coordination, and data-sharing processes in collaboration with project leadership and campus partners.
•Work with platform and technical partners to support implementation setup, student import processes, workflow troubleshooting, and reporting tools.
•Monitor participation, implementation progress, and engagement data, and prepare summaries and operational updates for leadership and project partners.
•Maintain accurate and organized records related to project operations, staffing, communication, reporting, and implementation activities.
•Assist in the preparation of reports, presentations, briefing materials, and other internal and external communications.
•Help identify implementation barriers and operational challenges and support problem-solving across campuses.
•Perform other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree in psychology, education, public health, sociology, higher education, public administration, or a related field and a minimum of three (3) years of progressively responsible professional experience in project coordination, research coordination, student support programming, health services operations, or a related field required; Master’s degree may be substituted for one year of experience.
•Demonstrated experience coordinating complex projects with multiple stakeholders, timelines, and structured processes or protocols.
•Experience managing participant-facing or student-facing functions such as recruitment, screening, intake, onboarding, enrollment, outreach, or ongoing support.
•Experience supporting research, evaluation, quality improvement, or structured data collection activities, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, or trial implementation.
•Demonstrated experience supervising, training, or coordinating staff, fellows, research assistants, volunteers, or student employees.
•Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
•Excellent oral and written communication skills.
•Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with interdisciplinary teams and diverse constituencies.
•Ability to use spreadsheets, reporting systems, project tracking tools, and data platforms effectively in support of operations and decision-making.
•Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and student or participant well-being.
Preferred Qualifications:
•Experience coordinating randomized controlled trials, pilot studies, longitudinal studies, or other structured evaluation projects.
•Experience in higher education, academic medicine, behavioral health, community mental health, or other complex mission-driven institutional settings
•Experience facilitating or supporting virtual or in-person groups, trainings, workshops, or focus groups.
•Experience collaborating with data, analytics, or evaluation teams to support data cleaning, reporting, qualitative review, or interpretation of findings.
•Experience with student-facing, patient-facing, or participant-facing service models that require high levels of follow-up, communication, and relationship management.
•Record of professional presentation, poster development, publication, or other dissemination activity.
This is a grant-funded position. The grant funding is expected to end June 30, 2029.
Application Instructions:
Please apply online with your resume, cover letter and list of three professional references.
Review of candidates will begin following the application closing date.
Only Internal candidates in the Professional Staff Bargaining Unit will be considered during the first 10 business days of the posting. All other candidates will be considered after that period.
Salary Ranges for the appropriate Pay Grade can be found at the following link:
Grade: 29
Salary Ranges
This is an exempt union position. This is a grant funded position with a current end date of June 30, 2029, subject to renewal contingent on funding and university needs.
All official salary offers must be approved by Human Resources.
UMass Boston is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact HR@umb.edu or 617-287-5150.