We believe in the power and joy of learning

At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping students around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.  

Cengage's portfolio of businesses supports student choice by providing a range of pathways that help learners achieve their goals and lead a choice-filled life.  

Our culture values inclusion, engagement, and discovery

Our business is driven by our strong culture, and we know that creating an inclusive workplace is absolutely essential to the success of our company and our learners, as well as our individual well-being. We recognize the value of diverse perspectives in everything we do, and strive to ensure employees of all levels and backgrounds feel empowered to voice their ideas and bring their authentic selves to work. We achieve these priorities through programs, benefits, and initiatives that are integrated into the fabric of how we work every day. To learn more, please see https://www.cengagegroup.com/about/inclusion-and-belonging/.  

The Program Manager, AI Operations ensures that AI initiatives, tools, vendors, and operational processes at Cengage are delivered in a coordinated, scalable, and compliant manner. This role drives operational execution across AI enablement efforts, vendor intake, governance workflows, compliance coordination, and cross-functional delivery tracking.  

You will partner across AI Enablement, Legal, Security, Privacy, Procurement, Product, and Engineering teams to establish repeatable operating cadences, manage AI operational workflows, and ensure that AI adoption across the enterprise can scale responsibly and efficiently.  

This role is the operational backbone for AI Enablement — the person who ensures that initiatives move from intake through execution with clear governance, accountability, documentation, and stakeholder alignment. The ideal candidate has experience managing enterprise programs or operational portfolios at scale, demonstrates strong organizational rigor, and can move quickly in a rapidly evolving AI environment without compromising process discipline.  

What You’ll Do Here:

AI Operations & Program Management

• Manage and coordinate the operational cadence for enterprise AI initiatives, pilots, vendor onboarding, and governance activities

• Conduct and coordinate vendor risk assessments for AI tools, platforms, and integrations

• Manage the third-party AI intake process including security, privacy, and contract review

• Build and maintain the criteria matrix for AI vendor approvals and connector decisions

• Partner with Procurement on AI contracts, DPAs, and commercial terms

• Maintain the approved AI vendor list and periodic reassessment cadence

• Establish and maintain program governance artifacts including intake workflows, decision logs, action tracking, status reporting, and executive updates

• Coordinate cross-functional stakeholders across AI Enablement, Legal, Privacy, Security, Procurement, Product, Engineering, and Operations teams

• Track program milestones, dependencies, risks, and operational readiness across AI initiatives

• Support operational scaling of AI enablement activities including onboarding, documentation, communications, and process standardization  

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

• Ensure FERPA, GDPR, CCPA, and other applicable regulatory compliance for AI use cases

• Monitor emerging AI regulation and translate requirements into operational requirements and implementation activities

• Partner with Legal and Privacy on DPIAs, PIAs, and regulatory assessments

• Maintain compliance documentation, attestations, and audit evidence

• Support external audits, customer security questionnaires, and due diligence requests

• Coordinate governance checkpoints and approval workflows to ensure compliance activities are completed on schedule  

AI GOVERNANCE, DOCUMENTATION & REPORTING

• Partner with Legal on operational support related to AI intellectual property, documentation, and innovation tracking

• Maintain centralized documentation for AI initiatives, vendor decisions, governance reviews, and operational procedures

• Track and report operational metrics including vendor approval cycle time, governance throughput, compliance adherence rates, and program status

• Deliver weekly updates on vendor intake, compliance, governance activities, and operational priorities

• Develop repeatable playbooks, templates, and operational processes that improve AI program execution at scale     

What You’ll Need

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, Program Management, Technology, or related field

• 5+ years of experience in program management, operations, governance, compliance operations, or cross-functional technology delivery

• Demonstrated experience managing enterprise operational programs or cross-functional initiatives

• Working knowledge of FERPA, GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy/data protection regulations

• Experience coordinating contracts, DPAs, MSAs, or vendor governance processes

• Strong attention to detail and operational discipline

• Excellent stakeholder management across Legal, Procurement, Security, Product, Engineering, and Business teams

• Ability to move quickly without compromising rigor

• Strong written and verbal executive communication skills including status reporting, meeting facilitation, and operational updates  

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in EdTech with FERPA and state-level student privacy regulations

• Experience supporting AI, data, platform, or technology programs in enterprise environments

• Familiarity with AI-specific regulatory frameworks (EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF)

• Familiarity with AI vendor landscape and typical contract terms

• Experience with GRC platforms and vendor management tools

• Certifications such as PMP, PgMP, Agile, SAFe, PROSCI, or privacy/compliance certifications are a plus 

TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES

You should be comfortable with many of the following:

• GRC: ServiceNow GRC, Archer, LogicGate, OneTrust

• Vendor Risk: OneTrust Vendorpedia, SecurityScorecard, Whistic

• Contracts: DocuSign CLM, Ironclad, Agiloft

• Documentation: Confluence, Notion, SharePoint

• Collaboration: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace

• Analytics: Tableau, Power BI, compliance dashboards

• Program Management: Jira, Smartsheet, Asana, Monday.com, Airtable, or similar workflow/project management tools  

Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws. 

Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at accommodations.ta@cengage.com.  

About Cengage

Cengage, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.  

Compensation

At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.

The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location.  Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.

In this position,  you will be eligible to participate in the company’s discretionary incentive bonus program.  This position's bonus target amount, which is not guaranteed and is dependent on individual performance and overall company results among other factors, is provided below.  

15% Annual: Individual Target

 

$120,000.00 - $150,000.00 USD