Program Operation Analyst

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:  Grade: Professional 306Pay Range: $60,300.00 - $90,500.00Job DescriptionThis role is the producer behind WGU’s Career Accelerator student experience — a behind-the-scenes role purpose-built to keep the program running, the data flowing, and the logistics seamless from Orientation through the end of the first year. Where the Engagement Specialist is the visible point of contact for students, the Operations Specialist is the analytical and operational backbone that makes everything they do possible.This is a data-first role at heart. This role owns the dashboards, reports, and student-experience analytics that tell leadership what’s working, what’s not, and where to act. Translates insight into operational reality — coordinating event logistics, owning the cohort calendar, supporting program transitions, and serving as the cross-functional liaison between the Career Accelerator team and the rest of WGU. If the Engagement Specialist makes the student feel seen, the Operations Specialist makes sure the show runs. Essential ResponsibilitiesData, Insights & ReportingCollect, organize, and analyze program data — enrollment, student progression, engagement, retention, and outcomes — to surface trends, identify at-risk patterns, and inform program decisionsBuild and maintain dashboards and reporting tools that give Engagement Specialists and program leadership clear, real-time visibility into student health and operational performanceProduce regular reports translating data into actionable recommendations for program leadership and the Engagement Specialist teamSupport the design and administration of student feedback surveys — at Orientation exit, 90 days, and end of year — then synthesize results to inform program adjustmentsTrack engagement patterns over time and feed those insights back into how cohorts, campaigns, and community programming are designedProgram Operations & Event LogisticsManage the operational logistics of live cohort sessions, micro-webinars, and group events — calendars, invites, platform setup, recordings, and follow-up materialsSource and coordinate external speakers, facilitators, and vendors for cohort programmingOwn the cohort-level calendar across the Career Accelerator program, partnering with Engagement Specialists to ensure the right experiences are scheduled at the right timeManage the systems and access side of student onboarding — distribution lists, platform access, technical setup — so students arrive at Orientation ready to beginTroubleshoot technical and access issues related to cohort systems, escalating to IT and data partners as neededStakeholder CoordinationServe as the operational point of contact between the Career Accelerator program and internal university departments — academic advising, financial aid, registrar, schools, and ITCommunicate program updates, policy changes, and performance data to internal stakeholders in a timely, organized mannerRepresent the program in cross-departmental meetings, working groups, and institutional planning sessions as neededProgram Transitions & RecordsCoordinate the program transfer process for students moving from their enrollment-selected program into the Career AcceleratorManage the operational logistics of the formal program decision process at the end of the first year — communications, deadlines, documentation, and scheduled touchpointsMaintain accurate, up-to-date records for all students approaching key program milestones, ensuring compliance with institutional requirementsCoordinate exit and transition processes for students who conclude or move out of the program, capturing feedback for continuous improvementKnowledge, Skills & AbilitiesData & AnalyticsStrong data analysis skills — comfortable working with student-level data, building segmentations, identifying trends, and translating numbers into clear recommendationsExperience with reporting and dashboarding tools such as Salesforce reports/dashboards, Tableau, Power BI, or equivalentsAdvanced Excel skills — pivot tables, lookups, complex formulas, comfort with large datasetsComfort with the measurement cycle — survey design, instrumentation, analysis, and feeding insight back into program adjustmentsOperations & Project ManagementStrong project management instincts — able to keep many moving parts running on parallel timelines without losing track of the detailsHighly organized with the ability to manage event logistics, calendars, campaigns, and records with precisionComfortable working calmly in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with shifting prioritiesSelf-directed, reliable, and able to hold accountability across multiple workstreamsCommunication & Stakeholder ManagementOutstanding written and verbal communicat