Program Manager
- Employer
- University of South Carolina
- Location
- Columbia
View more categoriesView less categories
- Employment Type
- Full Time
- Institution Type
- Four-Year Institution
Job Details
STA00604PO26
Job Family:Program Management
Job Function:Program Management
USC Market Title:Program Coordinator
Link to USC Market Title:https://uscjobs.sc.edu/titles/133644
Job Level:P3 - Professional
Business Title (Internal Title):Program Manager
Campus:Columbia
Work County:Richland
College/Division:College of Arts and Sciences
Department:CAS Center for Science Education
State Pay Range:G10
USC Market Range:MRH - $63,557 $79,446 $95,336
Anticipated Hiring Range:$63,557 - $79,446
Part/Full Time:Full Time
Hours per Week:37.5
Work Schedule:- Monday – Friday, 8:30am – 5:00pm with one hour for lunch.
- Must be willing to work a flexible schedule to meet the needs of the department.
12 months
Job Search Category:Other Professional
About University of South Carolina:From the Upstate to the Lowcountry, the University of South Carolina system is transforming the lives of South Carolinians through the impact of our eight institutions and 20 locations throughout the state. More than 50,000 students are enrolled at one of eight institutions, including the research campus in Columbia and comprehensive four-year universities in Aiken, Upstate and Beaufort. In addition, our Palmetto College campuses in Salkehatchie, Union, Lancaster and Sumter enable students to earn associate or bachelor’s degrees through a combination of in-person, online or blended learning. All of our system institutions place strong emphasis on service — helping to build healthier, more educated communities in South Carolina and beyond.
Veterans' Preference Statement:The University of South Carolina is committed to equal opportunity and proudly values the skills and experience military veterans bring to our workforce. Across South Carolina, we are making veterans a priority for employment and recognize their vital contributions to our state and our communities.
Advertised Job Summary:The Center for Science Education (CSE) at the University of South Carolina invites applications for a Program Manager who will play a central role in advancing the Center’s outreach, research, and educational missions. This position combines leadership of high-impact STEM outreach programs with coordination of innovative discipline-based education research (DBER) focused on improving undergraduate STEM teaching and learning.
The Program Coordinator will oversee the planning, organization, and implementation of the annual Science and Engineering Fair (SEF), including elementary, middle, and high school competitions and related recognition events. The Coordinator will also support additional science outreach and competition programs, working collaboratively with K–12 educators, school districts, community partners, judges, donors, and university stakeholders to expand participation and strengthen STEM engagement across South Carolina.
Key outreach responsibilities include event planning and execution, budgeting, scheduling, recruitment of participants and volunteers, management of records and communications, coordination of event logistics, and maintenance of institutional knowledge and documentation. The Coordinator will build and sustain relationships with educators, administrators, community partners, and external stakeholders while ensuring compliance with university, state, and federal policies.
In addition to outreach responsibilities, the Program Coordinator will serve as an operational leader for the CSE’s research mission. Working closely with the Center’s Co-Directors, the Coordinator will support the design, implementation, and dissemination of research examining evidence-based teaching practices in STEM courses. Particular emphasis will be placed on coordinating classroom observations, managing undergraduate observer programs, maintaining research datasets, preparing instructor feedback reports, and supporting faculty reflection communities focused on instructional improvement.
The Coordinator will recruit, train, and supervise undergraduate research assistants; ensure data quality and observer reliability; coordinate observation schedules; support data analysis and visualization; assist with IRB and research documentation; and contribute to grant proposals, reports, presentations, and publications. The position also includes identifying and pursuing external funding opportunities that support both STEM outreach initiatives and education research activities.
- Requires a bachelor’s degree in a job related field and 3 or more years of job related experience, which may be substituted by an equivalent combination of job related certification, training, education, and/or experience.
- Experience with teacher observations and data collection/analysis of educational research.
- Expert in data cleaning and analysis, running virtual meetings, and collaborating with secondary teachers and university instructors (or faculty).
- Experience and passion for running logistics for outreach events (e.g Science and Engineering Fair).
- Proficiency in observing college instructors as well as qualitative and quantitative educational research methods.
- Proficiency with cloud computing including Google documents, spreadsheets, slides, and forms.
- Able to work with and around secondary teacher’s schedules, communication skills with parents, teachers, and community partners in-person, virtually, and with digital forms of communication.
The Program Coordinator will be responsible for planning, preparing, and running the McCausland College of Arts and Sciences (MCAS) annual Science and Engineering Fair (SEF), including the High School, Middle School, and Elementary School Fairs as well as the Post-SEF award ceremony. They will be similarly responsible for other science outreach and competition events (e.g. the Junior Science & Humanities Symposium, or JSHS). This includes budgeting, facilitating, recruiting for hire necessary support for event, and scheduling events (e.g. physical space and food expectations) with CSE director(s) in a timely manner with the expectation of maintaining, updating, and sharing all organization via cloud records of past and present structure, purchased awards, and timelines (preparatory and day-of) necessary for the success of the events. All events must be organized in compliance with relevant federal, state and University policies.
Essential Function:Yes
Percentage of Time:20
Job Duty:The Program Coordinator will be responsible for communicating, advocating for, and networking with participants in outreach programs (e.g. SEF, JSHS). They will collaborate with primary and secondary school administrators and teachers in all of the appropriate counties and districts for the events to recruit participants, experts (e.g. judges), local philanthropists. This involves contacting multiple schools, administrators, and teachers via email, video conferencing, or physical travel (if necessary). It is critical the Program Coordinator keeps a record of all such stakeholders via contact spreadsheets. This also involves keeping track of those that attend events.
Essential Function:Yes
Percentage of Time:25
Job Duty:The Program Coordinator will collaborate with CSE director(s) to design and refine discipline-based education research (DBER), such as those centered on classroom observation using the COPUS protocol and its role in informing instructional change. This includes collaborative research design focusing on research questions, data collection, data analysis, and documentation.
Essential Function:Yes
Percentage of Time:20
Job Duty:The Program Coordinator will coordinate and oversee the collection, validation, and management of classroom observation (e.g. COPUS) data to ensure effectiveness, reliability, consistency, and usability for research and reporting. This involves regular meetings with observers and helping facilitate reflection meetings among observees (faculty).
Essential Function:Yes
Percentage of Time:20
Job Duty:The Program Coordinator will analyze, synthesize, and summarize research data (e.g. observations) and prepare structured feedback reports and research summaries to support faculty development, program evaluation, and dissemination of findings. Summaries and visualizations will be designed to support reflective community sessions, enabling faculty to interpret and respond to their observation results.
Essential Function:Yes
Percentage of Time:10
Job Duty:Contribute to the overall success of the McCausland College of Arts and Sciences by performing all other duties and responsibilities as assigned.
Essential Function:Yes
Percentage of Time:5
Safety Sensitive or Security Sensitive:No
Hazardous weather category:Non-Essential
Number of Vacancies:1
Desired Start Date:09/16/2026
Job Open Date:08/12/2026
Job Close Date:09/26/2026
Open Until Filled:No
Special Instructions to Applicant:Positions are advertised for a minimum of five (5) business days on our job website. After five (5) business days, positions can be closed at the discretion of the department at any time. This employment site is updated on a regular basis. The length of the recruitment and screening process may vary from position to position, depending upon a variety of factors. Should review of your qualifications result in a decision to pursue your candidacy, you will be contacted by phone or email. We are only accepting applications submitted by September 26, 2026. The University of South Carolina offers a valuable benefits package including but not limited to:
- Health and Life Insurance
- Retirement Programs
- Paid Tuition
- Dependent Scholarships
- Annual Leave
- Sick Leave
- 13 Paid Holidays (including an extended December holiday)
- Paid Parental Leave
- Professional Development Opportunities
Click here to learn more about why you should work at USC.Quicklink for Posting:
https://uscjobs.sc.edu/postings/211462
EEO Statement:The University of South Carolina does not discriminate in educational or employment opportunities or decisions for qualified persons on the basis of age, ancestry, citizenship status, color, disability, ethnicity, familial status, gender (including transgender), gender identity or expression, genetic information, HIV/AIDs status, military status, national origin, pregnancy (false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, childbirth, recovery therefrom or related medical conditions, breastfeeding), race, religion (including religious dress and grooming practices), sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other bases under federal, state, local law, or regulations.
Organization
Working at University of South Carolina
With more than 200 years of history and tradition, the University of South Carolina is redefining itself for decades to come. There's never been a better time to be at South Carolina, the state's flagship university and one of only 62 public universities to receive the Carnegie Foundation's highest designation for research.
The University is located in the heart of South Carolina in the capital city of Columbia, which is the nexus of government, a thriving arts and culture center, a venue for big-time Southeastern Conference intercollegiate athletics, and a community that is reinventing itself with redevelopment projects citywide. Much of the development is tied to land along the scenic, slow-moving Congaree River. Working with government, business, and community leaders, Carolina has developed a unified plan that will allow the University to expand from its origins on the historic Horseshoe to its future-Innovista, a research and innovation district that will stretch to the banks of the Congaree.
Innovista represents a new vision for research by creating a vibrant, urban community where students and researchers, including those from private firms, will live, work, learn, and play. Innovista will represent the University's four core research areas-hydrogen fuel cells, nanoscience and technology, biomedical and public health, and the environment-but will include other initiatives and business partners that serve the knowledge economy. Innovista's first private tenant, for example, is a leader in software applications for the insurance industry and will create several hundred high-paying jobs.
By attracting similar companies and jobs-and by capitalizing on an attractive location for restaurants and residential and retail space-Innovista will help drive the economy and increase per-capita income in the city and state. Recreational space will include a world-class waterfront park along the Congaree River and a new stadium for the Gamecocks' nationally ranked baseball program. Greenway paths for biking, walking, and running already line much of the river area. Innovista's 8 million square feet will blend seamlessly with the Vista, the city's nearby entertainment district of restaurants, bars, shops, and art galleries.
Chartered in 1801, Carolina began classes in 1805 with nine students and a single building, Rutledge College. As the campus grew and buildings were added during the next 50 years, a horseshoe layout was adopted. Today, the Horseshoe is on the National Register of Historic Places, with 10 of its 11 buildings dating to the 19th century. Those renovated buildings house, among other areas, the South Carolina Honors College and Undergraduate Admissions, representing much of the University's current and future lifeblood.
In fact, incoming freshman classes have never been larger or more competitive. The freshmen from fall 2006 set records for their size (more than 3,700) and SAT scores (1171 average). Freshmen enrolling in the Honors College had average SAT scores of 1398. Members of the University's prestigious scholarship programs, Carolina Scholars for in-state students and McNair Scholars for out-of-state students, had average scores of 1449 and 1477, respectively. Total enrollment at Carolina for undergraduates and graduates is more than 27,300, with some 350 degree programs to choose from. Since 1994, Carolina students have earned more than $9.9 million in prestigious national scholarships such as the Goldwater, Truman, Rhodes, and NSF scholarships and the Fulbright Fellowships.
South Carolina's student body is diverse. In fact, Carolina was recently recognized as the state flagship university with the highest percentage of African-American student enrollment in the nation. Research by the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education shows African-American students made up 14.7 percent of enrollment in 2004, the latest year available. The JBHE also ranks Carolina eighth in the nation in percentage of African-American faculty at a state flagship university with 4.3 percent.
The University's faculty garnered a record $173.3 million in federal, state, and private funding for research, outreach, and training programs in 2005-06, and several key hiring plans will introduce more talent and expertise to the faculty ranks. An aggressive campus building master plan and the faculty recruiting initiatives will change the collective face of the University and the faces of many of its key teachers and researchers.
South Carolina is recruiting world-class faculty to be endowed chairs-and change agents-for a series of "research centers of economic excellence" in areas such as nanoelectronics, polymer nanocomposites, brain imaging, regenerative medicine, cancer therapeutics, drug discovery, vision research, hydrogen fuel cells, and travel and tourism technology. These centers, some in collaboration with other state research universities and health and hospital systems, are funded with $30 million annually in state lottery money, as well as private matching money. Carolina is in the midst of a faculty recruitment plan to hire 600 new members. The Faculty Excellence Initiative is recruiting 150 faculty, many in interdisciplinary clusters of emphasis, while the Centenary Plan will recruit 100 elite research faculty to lead the University's core initiatives. Additionally, 350 faculty will be hired across disciplines to replace retirees over the next few years.
The University has forged a number of international collaborations in research, and the University's global connections are also strong in academics, particularly in international business. U.S. News & World Report has consistently ranked the Moore School of Business best in the nation for its undergraduate and graduate programs in international business; the undergraduate program is No. 1 for the 10th consecutive time, while the graduate program is No. 1 among public universities for the 18th consecutive year and No. 2 overall, continuing a streak of 18 years with a top-two overall ranking.
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