At a Glance
- Tasks: Manage full project lifecycle for IT and business-driven projects in digital learning.
- Company: Arden University is an award-winning institution focused on innovation and digital education.
- Benefits: Enjoy 30 days holiday, a generous pension plan, and free access to Arden courses.
- Other info: The role is based in the IT Department with around 65 skilled employees.
- Why this job: Join a passionate team dedicated to making education accessible while driving change.
- Qualifications: Significant experience in managing complex IT projects and strong stakeholder engagement skills required.
The predicted salary is between 48000 - 58000 £ per year.
Salary: £48,000 - £58,000 per annum
Employment type: Permanent
Reporting into: Project Manager - Learning Systems
Department: IT
About Arden University: We are an aspirational and multi-award-winning university, delivering rapid growth with ambitious plans to disrupt the HE sector through our passion for innovation and digital education. Our vision is to become the first-choice university for career-focused lifelong learners worldwide, ensuring that everyone, everywhere can access higher education.
About our Department: The Project Manager (Learning Systems) sits within our Technology Department that is crucial to making sure our employees and students can work effectively, deliver projects, find the right solutions and ensure we develop the technology that will make the biggest difference. Our IT team is made up of around 65 employees with a vast range of skills from Software Development to IT Operations and Security. Our IT Department values employee development and we have lots of great examples of employee progression and promotions within the team.
About the Opportunity: This is an exciting opportunity to join Arden University as a Project Manager within our Learning Systems team, playing a key role in delivering IT and business-driven projects that enhance our digital learning environment. You will be responsible for managing the full project lifecycle—from initiation and planning through to delivery, go-live, and post-implementation support—ensuring outcomes are delivered on time, within scope, and to agreed quality and cost standards. Working across technical teams, academics, and wider business stakeholders, you will coordinate cross-functional delivery and ensure clear communication, effective progress reporting, and strong stakeholder engagement throughout. You will also act as a key link into wider enterprise change programmes, ensuring work is effectively prioritised and integrated into Learning Systems delivery. This role is central to ensuring smooth implementation of change, minimal disruption to teaching and assessment, and successful transition into business-as-usual support.
About You: You are an experienced Project Manager with a strong track record of delivering complex IT and change projects in fast-paced, multi-stakeholder environments. You are confident leading cross-functional teams, managing competing priorities, and ensuring projects are delivered successfully from initiation through to go-live and benefits realisation. You combine strong organisational skills with excellent communication and stakeholder engagement, and you are comfortable influencing at all levels to drive successful outcomes.
Essential Requirements:
- Significant experience managing complex IT and/or business change projects across multiple technology domains (e.g. business applications, infrastructure, data/BI systems)
- Strong project and change management skills, with experience delivering initiatives in complex organisational environments
- Proven ability to plan, prioritise, and manage multiple projects and competing demands to tight deadlines
- Experience of managing project budgets, ensuring effective control and reporting of spend
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex or conflicting information and identify practical solutions
- Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to build strong relationships across technical and non-technical audiences
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex information clearly and persuasively
- Experience using project management tools (e.g. MS Project / Project Server) to track delivery and reporting
- Experience of delivering change within complex organisations, ideally including higher education or similarly regulated environments
- Understanding of enterprise systems and digital platforms, including VLEs (e.g. Moodle)
- Knowledge of project governance, PMO practices, and relevant professional, legal, or regulatory frameworks
Desirable Requirements:
- Experience working within the Higher Education sector
- Experience working with Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), particularly Moodle
Why Arden: At Arden, you will become a part of a passionate and dedicated team who are committed to removing unnecessary barriers to learning and making education more accessible. Our people work hard to ensure our students' journeys are the best they can possibly be, as such we want to reward our people with fantastic benefits.
- 30 days holiday + bank holidays on-top, and even a Christmas closure!
- A generous Aviva pension plan, company contributions starting from 7%
- SimplyHealth plan option
- Private Medical Insurance coverage (applies to certain job roles)
- Access to Perkbox benefits
- Study any Arden course for free, with a discount for all family and friends plus other excellent benefits
- Our ‘Golden Ticket’ which allows you to gift anyone in your life a free Arden education
Our Values: Stand out, Progressive, Accessible, Resourceful, Kindness, reflect who we are as an institution, a team and as individuals. If they also reflect you and you are excited by the chance to be the driving, creative force within a growing business, we want to hear from you.
Closing Date: 29th June
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion: Arden University is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. This means that if you have a disability, as defined by the Disability Equality Act 2010, you may be guaranteed an interview if you meet the essential criteria for the role. If you wish to be considered under this scheme, you can indicate via the application form below. By doing so, you are also consenting for this information to be shared with the hiring team. As an Equal Opportunity Employer we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. Therefore, we make sure that our recruitment and selection processes never discriminate based upon people's age, disability, gender, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances, and actively welcome applications from all groups.
Project Manager (Learning Systems) employer: Arden University
Arden University, located in the UK, offers a generous Aviva pension plan starting at 7% and 30 days holiday plus bank holidays. The IT team values employee development, showcasing numerous examples of progression and promotions within the department.
