IT Project Leader, Wharton Computing

Wharton School Overview

Founded in 1881 as the world's first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With campuses in both Philadelphia and San Francisco, Wharton has over 850 staff, a faculty population of more than 235 renowned professors, and 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students.

Wharton Computing Strategic Partnership Team

We work with Wharton's academic and administrative departments as dedicated IT partners. Our role is to help faculty, staff, and students use technology effectively to support teaching, research, and operations.

Job Description Summary

The IT Project Leader serves as the Strategic Partner for assigned academic departments, providing consistent ownership and coordination of the faculty technology experience. This role operates at the intersection of academic strategy and operational execution, ensuring that technology solutions are aligned, sustainable, and responsive to faculty needs.

Job Responsibilities

• Serve as the named Strategic Partner for assigned departments, providing consistent engagement with faculty and departmental stakeholders
• Engage directly with faculty to understand needs, provide consultation, and address simple issues when appropriate or capture and coordinate requests across teams
• Coordinate and route requests across Wharton Computing teams, ensuring clear context, alignment, and timely resolution, particularly for complex or cross-functional issues
• Represent departmental needs within Wharton Computing, ensuring alignment with available services and resources
• Build and maintain strong relationships with faculty, department leadership, and administrative staff through regular engagement
• Facilitate cross-team collaboration by forming and leading pod-based teams, bringing together stakeholders across Wharton Computing to address departmental needs
• Lead and coordinate technology initiatives, ensuring clear scope, alignment, and successful delivery, while working in partnership with specialized service teams
• Support faculty in the effective use of technology for teaching and research, including emerging tools such as AI-enabled classroom technologies
• Identify patterns, recurring issues, and opportunities for improvement across departments
• Ensure that solutions align with university standards, security requirements, and operational expectations

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science and 2 to 3 years of experience or equivalent combination of education and experience is required.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional technology initiatives from strategy through successful implementation.
• Demonstrated understanding of emerging technologies, including AI-enabled tools, and the ability to evaluate their strategic, operational, and ethical implications in an academic environment.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven ability to drive organizational change and support adoption of new systems, processes, and workflows.
• Strong ability to translate business needs into clear technical requirements and actionable project plans.
• Experience partnering effectively with senior academic and administrative leadership to influence decision-making without direct authority.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent initiatives while balancing competing priorities and stakeholder expectations.
• Experience analyzing and optimizing business processes to deliver measurable operational improvements.
• Familiarity with enterprise systems, integrations, and data governance considerations in a complex IT environment.
• Experience managing vendor relationships, evaluating third-party solutions, and overseeing service delivery performance.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate across multiple teams and stakeholders to deliver clear, consistent outcomes without direct authority.

Preferred Qualifications

• ITSM/ITIL experience a plus.
• Prior experience in Higher Education.