Freelance Publishing Project Manager Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Full-time

Description

The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) is seeking an experienced, proactive Project Manager to lead the planning, execution, and delivery of complex print and digital educational publishing projects. Your knowledge, skills, and expertise help you lead cross-functional teams through the end-to-end publishing process. In this role, you will manage multiple concurrent product development initiatives, ensuring products are delivered on schedule, within budget, and to NCCER’s quality standards. 

The ideal candidate is an exceptional planner who enjoys bringing order to complex projects. They excel at building realistic schedules, anticipating risks before they become issues, balancing competing priorities, and keeping cross-functional teams aligned through clear communication and thoughtful leadership.
 

This position requires experience managing educational publishing projects involving interdependencies, multiple stakeholders, external vendors, and evolving product requirements. Success in this role depends on the ability to proactively manage timelines, optimize workflows, facilitate collaboration, and communicate effectively with technical experts, leadership, and publishing partners. 

NCCER is looking for a committed, smart, tech-savvy project manager with experience managing print and digital educational materials for high school and adult learners. As an NCCER Project Manager, your skills will help us deliver materials used around the world to train construction craft professionals at high schools, vocational schools, colleges, and construction training centers.

Key Responsibilities 

1. Project Planning & Schedule Management 

Lead the planning and execution of multiple simultaneous publishing projects from concept through product launch. 

• Develop, own, and manage project documentation, resource planning, status reports, and dashboards using Smartsheet, Excel, Confluence, and other project management tools. 
• Build and maintain integrated project schedules that accurately reflect cross-functional dependencies, resource availability, and critical path milestones. 
• Continuously monitor project progress, adjusting schedules proactively, and problem-solving to resolve issues and keep projects on track. 
• Identify project risks, assess impacts, develop mitigation strategies, and communicate recommendations to leadership before schedule or budget impacts occur. 
• Facilitate project kickoff meetings, draft launch memos, and establish clear expectations for scope, timelines, deliverables, and responsibilities. 
• Drive projects to successful completion by maintaining schedule integrity, scope control, budget awareness, and quality expectations. 
• Act as a liaison with subject matter expert (SME) committees, freelancers, vendors, and the cross-functional in-house team to facilitate project success. 
• Maintain project components and product roadmap between revision cycles. 

2. Cross-Functional Leadership 

Serve as the central point of coordination across internal teams and external partners. 

• Drive project progress among technical writing, editorial, production, design, art, permissions, testing, digital development, marketing, and product leadership. 
• Ensure handovers are clean, well-organized, and communicated clearly across departments and to stakeholders. 
• Build strong relationships with subject matter experts (SMEs), committees, freelancers, vendors, and publishing partners. 
• Lead recurring project status meetings that drive accountability, remove roadblocks, and maintain project momentum. 
• Facilitate timely decision-making by identifying issues, presenting options, and escalating decisions when appropriate. 
• Support successful product launches by collaborating with Marketing, Workforce Development, Customer Service, and Sales. 
• Prepare concise project health reports, executive summaries, and milestone updates for leadership. 

3. Product Operations & Delivery 

Manage the complete publishing lifecycle for assigned products. 

• Prepare and maintain digital content mapping documentation. 
• Perform QA of platform builds as needed. 
• Facilitate and manage file handoffs across internal teams, our publishing partner, and external vendors. 
• Support product planning by coordinating market research activities and ensuring product plan aligns with the approved product decisions. 

4. Workflow Optimization & Continuous Improvement

Champion efficient publishing operations across the Product Development department. 

• Evaluate existing workflows and recommend process improvements that increase efficiency, transparency, and quality. 
• Standardize project management practices, templates, documentation, and reporting. 
• Identify opportunities for automation, improved resource planning, and schedule optimization. 
• Support implementation of new tools and best practices that improve project visibility and cross-functional collaboration. 
• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives across publishing operations. 
• Support leadership in change management for new workflows and processes.

5. Customer & Stakeholder Support

Provide timely, professional support to both internal and external stakeholders. 

• Respond to product-related questions and customer feedback in Salesforce. 
• Ensure resolution of product issues, reprint corrections, and digital updates. 
• Collaborate with the Testing team on assessment-related questions. 
• Collaborate with the Translation Project Manager to facilitate translation requests. 
• Create and/or circulate revision maps, marketing copy, release dates, and other project-related information to other departments.

6. Other duties as assigned 

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. 

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree (or higher) in business, project management, or a related field (or equivalent work experience). 
• 5–7 years of project management experience, preferably in educational publishing, curriculum development, instructional design, or EdTech. 
• PMP, CAPM, or other project management certification. 
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent projects with overlapping schedules and cross-functional teams. 
• Demonstrated experience creating and maintaining detailed project schedules using Smartsheet or similar enterprise project management software. 
• Demonstrated experience managing both print and digital product development lifecycles. 
• Strong understanding of publishing workflows, editorial processes, production schedules, and digital asset management. 
• Proactive, dependable, positive team player. 
• Exceptional organizational and time management skills with the ability to prioritize competing demands. 
• Proven ability to anticipate issues, manage risk proactively, and adapt quickly to changing priorities. 
• Outstanding written, verbal, and presentation communication skills. 
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities. 
• Demonstrated ability to influence without direct authority and build consensus across departments. 
• Familiarity with construction education, workforce development, or career and technical education (CTE) preferred. 
• Experience supporting products for secondary, postsecondary, and adult learners preferred.

Software Skills 

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, including Teams and SharePoint. 
• Proficiency in Smartsheet, including schedule development, dashboards, reporting, formulas, and resource management. 
• Proficiency in Confluence or similar knowledge management platforms. 
• Experience working with CMS, LMS, and DAM systems preferred

NCCER is an equal opportunity employer. No one shall be denied employment or opportunity based on race or color, sex, age, national origin, religion, physical or mental disability, veteran’s status, marital status, gender identity or sexual orientation. NCCER also provides reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities and bona fide religious beliefs, provided that such accommodation does not constitute an undue hardship on the Company.