Sr Manager Jobs in Reston, VA (NOW HIRING)

Description

$90,000 - $110,000

The Water Environment Federation (WEF) is seeking a Senior Manager (Sr. Mgr.), Educational Programming to join our growing not-for-profit technical and educational organization that connects and supports the global water community. With more than 30,000 individual members and 75 affiliated Member Associations, WEF brings together operators, engineers, scientists, utility leaders, regulators, academics, manufacturers, and other professionals working to protect public health and the environment and advance a future free of water challenges. WEF is the convenor for WEFTEC, the water sector's largest and most impactful annual event.

The Sr. Mgr., Educational Programming leads the educational programming team and serves as the primary project manager for WEFTEC's technical program, WEF's flagship educational offering. This role is accountable for translating WEF's learning strategy into a high-quality, volunteer-driven program that serves water professionals across career stages, disciplines, and learning needs. The Sr. Mgr. leads the annual WEFTEC content lifecycle, including the call for content, peer review, session curation, speaker readiness, program scheduling, budget management, performance tracking, and post-event evaluation.

In addition to managing WEFTEC as a major project, the Sr. Mgr. is responsible for event-based educational programming for WEF Events (specialty conferences), workshops, seminars, and related event programs for consistency and alignment with the broader learning portfolio, and supported by clear workflows, metrics, and accountability. On continuing education, the Sr. Mgr. ensures WEFTEC sessions are planned and documented to qualify for CEUs and PDHs under the standards set by learning strategy. The Sr. Mgr. is responsible for the LMS and credentialing team on session-level requirements, including learning objectives, contact hours, attendance verification, and documentation, and works with volunteer program committees to maintain instructional quality.

The Sr Mgr. is the day-to-day interface with program committees, technical communities, speakers, reviewers, and other volunteer contributors, and is responsible for making that engagement productive, inclusive, efficient, and aligned with WEF's broader learning priorities. This includes creating clear expectations for volunteer roles, mentoring first-time reviewers and session leaders, reducing unnecessary process burden, and creating visible pathways for emerging leaders to contribute to WEF's educational portfolio.

The Sr. Mgr. is the People Leader for WEF's Educational Programming team. This role provides day-to-day supervision, coaching, workload management, performance feedback, process improvement, and professional development for the team.

The Sr. Mgr. must thrive on initiative, problem-solving, being agile, inclusive, and a team player. The ideal candidate will have experience working across our mission and industry (but not required) to best serve the Water Community.

Key Responsibilities:

Serve as the project manager for WEFTEC's technical/educational program, leading the annual programming lifecycle, including content strategy, call for content, peer review, session curation, speaker readiness, scheduling, onsite execution, and post-event evaluation.

Lead the Educational Programming team, by setting priorities, assigning work, balancing workloads, coaching performance, supporting professional development, and improving team processes.

Is responsible for event-based educational programming, ensuring that WEFTEC, WEF Events (specialty conferences), workshops, seminars, and related event programs are coordinated, consistently managed, and aligned with WEF's learning strategy.

Translate WEF's learning strategy into practical programming decisions that support workforce development, technical excellence, innovation, and the needs of next-generation learners.

Serve as the primary staff lead for WEFTEC Educational program committees, reviewers, speakers, session leaders, technical communities, and other volunteer contributors involved in educational content development.

Apply WEF's volunteer content engagement model by clarifying volunteer roles, setting expectations, supporting inclusive participation, mentoring emerging content leaders, and improving the volunteer experience.

Partner with other WEF departments to ensure event-based educational programming is integrated with the broader WEF strategy. Coordinates with community managers, advisors and other stakeholders to ensure educational programming is aligned to the learning strategy for WEFTEC and WEF Events (Specialty conferences).

Leads the LMS and credentialing team to ensure event-based educational programs meet CEU and PDH requirements, including learning objectives, contact hours, attendance verification, and documentation standards.

Manage educational programming budgets, timelines, project plans, vendor coordination, staff assignments, and operational workflows to ensure deadlines are met and risks are surfaced early.

Analyze attendee and volunteer feedback, sponsor input, participation data, and program performance metrics to identify trends, assess outcomes, and recommend portfolio-level improvements.

Identify opportunities to properly use data, technology, and AI-enabled tools to create efficiencies to streamline review processes, improve content quality, and enhance the learner, speaker, and staff experience.

At WEF, we are committed to an interview experience that is authentic, transparent, and equitable. Candidates are asked to answer interview questions in their own words, without real-time AI assistance, so we can fairly assess individual experiences, skills and qualifications.

To support a genuine interview experience, WEF's interviewers also refrain from using AI tools during live interviews. If a candidate's responses appear inconsistent or suggest outside assistance, WEF's interviewers may pause to clarify or adjust the interview to maintain fairness for all candidates.
These measures are not intended to be punitive; rather, they aim to ensure a consistent evaluation process that aligns to WEF's cultural and ethical principles.

This person will work primarily in an office environment using standard office equipment. WEF is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Requirements

7+ years of progressive experience in educational programming, conference programming, association education, workforce development, technical training, event-based learning, or a related field.

2+ Years of people leadership experience

Demonstrated experience managing complex educational programs, technical programs, conferences, or content-development processes with multiple stakeholders, staff contributors, and deadlines.

Experience managing staff, including setting priorities, assigning work, balancing workloads, coaching performance, supporting professional development, and improving team processes.

Strong project management skills, including the ability to manage complex timelines, budgets, vendors, content workflows, staff assignments, risks, and competing priorities.

Experience managing a portfolio of related programs, events, or projects and establishing consistent workflows, metrics, expectations, and accountability across that portfolio.

Experience working with volunteer committees, technical communities, speakers, reviewers, subject matter experts, or similar contributor groups.

Strong written and oral communication skills, including the ability to translate technical content, program requirements, and process expectations for diverse audiences.

Ability to use data, feedback, evaluation results, and performance measures to assess program effectiveness and guide continuous improvement.

Experience with adult learning principles, continuing education practices, and the requirements associated with CEUs, PDHs, or similar professional development credits.

Comfort using technology platforms that support educational programming, including abstract management systems, association management systems, learning management systems, mobile apps, Microsoft Office, and related tools.

Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in volunteer engagement, speaker development, educational programming, team leadership, and learner experience.

BA/BS degree in a related field, or equivalent training and experience.

Willingness to travel to conferences, meetings, and industry events, approximately 20% of the year.

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience with large technical conferences, scientific or engineering meetings, or other complex learning events.

Experience managing or coordinating a portfolio of conferences, workshops, seminars, technical sessions, or other event-based educational offerings.

Knowledge of the water sector, utilities, environmental infrastructure, technical associations, scientific organizations, or professional credentialing environments.

Experience applying learning strategy, competency models, workforce development priorities, or portfolio-level education goals to specific programs or events.

Experience improving team operating models, volunteer engagement models, reviewer processes, speaker development practices, or content-quality systems.

Experience using dashboards, analytics, evaluation tools, or other data sources to improve educational programming, portfolio management, staff workflows, and learner experience.

Practical curiosity about responsible use of AI-enabled tools and emerging technologies that can improve content review, volunteer engagement, speaker support, learner experience, team operations, and portfolio management.

Strong editorial judgment and ability to assess educational content for relevance, quality, balance, audience fit, and alignment with strategic priorities.

Collaborative, proactive, and solutions-oriented working style with the ability to lead through ambiguity, build trust across teams, and improve systems over time.