[Hiring] Operations Specialist @Cengage Group

Role Description

As an Operations Specialist with the Digital team, you will be a key player in building our scalable and efficient operational engine. Your primary goal is to reduce the administrative burden associated with procurement, vendor management, and resource tracking, allowing our technology leaders to focus on strategic execution.

You will manage the day-to-day operations for our procurement and contracting lifecycle, guaranteeing all requests are managed accurately and reported on precisely. You will collaborate with leadership, Finance, Procurement, and our Product Operating Model (POM) teams to enhance visibility, consistency, and financial transparency across our programs. This role demands outstanding attention to detail, operational difficulty, and the capacity to work collaboratively across teams to promote continuous improvement.

Your primary responsibilities:

• Financial & Procurement Operations
  • Manage the end-to-end procure-to-pay process within SAP, including the management and tracking of Statements of Work (SOWs), Purchase Orders (POs), and invoices.
  • Partner with budget owners and Finance to monitor spending against budgets, providing regular updates on the pace of spend and highlighting potential variances.
  • Lead vendor financial tracking; maintain list of PTI vendors, partnerships, and spending for sourcing and financial planning support.
  • Ensure financial data within SAP is accurate, timely, and reliable to support leadership in making data-driven decisions and to enable regular financial reporting.
• Resource Management & Rostering
  • Manage the team roster, keeping an updated record of members aligned to the Product Operating Model (POM) and IT enterprise programs.
  • Collaborate with Digital leads to track resource allocations, providing access to team composition and staffing plans.
  • Contribute to improving the month-over-month accuracy of our rostering data, ensuring it reflects the true state of our teams.
• Operational Governance & Support
  • Champion and implement guidelines for our operational processes, ensuring alignment with our company's operating model and governance standards.
  • Discover opportunities for making workflows related to procurement, invoicing, and vendor management more efficient and effective.
  • Support governance processes by ensuring compliance checks, reviews, and approvals are completed in a timely manner.
  • Develop and maintain clear documentation for all core operational processes.

Qualifications

• An experienced operations analyst or specialist with 3–7 years in relevant fields such as PMO, business operations, financial operations, or procurement.
• Practical familiarity with SAP or a comparable ERP platform is required, particularly within procurement and finance modules.
• Deeply familiar with the procure-to-pay lifecycle (SOWs, POs, Invoices) and budget tracking - or equivalent experience.
• Confident working with data to ensure accuracy and provide clear, concise reports.
• You are highly proficient with tools like Excel and SmartSheet.
• Organized, meticulous, and proactive in handling complexity and ambiguity to see tasks through to completion.
• An outstanding communicator with strong written and verbal skills, capable of partnering effectively with collaborators in Finance, Procurement, and Technology.
• A collaborative problem-solver who thrives on improving processes and enabling teams to operate more efficiently.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in supporting a technology or software development organization.
• Experience in a global organization, working with teams across different time zones.

Benefits

• At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees.
• The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.