Description

Position Summary
The Director, Exam Administration provides strategic and operational leadership for the successful administration, delivery, and continuous improvement of ABEM's large-scale, high-stakes assessments, with particular emphasis on the Certifying Exam and responsibility for administration-related practices across ABEM exam programs. This role translates executive priorities into executable program plans and ensures exam integrity, operational readiness, compliance, and service excellence across recurring exam cycles. The Director leads cross-functional coordination, risk management, stakeholder communication, and change management efforts to support reliable delivery, effective adoption of new processes and technologies, and a high-quality candidate and volunteer experience.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities
The essential functions include, but are not limited to the following:

1.        Provides strategic oversight and daily leadership for recurring exam administrations across ABEM exam programs, with particular emphasis on the multiple administrations of the Certifying Exam; ensures on-time, high-quality delivery and exam integrity.

2.     Translates executive direction into detailed program plans with milestones, deliverables, owners, resources, and reporting expectations. Establishes exam decision-making pathways, critical milestones, readiness checkpoints, and escalation practices.

3.     Leads readiness reviews and ensures risks, dependencies, and mitigation plans are visible to executive leadership. Leads post-mortems, improvement backlogs, and process enhancement efforts that improve efficiency, quality, clarity, and stakeholder experience.

4.        Directs cross-functional planning for exam administration, delivery logistics, volunteer coordination, candidate management, staffing needs, and administration-day execution across assigned exam programs.

5.        Serves as Administrative Lead for Certifying Exam administrations and supports administration readiness, execution, issue resolution, and closeout for other ABEM exam programs as assigned or needed.

6.     Leads budget planning, resource recommendations, vendor coordination, and expenditure oversight related to exam operations.

7.     Oversees work assigned to contributors and partner teams; facilitates decision-making, resolves impediments, and ensures accountability for deliverables.

8.     Develops alternative administration models and operational plans to address resource concerns, new exam formats, delivery modalities, timing changes, and stakeholder needs across assigned exam programs.

9.     Collaborates with the Director, Exam Development and other assessment stakeholders to align administration timelines, case readiness, training needs, technology requirements, candidate and volunteer communications, and operational delivery plans while maintaining clear ownership of administration execution.

10.  Ensures documentation and communication of system, process, policy, or operational changes; ensures appropriate approvals and clear stakeholder updates.

11.    Prioritizes administration-related technology needs, system tools, reporting capabilities, scheduling tools, candidate portals, and operational workflows that support Certifying Exam delivery and other ABEM exam administrations.

12.  Partners with Systems and Technology to support platform reliability, security, releases, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), and incident response planning. 

13.  Upholds data governance, privacy, security, and compliance expectations aligned with organizational policies and exam program standards.

14.  Develops, monitors, and communicates cycle health dashboards, KPIs, readiness indicators, risks, and leadership reports.

15.  Represents exam programs in cross-functional meetings and supports leadership with policy, operational, and resource recommendations.

16.    Oversees meeting planning and administrative logistics needed to support Certifying Exam administrations and other ABEM exam-related activities within the Director's scope.

17.  Performs other duties as needed or assigned.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)

• Bachelor's degree in business, management, education, assessment, health administration, or related field; master's degree preferred. 
• Minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience in program management, exam administration, certification, credentialing, assessment operations, or related field. 
• Minimum of 4 years of experience leading staff, project teams, cross-functional initiatives, or major program operations preferred. 
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, high-stakes administrative programs with multiple timelines, contributors, risks, and stakeholder groups.
• Strong leadership, communication, facilitation, decision-making, and organizational skills.
• Ability to think quickly and make appropriate decisions with limited time.
• Ability to translate strategic priorities into executable plans, governance structures, and measurable deliverables. 
• Experience with risk management, change management, stakeholder management, process improvement, and operational readiness practices.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, including the ability to monitor KPIs, identify trends, evaluate risks, and recommend solutions. 
• Ability to manage sensitive information and uphold data governance, privacy, security, and compliance standards. 
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and collaboration tools; experience with exam administration platforms, scheduling systems, candidate portals, or related systems preferred. 
• Experience collaborating with technology partners on system updates, troubleshooting, release management, integrations, UAT, and incident response preferred.
• Ability to build effective working relationships with staff, volunteers, board of directors, executive leaders, vendors, and other stakeholders. 
• Ability to travel a minimum of 9 weeks per year supporting the Certifying Exam administration.

 
Physical Demands and Work Environment 
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.

While performing the duties of this position, the employee is regularly required to talk or listen. The employee frequently is required to use hands or fingers, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls. The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, sit, and reach with hands and arms. Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus. The noise level in the work environment is typically low to moderate. 

*This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an “at will” relationship.