Manager, Content Specialist

Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC™) is a mission-driven organization, with a vision to be the global leader in ensuring every talented person can benefit from the best business education for them. The organization’s priority is to heighten its impact in promoting graduate management education and attracting a qualified and diverse candidate pool from around the world.

The Manager, Content Specialist, manages the development of test items and related materials for high-stakes assessments in graduate management education. The role reviews and edits submissions from item writers for clarity, consistency, and alignment with assessment objectives, verifies content accuracy, and maintains rigorous quality-control standards so that every item meets testing demands.

Key Responsibilities:

Item Development and Management

• Own the Verbal item development schedule for NMAT and GMAT, setting and adjusting work priorities to meet deadlines.
• Ensure items meet established quality standards and perform consistently against psychometric benchmarks.
• Gather and resolve feedback and content issues on test items raised by candidates and internal or external stakeholders.
• Drive improvements in item development based on lessons learned from the prior year.
• Review pre-test performance data to drive improvements in item writing and increase item survival rates.
• Review and edit items for accuracy, clarity, and alignment with item and test specifications and blueprints.
• Analyze item statistics (difficulty, discrimination, distractor performance) with psychometric teams to identify items needing revision or retirement.
• Ensure items are free from bias, sensitivity concerns, and cultural or regional disadvantages.
• Develop and update item writing guidelines, style guides, and training materials.
• Maintain item security and confidentiality throughout development, review, and storage.
• Make recommendations on item retirement and process changes that inform decisions by senior leadership and teams beyond Assessment Operations.

Vendor Enablement

• Recommend and help select item writing vendors, and make operational decisions on vendor work allocation in consultation with the Associate Director.
• Retain high-performing vendors and source new vendors as needed to maintain a stable item-development pipeline.
• Assign work orders to vendors and monitor work order progress.
• Onboard and train vendors and item writers on test specifications, item writing guidelines, and quality expectations.
• Give vendors regular feedback on item quality and track acceptance rates and turnaround times.
• Evaluate vendor performance against agreed quality, timeliness, and cost benchmarks.
• Ensure vendors comply with confidentiality, security, and contractual requirements.

Item Authoring Platforms

• Work with internal teams to enhance, improve, and test the item authoring environment.
• Gather user feedback from item writers to identify usability issues and enhancement opportunities.
• Ensure correct metadata tagging, version control, and workflow tracking of items within the platform.
• Train internal users and vendors on platform features and best practices.

General

• Other responsibilities and duties, as assigned.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in English, Communication, or related field; or equivalent combination of education, skills, and experience.
• 3–5 years’ experience in related field.
• Strong command of English grammar, usage, and style.
• Skill in writing reading comprehension passages and critical reasoning arguments.
• Proven expertise in content development, ideally with experience in test development or educational measurement.
• Effective problem-solving skills, with a calm, positive approach under pressure.
• Excellent interpersonal, listening, and probing skills for working with internal teams, vendors, and stakeholders.
• Strong project management, organizational, and time management skills; ability to balance multiple stakeholders’ priorities and deliver high-quality work on tight deadlines.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision and in a team setting, and across external and internal stakeholder groups.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; strong attention to detail, with a keen focus on quality.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Ability to work in-office and remotely according to GMAC’s hybrid work environment.

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Desired Skills/Experience:

• Advanced or Master’s degree in English or Communications.
• Experience in test development, educational measurement, applied statistics.
• Experience in item writing and review roles.
• Key stakeholder relationship and vendor management prior experience.
• Familiarity with item writing principles such as plausible distractors, one clearly correct answer, and avoiding bias.

FLSA Status:

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GMAC’s value proposition offers our talented employees the ideal climate for innovation, and colleagues who are motivated and proactive, with diverse backgrounds and approaches.

About Us

Founded in 1953, Graduate Management Admission Council™ (GMAC™) provides world-class research, industry conferences, recruiting tools, and assessments for the graduate management education industry as well as resources, events, and services that help guide candidates through their higher education journey.

Owned and administered by GMAC, the Graduate Management Admission Test™ (GMAT™) exam is the most widely used graduate business school assessment. In addition, more than 12 million prospective students a year trust GMAC’s platforms, including mba.com, GMAC Tours, and BusinessBecause, to learn about MBA and business master’s programs, connect with schools around the world, prepare and register for exams, and get advice on how to successfully achieve their business education and career goals. GMAC is a global organization with offices in China, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

As a mission-driven, non-profit organization that represents leading business schools globally, GMAC is committed to serving prospective candidates with talent and aspirations in business careers, corporate recruiters eager to tap into their potentials and skillsets, and school professionals who are passionate about holistic admission practices to build an inclusive classroom. We also support our talented and potential employees by offering the ideal climate for innovative and motivated individuals with diverse backgrounds and a company culture that treasures employees’ overall health and total wellness.

To learn more about our work, visit GMAC.com.