Initiative Delivery Lead

Job description

Stellic is growing, and we're looking for an Initiative Delivery Lead to own end-to-end delivery of strategic initiatives across a portfolio of university partners. This isn't project coordination — it's program ownership. You're the person who looks across everything a partner has in motion, understands how each piece connects, and makes sure it all lands. ABOUT US We're building a future where every student can move through their education with clarity, confidence, and purpose. Our platform transforms the student experience, giving them the tools they need to make the right decisions about their degree plans, track their journey, and build an education and career path that's truly their own. Stellic is a fast-growing startup backed by leading social impact investors, partnering with top institutions like Cornell, Columbia, UVA, and Ohio State to support over 1 million students across 7 countries. As we scale to serve more universities worldwide, we remain deeply committed to this mission, driven by our values, and committed to building a high-performance team that's here to make a lasting difference on both students' lives and higher education. ABOUT YOU You don't wait for clarity — you create it. A partner walks in with a goal like "we want better student outcomes" and you walk out with a scoped initiative, defined success metrics, clear owners, and a finish line everyone agrees on. You hold delivery together across competing priorities and multiple concurrent workstreams, and when one thing shifts, you immediately map the downstream impact on everything else in flight. You think at the program level, not just the project level. You care more about what a project is actually accomplishing than about checking it off a list — and that comes through in how you show up for partners, how you build relationships, and how you handle the hard conversations. You hold yourself and others to their commitments without damaging the relationships that make the work possible. AS OUR INITIATIVE DELIVERY LEAD, YOU WILL OWN - Initiative Planning: Turn partner goals into concrete, actionable initiatives with defined scope, sequenced milestones, owners, dependencies, risks, resources, and exit criteria. Make "done" unambiguous before the work begins rather than after. - Program-Level Execution: Manage a portfolio of simultaneous partner implementations, tracking overall program health across workstreams — not just individual project status. When something shifts in one area, you understand the ripple effects and respond at the program level. Delivery outcomes are always front and center: initiatives on time, on scope, high partner confidence, and a delivery NPS that reflects the quality of the work. - Platform Fluency: Build genuine knowledge of the Stellic platform and how our partners are using it — not just what it does, but why it matters. That fluency is what lets you stay credible in implementation conversations and be a real partner in the room. - Partner Communications: Own project health and partner communications, both internal and partner-facing, in close partnership with the Partner Strategy Lead. Keep everyone informed and confident at every level, from campus project managers to exec sponsors. No one should ever have to ask where things stand. - Cross-Functional Coordination: Work closely with Product Delivery Leads and bring the right internal stakeholders into the conversation at the right time. Reduce escalations by building context ahead of problems and move things forward through influence and trust. - Risk, Resourcing, and Accountability: Proactively manage risk and resourcing. Know when to escalate, how to prioritize, and what tradeoffs make the most sense. Hold partners and internal teams accountable to their commitments, and handle those conversations with care. - Partner Advocacy: Keep the partner's voice at the center and advocate for what they need across the organization. TO BE SUCCESSFUL, YOU SHOULD HAVE - Proven experience leading high-stakes, customer-facing programs in a B2B SaaS environment, ideally with large, complex institutions where navigating layered priorities is part of the job - PMP or project management certification preferred, with a grounded understanding of how to apply PMI best practices in practice - A genuine draw to the why behind the work. You're capable and sincerely interested in translating strategic goals into actionable initiatives. You care what the project is accomplishing, not just whether it's done - The ability to scope ambiguity into structure. You define success metrics before product delivery starts, push back constructively when scope is undefined, and never need a template to get started - Experience managing across concurrent workstreams with a clear system for tracking health across all of them, not just one at a time — and the organizational clarity to always know what matters now, what's coming next, and what takes priority - Comfort with data. You can troubleshoot a messy CSV and explain a data discrepancy to a non-technical stakeholder without skipping a beat - Strong communication and relationship-building across the full stakeholder spectrum — from campus project managers to exec sponsors, with the judgment to calibrate your message, influence without authority, and handle sensitive situations with care - Strong negotiation instincts. You look for solutions that work for everyone, and you know how to hold your ground while keeping the relationship intact - The ability to thrive in a fast-moving, high-growth startup. You adapt quickly when things change and bring a constructive, steady presence while doing it - Fluency in project management tools like Monday.com http://Monday.com, Smartsheet, or similar - Willingness to travel on-site when it adds value for the partner WHY YOU'LL LOVE WORKING AT STELLIC - Shape the future of higher education at a company leading the transformation of student success. - Work alongside an ambitious, mission-driven leadership team building something meaningful. - Own a piece of the journey with competitive salary, meaningful equity and a culture of excellence, speed and ownership. - Thrive in a flexible, outcome-driven culture built on trust and autonomy. - Exceptional benefits, including health insurance with Stellic covering 99% of your premium and 75% for dependents. - 401(k), commuter benefits, and annual international retreats in incredible locations. STELLIC IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER Our company values diversity and believes diverse teams make innovation possible. We encourage all qualified applicants from any race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or other characteristics to apply.