Manager, Planning, Operations & Delivery

About the Opportunity

Please read the following job description thoroughly to ensure you are the right fit for this role before applying.

A growing mission-driven organization at the intersection of education, technology, and digital content is seeking a Director of Planning & Delivery to establish and lead a new cross-functional planning and delivery function.

This is a highly visible role responsible for bringing structure, transparency, and predictability to a diverse portfolio of initiatives spanning software development, digital products, content creation, curriculum development, and quality assurance.

The ideal candidate combines strong program leadership with hands-on agile coaching experience and thrives in environments where processes, governance, and delivery practices are still being built. You will partner closely with executive leadership to drive alignment, improve execution, and create a scalable operating model that enables teams to deliver at a high level.

This position begins as an individual contributor role with the opportunity to build and lead a small team as the function matures.

Why This Role?

• Build a planning and delivery organization from the ground up.
• Partner directly with executive leadership on strategic priorities.
• Influence how multiple functions collaborate and deliver work.
• Lead agile transformation efforts across diverse teams.
• Establish scalable reporting, governance, and portfolio management practices.
• Grow into a people leadership role with responsibility for building a team.

What You'll Do

Agile Leadership & Coaching

• Coach cross-functional teams on agile principles, Scrum practices, and continuous improvement.
• Facilitate sprint planning, backlog refinement, estimation, retrospectives, and delivery planning activities.
• Serve as Scrum Master for select teams during the early stages of implementation.
• Adapt agile approaches to support different types of work and delivery models.
• Improve planning accuracy, forecasting capability, and delivery predictability.
• Drive organizational adoption of effective delivery practices, tools, and frameworks.

Portfolio Planning & Delivery Management

• Maintain visibility across all active projects, including milestones, ownership, dependencies, risks, and delivery status.
• Establish intake, prioritization, and capacity planning processes.
• Lead cross-functional planning activities to ensure teams are aligned around shared objectives.
• Identify and manage dependencies that span multiple teams and business functions.
• Partner with leadership to evaluate priorities, resource allocation, and strategic tradeoffs.
• Ensure project and portfolio information remains current and actionable.

Executive Reporting & Visibility

• Develop reporting frameworks that provide leadership with clear insights into delivery performance.
• Build dashboards, scorecards, and operational metrics that support decision-making.
• Monitor delivery health, resource utilization, risk exposure, and portfolio progress.
• Create meaningful reporting that reflects actual work rather than manual status gathering.
• Present portfolio updates and recommendations to senior stakeholders.

Operational Excellence

• Define lightweight delivery standards, templates, and best practices.
• Reduce recurring process friction and organizational bottlenecks.
• Lead retrospectives and post-project reviews to drive continuous improvement.
• Partner across product, engineering, operations, content, and quality teams to improve collaboration and execution.
• Recruit, mentor, and lead planning and delivery professionals as the organization grows.

What We're Looking For

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in project management, program management, delivery management, or PMO leadership roles.
• Active Scrum certification (CSM, PSM, or equivalent).
• Demonstrated experience coaching teams and leaders on agile methodologies.
• Experience managing a portfolio of concurrent projects and initiatives.
• Strong background facilitating cross-functional planning and execution.
• Experience implementing delivery processes, governance models, or operating frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with project management, agile, and reporting tools.
• Proven ability to create structure in fast-growing or ambiguous environments.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to work effectively across diverse teams and functions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced agile certifications (A-CSM, PSM II, SAFe, ICP-ACC, PMI-ACP, or similar).
• PMP or equivalent project management certification.
• Experience establishing or scaling a PMO or delivery organization.
• Experience leading enterprise-wide process or transformation initiatives.
• Strong background developing KPIs, operational metrics, and delivery dashboards.
• Experience supporting distributed and remote teams.
• Experience working across both software and non-software environments.
• Previous people leadership experience, including hiring and team development. xhyhwjd
• Passion for education, accessibility, social impact, or mission-driven organizations.

Benefits:

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) plan with employer match

Paid holidays

3 weeks PTO

Paid sick leave

Life and disability insurance

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled

To read our Candidate Privacy Information Statement, which explains how we will use your information, please navigate to LHH | Privacy Policy

The Company will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with federal, state, and local laws and/or security clearance requirements, including, as applicable:

• The California Fair Chance Act

• Los Angeles City Fair Chance Ordinance

• Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers

• San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance