Director of Delivery Operations

Competitive Compensation & Benefits Package * 401(k) with Profit Sharing * Flexible Time Off * Office Dog!! ABOUT US By combining our unparalleled domain expertise with leading-edge technology, Ad Astra is helping higher education in its mission to advance timely student completions. We are building a cloud-based software platform that will provide the foundation for our next generation of industry-leading solutions and analytics. Simply put, we're helping students graduate faster. OUR CORE VALUES We recognize talent. We recognize and appreciate the unique God-given talents that our people bring to Ad Astra. Aligning these individual gifts with our work sets team members up to succeed. We’re unpretentious. There’s no room for ego. We admit our imperfections and have the humility to know what we don’t know. We’re passionate. We aren’t satisfied with the status quo. We’re on a mission together to protect the value of degree completion and to transform the higher education industry. We’re pioneering. We’re pioneering and aren’t afraid of failing—in fact, we celebrate it. We love it when our people boldly experiment with innovative solutions. We love fun. The health of our relationships is strengthened by working with people who stretch our thinking—and by enjoying the lighter side of life together. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we do take fun seriously. We have grit. Beyond talent and intelligence, our people have stick-to-itiveness. We push through challenges to make goals a reality. POSITION SUMMARY The Director of Delivery Operations plays a pivotal role in ensuring higher education clients achieve measurable outcomes through a fast, high-quality onboarding experience, helping institutions graduate more students faster. This leader owns the client facing Delivery organization end to end and is accountable for translating every engagement into tangible, measurable value for clients and for the business. The ideal candidate brings a proven track record of leading customer-facing delivery organizations across multiple teams, with strong oversight of project portfolio management and project health across a large volume of concurrent client engagements. They operationalize a data driven approach to operations, using KPIs and business reviews to spot risk early, allocate resources effectively, and continuously raise the bar on time to value. This role requires a strategic and operational mindset: someone capable of setting the strategic direction for Delivery, partnering with the executive team on company-wide priorities, and representing the voice of the client in cross functional planning with Consulting, CloudOps, Sales, Product, and Engineering. The Director serves as the senior escalation point for onboarding and project delivery issues and is directly involved at an executive level with the organization’s largest and most strategic engagements. The successful candidate is a strong people-leader and self-starter who builds high performing, accountable teams, invests in coaching and succession planning, and thrives in a fast paced, collaborative environment. RESPONSIBILITIES Onboarding & Time to Value Own the end-to-end onboarding experience for higher education clients, ensuring every engagement reaches time to value quickly and reliably. Champion a client outcomes mindset across the Onboarding team, tying implementation milestones directly to student success and measurable graduation rate impact. Communicate directly with clients to understand their needs and evaluate alternative approaches and strategies for delivering value faster. Strategic Leadership & Portfolio Oversight Maintain oversight of the Onboarding project portfolio, ensuring project health, prioritization, and resourcing decisions align with client and business needs. Develop and execute strategic plans for the Onboarding organization, translating company priorities into tactical initiatives the team can act on. Assist the executive team in setting company strategic direction and represent Delivery in enterprise level planning. Be directly involved at an executive level with the organization’s largest or most strategic projects and clients. Operational Excellence & Data Driven Management Institutionalize a data driven operating cadence, using KPI dashboards and regular business reviews to proactively identify at risk projects, delivery bottlenecks, and opportunities to scale what’s working. Continually evaluate current systems and processes for improvement opportunities that increase client satisfaction and delivery efficiency. Establish standardized reporting on project portfolio health, time to value, and resourcing utilization to inform planning and investment decisions. Leadership & Team Development Build and maintain effective working relationships with internal partners (e.g., Consulting, CloudOps, Sales, Product, Engineering), including executive management. Hold HR responsibility for the Onboarding team, including hiring, performance management, and day-to-day people leadership. Build a strong leadership bench within Delivery through active coaching, structured career development, and proper succession planning. Foster a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement across the team. Other duties as assigned. POSITION REQUIREMENTS A successful Director typically has 5 to 10 years of management experience in a customer-facing, technology consulting environment. A college degree (emphasis in a technical or business-related field is preferred). Comfortable discussing system architecture and technical tradeoffs with engineers, and able to translate that into clear terms for business and executive stakeholders. Demonstrated experience overseeing a project portfolio across multiple concurrent client engagements, with a strong focus on project health and delivery outcomes. Proven ability to use data and KPI analysis to drive operational decisions and resource allocation. Track record of developing strategic and tactical business plans and executing them across teams. Experience building, coaching, and developing managers and their teams, including succession planning. Ability to serve as a senior escalation point and executive sponsor on complex or high visibility client issues. Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast changing environments, and making resourcing tradeoff calls under time pressure. Experience working with the Higher Education industry is preferred. ESSENTIAL COMPETENCIES Ethics and Integrity Sense of Urgency with Quality Executive maturity and sound judgment under pressure Problem Solving Collaborative Communication Attention to Detail Leadership and people management acumen Strategic planning and business acumen Data analysis and metrics driven decision making Flexibility and Adaptability Project portfolio management and delivery governance Cross functional influence and executive level communication TOOLS AND SYSTEMS FinancialForce PSA Salesforce Project portfolio management tools (e.g., Smartsheet, MS Project, or similar) Reporting/BI tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau) MEASURES OF SUCCESS For the Delivery Team, performance is measured by the following KPI’s: Client satisfaction; Time to Value; Onboarding cycle time / speed to value; Project portfolio health (e.g., on time, on scope delivery rate) Organization Wide: Team engagement and retention Resourcing and capacity utilization This full time, in-office position is located in Overland Park, Kansas. Ad Astra does not pay for relocation expenses. Ad Astra is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and fairness—regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, political affiliation, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. All applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Please note that Ad Astra is unable to provide work visa sponsorship for this position. #J-18808-Ljbffr