Manager of Strategic Programs

Responsibilities This is a unique opportunity to join a fast-growing team shaping the future of AI through better data, better tools, and better systems—for experts, by experts The Operator Enablement team ensures our Strategic Project Leads (SPLs) can run their projects successfully, meet customer demand, and deliver high quality data. As a Manager of Strategic Programs on this team, you will build and own the systems, tooling, and processes that SPLs depend on, from their first week at Handshake through running projects at scale Your primary focus will be scaling our central quality control program — the processes and systems that give us a reliable, calibrated quality read on every dataset before it reaches a customer. You will start as an individual contributor with clear room to grow your scope and build a team underneath you as the work expands Grow from 10s to 100s of quality auditors and from 100s to 1000s of auditing hours per week, without sacrificing calibration or reliability Augment auditing workflows with state-of-the-art LLM tools and prompt engineering best practices, increasing the efficiency of these workflows by 10x Embed quality processes into the broader Delivery organization, working cross-functionally with project leads to ensure consistent adherence Build the onboarding experience that ramps dozens of new SPLs to full productivity every month Develop agentic operator tooling that makes SPLs roughly 10x more efficient at running their projects Launch an Emerging Talent program that identifies, trains, and recruits top students to join our Strategic Projects team as new grad SPLs straight out of college Benefits Health Insurance: Comprehensive medical , dental, and vision coverage Fertility and family forming: Through a partnership, Handshake offers comprehensive family benefits, including infertility treatments and a $15K stipend, to its employees. LGTBQ+ coverage: All medical plans cover transgender services. Mental health: Discounts on a variety of wellness apps and an Employee Assistance Program with access to five free counseling sessions. Tax savings: Tax-advantaged benefits to save money on healthcare, dependent care, and other expenses. Life & disability insurance: Essential benefits and automatic coverage with basic life insurance, plus short-term and long-term disability coverage. 401k match: Dollar-for-dollar match up to 1% of pay, with a max of $1,200 per year. Equity: Our equity program includes grants at hire, refresher grants after two years of tenure, and grants alongside promotions. Financial management: Handshake partners to provide free professional financial planning services. Learning & development: Employees are provided with an annual stipend to use towards professional development, career development workshops, manager trainings, and 1-on-1 coaching through external partnerships Community leader support: Employee Resource Group leaders are compensated with a quarterly bonus for the high-impact work the role requires Parental leave: Leaves of 16 weeks for birth-giving parents and 10 weeks for non-birth-giving parents; the policy applies to adoptions as well. Handshake also partners to provide one-on-one coaching on preparing for leave and coming back from leave Flexible time off: No accrued time off or waiting period to take vacation. Two paid flexible holiday days off to observe holidays that closely align with religious, cultural, and personal needs Sabbatical: Paid six-week sabbatical to recharge and reset beginning at six years of continuous, full-time employment, and every four years thereafter Volunteer time off: Two days off for social and civil activism, volunteer work, and/or any related activities, including attending and participating in protests Qualifications A strong communicator who can bring in stakeholders, align them, and inspire people to deliver results A technical degree in a STEM field such as engineering, computer science, the physical sciences, statistics or analytics, or economics Entrepreneurial, comfortable taking ambiguous problems and driving them to a clear result 4+ years of experience in roles such as forward-deployed or solutions engineering, strategy and operations, or technical program management Process oriented, with a track record of building and scaling efficient operational processes Willing and able to build and lead a team as the scope of the role grows Highly technical, with the ability to deploy cutting edge AI tools across complex operational workflows Founded or helped start a company Worked in engineering, product, or operations at an early-stage, fast-growing startup A track record of solving messy operational or highly cross-functional problems Experience with quality management or operational excellence practices from other industries (e.g., manufacturing, logistics, healthcare) Exposure to structured process-improvement thinking (like Lean, Six Sigma, or similar frameworks) #J-18808-Ljbffr Handshake