Operations Program Manager / Chief of Staff

Engineering Studio What you own You're handed a defined goal — already scoped, already d ---------- . From there it's yours: build the plan, identify who needs to move, get them moving, track whether it's actually happening, escalate the ---------- nt it stalls. You're accountable for outcomes on programs that don't belong to any single team. You also keep the operating rhythm of the studio intact. That means running the meeting cadence, following up on the commitments people actually made, and making sure decisions get implemented — not just discussed and quietly dropped. When a decision gets made, you make sure everyone affected understands what it means for them, specifically, and actually does it. Catching agreement that wasn't real internalization — before it turns into silent non-alignment — is core to this job, not a side task. You'll have real, appropriate authority in your scope. Not proximity dressed up as influence, not soft power you have to negotiate for every time. Real authority, held accountable. You are not shaping strategy — that stays upstream. You are the reason strategy turns into something real, and the reason nothing falls through the cracks between the decisions made and the people executing them. What disqualifies you Needing to be managed, reminded, or chased. We manage work, not people. Explaining intent when corrected instead of fixing. If the correction was clear, "why" isn't needed — only the adjustment. Agreeing in the room, then not actually internalizing or executing the decision. What you need A track record of owning outcomes across teams that don't report to you Real systems thinking — you see how the pieces connect, not just the next checklist item Comfortable being the one who says the uncomfortable, accurate thing when a decision isn't actually landing The ability to take a live correction and produce a clean fix, fast, without it becoming a conversation about you No specific degree or credential required. How we hire for this Not a narrative interview. We've found what people say about handling correction and what they actually do under real, live correction are two different tests — so we run the second one. Application: a few standard questions about how you approach structure, correction, ambiguity. Not scored as truth. It's a baseline we compare against what we see live. Live round: real (anonymized) program material, worked through in real time, with direct correction delivered at least twice in the same session. We're not scoring whether your first answer is right. We're watching the gap between the correction landing and the fix starting — and whether that gap shrinks the second time. If you can take a clear correction and move without needing it softened, apply.