Director of Program Management, Riipen
$140-170k
Experiential learning platform and marketplace
Open for applications
Experiential learning platform and marketplace
101-200 employees
Open for applications
$140-170k
101-200 employees
Company mission
To help students of all backgrounds and geographies boost their skills, gain career clarity, network with potential employers, and find jobs they love.
Role
Who you are
- 10+ years of experience in program management, project delivery, or operational leadership roles, preferably in EdTech, workforce development, or public-private partnerships
- Experience leading matrixed delivery for large, complex funded programs involving government agencies, corporations, or consortia
- Proven ability to manage a portfolio of projects and resources while applying a consistent lens of quality and risk mitigation
- 5+ years of experience managing and mentoring high-performing teams
- Strong analytical skills and experience building performance frameworks and feedback systems
- Exceptional communication, relationship-building, and stakeholder management skills
- Have a data driven spirit; you understand metrics and KPI’s and this motivates you to achieve your goals
- Have an entrepreneurial spirit and enjoy working in a fast-paced, scale-up environment where change is necessary for growth and success
- Possess strong problem-solving, organizational, and analytical skills
- Embrace Riipen’s values and model resilience in your leadership style
Desirable
- Experience with portfolio management methodologies (e.g., PMO, PPM frameworks)
- Familiarity with the higher education or workforce development space
- Experience working with government-funded programs and impact reporting
- Experience with HubSpot, Asana, or similar CRM/project tools
What the job involves
- Riipen is hiring a Director of Program Management to lead the successful delivery and continuous evolution of our partner programs
- This individual will be a key member of the Partner Success leadership team and Riipen Senior Leadership team, and will work closely with both internal stakeholders, partners in post-secondary education, workforce development and non-profits as well as external funding partners to ensure programs are designed, executed, and iterated with excellence
- Primary areas of ownership for this role:
- Strategic Program Delivery & Portfolio Management
- Quality Assurance & Operational Excellence
- Program Innovation & Design
- Partner Relationship Support & Feedback Loops
- People & Team Leadership
- Alignment for how we deliver an elevated partner experience is critical for this leader to be successful
- Be an operationally strong leader who brings structure, consistency, and rigor to a diverse and growing portfolio of high-impact partner programs
- Model a systems-thinking approach and instill best-in-class practices across the team to support scale and efficiency without compromising quality
- Champion continuous innovation in program design and delivery, identifying opportunities to evolve how we drive outcomes for learners and partners
- Act as a proactive partner to our Partnerships Development team to ensure early engagement in pre-contract delivery planning and feedback loops that improve renewal and replacement rates
- Be deeply data-driven, setting and monitoring KPIs to assess program health, identify risks, and drive improvements
- Develop and maintain expert level platform and product knowledge
- Integrate change management approaches into solution delivery and support to effectively guide and coach users through new ways of working to optimally leverage the Riipen solution
- Manage surges in program delivery needs to flex team capacity and consistently meet service level expectations (e.g. program cohort launches)
- Own end-to-end delivery of Riipen’s signature and managed programs, including oversight of timelines, resource allocation, budgets, deliverables, and impact
- Manage a portfolio of programs with excellence, ensuring they meet internal delivery standards and exceed partner expectations
- Lead the continuous evolution of program management practices, tooling, templates, and reporting standards to support scale and sustainability
- Develop shared quality standards and success metrics across the program portfolio and build dashboards and scorecards to support visibility and decision-making
- Collaborate with account teams to provide early and frequent feedback on program progress and opportunities for optimization, renewal, or new business development
- Work closely with cross-functional teams to coordinate the successful delivery and documentation of program activities and outcomes
- Act as a liaison with Product and other partner-facing teams to influence product and service enhancements to elevate the partner experience
- Co-lead with Marketing the design and delivery of compelling impact reports, storytelling, and case studies to showcase program success
- Contribute to product feedback cycles based on partner and program insights
- Support pricing and scope modeling for new program opportunities to ensure operational viability and sustainability
- Act as a point of escalation for partner issues related to program delivery
- Coach, develop, and inspire a high-performing team of program managers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, ownership, and customer advocacy
- Reporting To: Jennifer Albrecht, VP Partner Succe
Application process
- Stage 1: Application Received
- Stage 2: Phone interview with VP, Operations
- Stage 3: 1st Interview
- Stage 4: 2nd Interview
- Stage 5: Final Interview
- Stage 6: Panel interview and Presentation
Our take
It’s a problem many graduates are painfully familiar with: you need experience to get a job, but you can’t land a job without experience. Riipen is a company helping to tackle this issue. Their platform offers post-secondary institutions the ability to connect their students to real-world problems and training, and to companies in search of new talent.
The company have helped over 100,000 students engage in applied learning, which historically might only have been accessed through an internship - typically freezing out students without the connections or resources to land one. So Riipen’s addressing inequality of opportunity in the post-secondary demographic, alongside streamlining the work of companies in sourcing talent.
With the economy still in recovery, and traditional ‘first job’ positions in certain industries curtailed, there’s an urgent need to reimagine what stepping onto the career ladder looks like. Riipen’s solution has been refined over the past several years, and is now well set to take advantage of this opportunity.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Jan 2021
$1.5m
LATE VC
Dec 2019
$3.8m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $6m
Company benefits
- Enhanced health & dental benefits
- Generous time off
- Choose your work environment
- Paid parental leave
- Paid learning opportunities
Company HQ
Downtown Vancouver, Vancouver, BC
Leadership
Dave Savory
(Co-Founder & VP of Experiential Learning)Previously a Franchise Manager at College Pro Painters, before moving on to work in Sales and Business Development at Travergence Interactive, and then Softree Technical Systems.
Dana Stephenson
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously held various managerial roles in recruitment, marketing, and business at The Acquisition Group Enterprises, Advanced Air Supply, and The Moore Law Group. Subsequently worked as a sales rep at Beldon Home Solutions.
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