ASU Partnership Project Manager – Independent Contractor (1099)

InStride • Los Angeles, CA

17h • Remote

About The Position

InStride is seeking a highly organized and proactive ASU Partnership Project Manager to join our Academic Partnerships team on a part-time contract basis. This role will support the execution of key initiatives related to InStride’s partnership with Arizona State University (ASU), focusing on keeping projects, meetings, stakeholders, documentation, and deliverables organized and moving forward. The ideal candidate is an exceptional project manager who can coordinate across multiple internal and external stakeholders, maintain clear documentation, proactively track action items and deadlines, and ensure commitments are followed through to completion.

Requirements

• 4+ years of experience in project management, program management, operations, consulting, or a similar role involving coordination of complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Highly organized with demonstrated success managing multiple workstreams, deadlines, stakeholders, and deliverables simultaneously.
• Exceptionally strong at follow-through and proactively ensuring action items and commitments are completed.
• Ability to take a complex or loosely defined initiative and create the structure, documentation, timeline, and accountability needed to move it forward.
• Clear and professional communication skills, comfortable working directly with both internal stakeholders and external ASU stakeholders.
• Excels in collaborative environments where multiple teams and perspectives must come together to execute successfully.
• Proactive and adaptable mindset, ready to tackle challenges with resourcefulness and positivity.
• Thrives in dynamic, fast-paced settings, embracing change and ambiguity with ease.
• Knack for finding practical solutions and removing operational roadblocks.
• Motivated by meaningful work and seeking opportunities where contributions have a lasting impact.
• Candidates must be located in one of the following states to be considered eligible for employment: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, TX, VA, WA, WI.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working in higher education, education technology, or with large university systems is a plus but not required.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate ASU Partnership Projects: Manage project plans, timelines, milestones, dependencies, and deliverables for initiatives related to InStride’s partnership with Arizona State University. Ensure project owners have clarity on responsibilities and deadlines and proactively surface risks or blockers that could impact execution.
• Drive Cross-Functional Coordination: Coordinate work across InStride teams and ASU stakeholders to ensure initiatives move forward efficiently. Connect the right stakeholders, clarify ownership and dependencies, and maintain visibility into progress across workstreams.
• Manage Meetings and Follow-Through: Support recurring and project-specific meetings between InStride and ASU by coordinating agendas, gathering materials, documenting key decisions, capturing action items, and ensuring owners follow through on commitments.
• Maintain Project Documentation: Create and maintain organized, accurate documentation for ASU initiatives, including project plans, meeting notes, decision logs, action-item trackers, timelines, and status updates. Leverage platforms such as Asana, Confluence, Salesforce, and other collaboration tools to create transparency and accountability.
• Track Action Items and Deliverables: Maintain a centralized view of outstanding actions, deliverables, owners, and deadlines. Proactively follow up with stakeholders, identify overdue or at-risk items, and escalate blockers when appropriate.
• Provide Project Status Visibility: Develop concise updates that provide internal and external stakeholders with clear visibility into project progress, upcoming milestones, open decisions, risks, and next steps.
• Support Operational Issue Resolution: Help coordinate the resolution of operational issues involving InStride and ASU by documenting the issue, identifying appropriate stakeholders, tracking decisions and next steps, and ensuring items are carried through to resolution.
• Champion Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement: Identify opportunities to improve how ASU-related projects, meetings, documentation, and cross-functional workflows are managed. Implement practical improvements that reduce friction, strengthen accountability, and make execution more efficient.

Benefits

• Eligible to enroll in 2,800+ online certificate and degree programs through our Step Forward program (tuition covered upfront).
• 401(k) plan with company match
• Flexible vacation policy
• Paid family leave
• Best-in-class health care benefits

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed