Program Development Consultant

Understood•New York, NY

5d•Remote

About The Position

Understood is seeking a contractor to support program development on a deliverables-driven, time-limited basis. This is a contract role—not a full-time employee position—and the contractor will be engaged for their specialized expertise to complete clearly defined outputs within the contract term. The contractor will be responsible for designing and supporting the launch of new programs from concept to rollout, auditing current capabilities, establishing operational foundations, engaging with cross-functional stakeholders, defining KPIs and reporting frameworks, and providing a clean handoff to internal owners. Contractors maintain control over the means and methods of completing their work, provided they meet all deliverables.

Requirements

Proven track record designing and launching programs from scratch, ideally in a tech or tech-enabled environment.
Strong systems thinking, able to take scattered capabilities and organize them into something coherent and operable.
Excellent stakeholder management, able to align senior leaders and working teams without formal authority.
Bias toward action and self-direction; you can operate with ambiguity and minimal ramp-up.
Experience building lightweight, durable processes and documentation.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with STEM education, workforce development, or neurodiversity
Experience with school- or educator-facing program models
Comfort working across both technical and non-technical teams and translating between them.
Existing relationships with STEM funders, implementation partners, or evaluation organizations

Responsibilities

Design and support the launch of new programs from concept to rollout, pulling together existing tech and non-tech capabilities into coherent, well-defined offerings.
Audit current capabilities across teams, identify gaps and overlaps, and shape them into structured programs with clear goals, scope, and ownership.
Establish the operational foundation for each program, including workflows, documentation, tooling, and processes, that internal teams can run independently after handoff.
Engage with cross-functional stakeholders (product, engineering, operations, leadership) to align program design with company priorities and resourcing.
Define KPIs and reporting frameworks, establish baselines, and illustrate early impact to leadership.
Provide a clean handoff to internal owners, including documentation, training, and transition support.