Senior Associate, Program Management (Special Projects & Pilots)

RADAR•New York, NY

12d•$90,000 - $144,000

About The Position

The Sr. Specialist, Pilot & Special Projects Program Management owns the operational lifecycle of RADAR's special project deployment program, serving as the connective tissue between people, processes, and the platforms that power them. This role goes beyond coordination. It actively improves and scales the systems that make pilot and special project deployments execution faster, more predictable, and rollout-ready, ensuring every pilot is planned, prepared, executed, and closed out with discipline, clarity, and consistency. Sitting within Pilot & Special Projects Operations, this role partners closely with Customer Experience, Deployment Operations, Technical Support, Store Planning & Design, Engineering, Supply Chain / Logistics, and external installation partners to ensure processes and systems reflect how work actually gets done, and enable teams to execute efficiently at scale. This role is accountable for pilot readiness, cross-functional coordination, vendor execution enablement, and operating cadence - translating pilot activity into repeatable routines and rollout-ready standards.

Requirements

3+ years of experience in program management, implementation operations, or technical operations - with demonstrated ownership of the tools and systems that support that work.
Proven ability to coordinate complex, cross-functional work and drive execution through structure, follow-through, and well-configured platforms.
Strong operational planning skills: readiness gating, dependency management, timeline discipline, and escalation clarity.
Experience working with external vendors and managing deliverables in time-bound deployment environments.
Hands-on experience with project and documentation platforms — you don't just use these tools, you improve them.
Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to produce clear, executive-ready updates.
Comfortable building structure in ambiguous, fast-moving environments where processes are still maturing.
Familiarity with Jira, Confluence, Smartsheet, Google Sheets, Miro, or Lucidchart (or similar program management tools)

Nice To Haves

Experience with retail store deployments, pilots, multi-site rollouts, or distributed hardware programs.
Experience building playbooks, SOPs, templates, and scalable operating routines.
Exposure to hardware + SaaS environments (IoT, RFID, edge compute, distributed systems).
Experience translating pilots into scaled rollout programs (playbooks, standards, vendor models)
Experience working in high-growth or early-stage environments where systems and processes are still being built.

Responsibilities

Program Ownership (Operational)
Own the end-to-end operational lifecycle of special project deployments: intake → readiness → execution → closeout, with a focus on building workflows and systems that reduce manual effort and increase consistency.
Define milestones, dependencies, readiness criteria, and ownership aligned to project objectives and success metrics.
Ensure pilots do not proceed without required readiness gates met; surface risks early with clear options, data, and recommendations.
Maintain clear scope and execution expectations across all stakeholders.
Systems, Platforms & Tooling
Own the configuration and continuous improvement of tools such as Jira, Confluence, Smartsheet, and Google Sheets to reflect current workflows and reduce friction.
Identify gaps between how teams work and what their tools support, and drive resolution through tooling changes, automation, or process redesign.
Partner with Operations leadership to evaluate and integrate new platforms that improve program visibility and execution quality across the holistic system infrastructure.
Cross-Functional Coordination & Operating Rhythm
Drive a structured operating cadence - including readiness reviews, weekly project syncs, execution checkpoints, and closeout reviews - with supporting dashboards, trackers, and automated workflows to keep routines low-lift and high-signal.
Coordinate across Field Deployment Ops, Deployment Tech Support, Store Planning & Design, Engineering, Supply Chain, and CX.
Track action items, remove blockers, and escalate with clarity and documentation maintained in the right systems.
Document decisions and ensure consistent follow-through across teams.
Scalable Routines, Templates & Playbooks
Build and maintain repeatable operating routines that reduce friction and variability across all special project deployments.
Develop and continuously improve standardized artifacts, designed to live in and be maintained through your core toolset, including:
Pilot readiness checklist and gating framework
Pilot execution tracker and ownership model
Internal and external communication templates
Pilot closeout and retrospective format
Identify recurring issues and drive operational improvements through process, tooling, or stakeholder alignment.
Pilot Closeout, Retrospectives & Scale Readiness
Own the pilot closeout process end-to-end, ensuring deliverables, validation, and documentation are captured in structured, reusable formats.
Lead pilot retrospectives and translate lessons learned into updated standards, playbooks, and scale-readiness inputs.
Partner with the Manager, Deployment Operations to hand off pilot learnings and operational requirements for potential fleet rollout.
Execution Visibility & Reporting
Partner with Systems and Data analysts to build and maintain leadership-ready pilot reporting infrastructure: live dashboards, status trackers, risk registers, readiness scorecards, and completion metrics.
Provide clear, timely updates that enable informed decision-making and proactive risk management.
Ensure pilot progress and outcomes are visible, measurable, and actionable.