Special Programs Operations Lead

Young Founders School; New York (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Founders School is seeking a senior operator to own the delivery of our special programs, turning undefined offerings into reliable, scalable experiences for families. You will lead planning, staffing, logistics, execution, and post-program follow-through across multiple campuses.

You will coordinate guides, mentors, and vendors while partnering with school heads and enrollment teams to strengthen the Founders School pipeline.

Qualifications

• Owned end-to-end program delivery, events, or operations with outcomes accountability.
• Strong operator with ability to manage people and vendors at scale.
• Comfortable building from ambiguity into reliable, repeatable programs.
• Excellent judgment on quality and experience, maintaining high standards.
• Daily use of AI tools to plan, coordinate, and operate more efficiently.
• Located in or willing to relocate to New York, NY.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end program delivery for special offerings (Founders Weekend, Young Founders, spin-offs).
• Turn early or undefined offerings into repeatable, well-run programs with operating models and playbooks.
• Manage people delivering programs—guides, mentors, facilitators, vendors.
• Own participant and family experience so offerings feel excellent.
• Collaborate with school heads, enrollment, and events to align with the broader pipeline.
• Measure participation, satisfaction, outcomes, and improve each program.

Skills

People management

Vendor management

Ambiguity handling

AI tooling

Job description

"

Founders School is a 4-year high school program where teenagers build real companies targeting $1M in profit by graduation. The program launches in New York City in Fall 2026 with 20 students, scaling toward 1,000.

Around that core, we're building a growing set of special programs: Founders Weekend, Young Founders (our middle-school offering), and future spin-offs, each of which has to be delivered with the same excellence as the flagship school.

Someone has to make all of it run at a level that matches the brand. That's you.

You will own the delivery of those special programs. Not the marketing, not the sales — the actual operation: the plan, the people, the logistics, the run-of-show, and the outcomes. You'll take offerings that are early or undefined and turn them into programs that run reliably, delight the families in them, and can scale. This is a senior operator role with real ownership from day one.

What you will be doing

Owning end-to-end program delivery for our special offerings — Founders Weekend, Young Founders, and future spin-offs — from planning and staffing through logistics, execution, and post-program follow-through.

Turning early or loosely-defined offerings into repeatable, well-run programs with clear operating models, playbooks, and quality bars.

Managing the people who deliver these programs — coordinating guides, mentors, facilitators, and vendors so each program runs smoothly and hits its goals.

Owning the participant and family experience for special programs, so every offering feels as excellent as the core school.

Partnering with the school heads, enrollment, and events so special programs reinforce the broader Founders School pipeline and brand rather than pulling against it.

Measuring what matters — participation, satisfaction, outcomes — and improving each program every time it runs.

What you will NOT be doing

Just coordinating logistics. You own the whole program: its design of delivery, its people, its quality, and its results.

Owning the core 4-year curriculum. That belongs to the school heads. Your domain is everything outside the core curriculum.

Selling or marketing these programs. Enrollment and marketing drive demand; you make sure what gets delivered is worth the demand.

Running a program once and moving on. You build offerings that run repeatedly and improve every cycle.

What this becomes

At 6 months, you've taken ownership of the existing special programs and delivered monthly Founders Weekends on our campuses around the country, and one Young Founders cohort that runs smoothly and gets strong feedback from families. You've established the operating model for each program — the playbook, staffing model, and quality bar — so they no longer depend on heroics to pull off, and the school heads trust you to own special programs outright, freeing them to focus on the core school.

At 12 months, special programs run as a coherent, well-managed portfolio you own across our national campuses, each with clear metrics and a repeatable path to run again — and you've stood up at least one new spin-off offering from scratch.

As Founders School scales toward 1,000 students and multiple cities, you build and lead the special-programs function — hiring a team, replicating each offering across campuses, and launching new programs that extend the Founders School model well beyond the core curriculum.

Candidate requirements

You have owned the delivery of programs, events, or operations end to end — in education, accelerators, experiential programs, hospitality, or a startup — where you were accountable for the outcome, not just a slice of the logistics.

You are a strong operator and a capable manager of people and vendors. You can run several complex programs in parallel and keep all of them at a high standard.

You are comfortable building from ambiguity. You can take an early or undefined offering and turn it into something that runs reliably and scales.

You have great judgment about quality and experience — you know the difference between "it happened" and "it was excellent," and you hold the line on the latter.

You use AI tools daily to plan, coordinate, and operate more efficiently.

You are located in or willing to relocate to New York, NY.

You are legally authorized to work in the United States.

Nice to have

Experience delivering programs for teens or younger students.

Experience launching new offerings or programs from zero.

Background in education, edtech, accelerators, or cohort-based programs.

Experience managing multi-site or multi-cohort program operations.

If you can take an early offering and turn it into a program that runs reliably, delights families, and scales, this is the founding seat to own it from.

"