Director, Implementation Management

Director, Implementation Management

Guild is bridging the gap between education and career opportunity, helping employers offer education, skilling, and career mobility to their employees. The Guild Career Opportunity Platform empowers top companies to help working adults go back to school, with tuition assistance programs that align the corporate business goals with affordable education programs designed for working adults. Guild's curated network of online learning providers and non-profit universities along with one-to-one coaching and support helps each student navigate the worlds of work and school, and grow their careers in the process.

Guild is hiring a Director of Employer Partner Implementation Management (EPIM). In this role you will lead a high-performing team responsible for the seamless delivery of Guild's product suite to employer partners. This role requires a strong balance of strategic leadership, operational excellence, and client-centric execution.

When done well, this team delivers such exceptional implementations that employer partners gain confidence in Guild and expand their partnership. With a unique vantage point across go-to-market, operations, and product delivery, this leader has the opportunity to shape not just how implementations happen today, but how Guild's end-to-end delivery model evolves for the future

As a leader in Guild's Operations team, you will guide the implementation function by fostering team excellence, representing EPIM in cross-functional initiatives, and driving end-to-end solutions that deliver measurable outcomes.

As the Director of Employer Partner Implementation Management, you will:

• Lead and inspire a team of EPIM managers and senior managers, driving a culture of excellence, accountability, and continuous learning.
• Establish and oversee the team's rhythm of business, including strategic planning, goal-setting, team forums, and prioritization to achieve organizational objectives.
• Coach and develop team members, setting and upholding the standard for excellence in implementation delivery and stakeholder engagement.
• Represent EPIM in cross-functional forums and contribute to co-creating end-to-end solutions by partnering with teams such as Product, Employer Partnerships, and Operations to address business challenges and improve outcomes.
• Utilize data and pattern recognition from implementation work to identify gaps, propose solutions, and drive initiatives that improve processes, tools, and outcomes.
• Create and implement metrics and systems that monitor team performance and ensure consistent delivery of high-quality outcomes.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for both client-facing challenges and internal roadblocks, managing up and resetting confidence with senior leaders and stakeholders as needed.
• Lead and oversee the successful delivery of high-impact, complex implementation projects that align with Guild's strategic goals. On an as needed basis, directly lead implementations to help with load balancing or capacity needs.
• Facilitate and drive action from high-quality retrospective sessions, implementing lessons learned to enhance Guild's implementation strategy and capabilities.
• Foster an inclusive and growth-oriented team culture that prioritizes belonging, diversity, and collaboration.
• Champion the continuous evolution of implementation best practices by staying informed on industry trends, operational innovations, and emerging tools, integrating these into Guild's workflows and strategies.
• Own crisis and issue management for the EPIM portfolio, serving as the primary escalation point across the full spectrum of stakeholders from executive sponsors to day-to-day benefits administrators.
• Partner closely with Sales and Employer Partnerships to balance deal momentum with rigorous technical discovery, bringing commercial instincts to decisions about where to move fast and where to slow down for a durable, error-proof solution.
• Maintain deep technical fluency in Guild's implementation methodology and playbooks, using that expertise to coach the team and evolve our standards. [closes Steph's gap]

You are a strong fit for this role if you have:

Skills

• Exceptional leadership and coaching skills, with experience managing high-performing teams.
• Advanced strategic planning and organizational management expertise.
• Proficiency in cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder engagement.
• Data-driven decision-making skills, with a focus on process improvement and innovation.
• Superior communication and influencing skills, particularly in client-facing and escalation scenarios.

Experience

• 5+ years of people and team leadership experience with a proven track record of talent development
• 5+ years in client facing roles, managing decisions and conversations that involve a blend of operational and financial impact
• Demonstrated success in leading cross-functional initiatives and delivering large-scale, complex projects.
• Proven ability to develop and implement metrics and systems to monitor and improve team outcomes.
• Strong track record of building relationships with senior leaders and influencing strategic decisions.
• 5+ years in project management, implementation, or operations leadership roles.

Guild partners with the country's most innovative employers, including Chipotle, Target, Walgreens, JPMorgan Chase, Hilton, Spectrum, PepsiCo, Tyson, and more, to build the talent needed for today and a resilient workforce for tomorrow. Guild helps employers identify, develop, and mobilize internal talent, enabling workers to gain skills for in-demand roles and companies to stay agile.

By connecting employees to real-world learning, coaching, and career support, and providing companies with actionable talent insights, Guild transforms all talent into high-impact contributors and positions companies for long-term, sustainable growth.