Program Development Consultant

Overview 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. Scope of Work / Key deliverables The contractor will be responsible for the following: • 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. Note: Contractors maintain control over the means and methods of completing their work, provided they meet all deliverables. Required Qualifications • 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. Preferred Qualifications • 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 Contract Details • Estimated Hours • ~20 hours a week for approximately 6 months, with a defined scope of standing up to 2-3 programs and handing them off. • Must be able to work EST hour • Compensation: $100/hour, rate commensurate with experience • Contractor is responsible for all taxes, insurance, and equipment required to perform services. #LI-BL1