ASU Partnership Project Manager – Independent Contractor (1099)

Part-time: Approximately 20 hours per week
Contract duration: October/November 2026 through April 2027

What we're looking for (role overview):

InStride is currently seeking a highly organized and proactive ASU Partnership Project Manager to join our Academic Partnerships team on a part-time contract basis. With guidance from the VP, Strategic Partnerships, this individual will support the execution of key initiatives related to InStride’s partnership with Arizona State University (ASU).

This role will focus on keeping projects, meetings, stakeholders, documentation, and deliverables organized and moving forward. The ideal candidate is an exceptional project manager who can coordinate across multiple internal and external stakeholders, maintain clear documentation, proactively track action items and deadlines, and ensure commitments are followed through to completion.

Skills we’d love to see you show off:

• Project Management: Create structure around complex, cross-functional work by establishing timelines, tracking deliverables, identifying dependencies, and keeping projects moving toward completion.
• Cross-Functional Coordination: Coordinate effectively across multiple teams and stakeholders, ensuring owners understand expectations, deadlines, dependencies, and next steps.
• Meeting Management and Follow-Through: Prepare for meetings, coordinate agendas and materials, capture decisions and action items, and proactively follow up with owners to ensure commitments are completed.
• Documentation and Organization: Maintain clear, accurate, and accessible project documentation so stakeholders have visibility into decisions, status, responsibilities, and next steps.
• Operational Efficiency: Identify opportunities to enhance workflows and processes, driving improvements that increase productivity and streamline operations.
• Problem Solving in Dynamic Environments: Tackle challenges with a proactive and adaptable approach, thriving in fast-paced, ever-changing contexts.
• Clear Communication: Present project updates and complex information effectively to both internal and external audiences, ensuring alignment and understanding.
• Attention to Detail: Manage multiple priorities, timelines, and stakeholders while maintaining a high degree of accuracy and follow-through.
• Purpose-Driven: Motivated by a mission to create social impact through education, combining business success with meaningful contributions to society.

Who you are (ideal profile):

• You bring 4+ years of experience in project management, program management, operations, consulting, or a similar role involving coordination of complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• You are highly organized and have demonstrated success managing multiple workstreams, deadlines, stakeholders, and deliverables simultaneously.
• You are exceptionally strong at follow-through and proactively ensure action items and commitments don't fall through the cracks.
• You can take a complex or loosely defined initiative and create the structure, documentation, timeline, and accountability needed to move it forward.
• You communicate clearly and professionally and are comfortable working directly with both internal stakeholders and external ASU stakeholders.
• You excel in collaborative environments where multiple teams and perspectives must come together to execute successfully.
• You bring a proactive and adaptable mindset, ready to tackle challenges with resourcefulness and positivity.
• You thrive in dynamic, fast-paced settings, embracing change and ambiguity with ease.
• You have a knack for finding practical solutions and removing operational roadblocks.
• You’re motivated by meaningful work and seek opportunities where your contributions have a lasting impact.
• Experience working in higher education, education technology, or with large university systems is a plus but not required.

How you will create impact (key responsibilities):

• Coordinate ASU Partnership Projects: Manage project plans, timelines, milestones, dependencies, and deliverables for initiatives related to InStride’s partnership with Arizona State University. Ensure project owners have clarity on responsibilities and deadlines and proactively surface risks or blockers that could impact execution.
• Drive Cross-Functional Coordination: Coordinate work across InStride teams and ASU stakeholders to ensure initiatives move forward efficiently. Connect the right stakeholders, clarify ownership and dependencies, and maintain visibility into progress across workstreams.
• Manage Meetings and Follow-Through: Support recurring and project-specific meetings between InStride and ASU by coordinating agendas, gathering materials, documenting key decisions, capturing action items, and ensuring owners follow through on commitments.
• Maintain Project Documentation: Create and maintain organized, accurate documentation for ASU initiatives, including project plans, meeting notes, decision logs, action-item trackers, timelines, and status updates. Leverage platforms such as Asana, Confluence, Salesforce, and other collaboration tools to create transparency and accountability.
• Track Action Items and Deliverables: Maintain a centralized view of outstanding actions, deliverables, owners, and deadlines. Proactively follow up with stakeholders, identify overdue or at-risk items, and escalate blockers when appropriate.
• Provide Project Status Visibility: Develop concise updates that provide internal and external stakeholders with clear visibility into project progress, upcoming milestones, open decisions, risks, and next steps.
• Support Operational Issue Resolution: Help coordinate the resolution of operational issues involving InStride and ASU by documenting the issue, identifying appropriate stakeholders, tracking decisions and next steps, and ensuring items are carried through to resolution.
• Champion Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement: Identify opportunities to improve how ASU-related projects, meetings, documentation, and cross-functional workflows are managed. Implement practical improvements that reduce friction, strengthen accountability, and make execution more efficient.

*The benefits listed within this career page are for full-time positions only and may not apply to this job posting.