Senior Associate, Program Management (Special Projects & Pilots)

ABOUT US

At RADAR, we're transforming the way the world thinks about physical retail. RADAR has raised over $104M from top investors, retailers, and strategics and works with some of the world's retail brands including American Eagle and Gap. We’re building the future of in-store experience where every product and every person can be precisely located in real time.

Our platform combines RFID and AI to unlock hyper-accurate product visibility and automation at scale. From real-time inventory tracking to seamless checkout experiences, our technology empowers some of the world’s largest retailers to streamline operations, reduce loss, and elevate both employee and customer experiences.

We’re a fast-growing, mission-driven startup where bold ideas, collaboration, and impact are at the core of everything we do. Join us as we reshape the physical world with digital precision, starting with retail and expanding far beyond!

OUR VALUES

Mission-Driven: We're transforming retail with cutting-edge technology and building something that truly matters.

Collaborative Team: We thrive on curiosity, shared goals, and solving complex problems together.

High Impact: You’ll make meaningful contributions from day one and help shape the future of our product and company.

Clear Communication: We value honesty, humility, and respectful dialogue—everyone’s voice matters.

Balanced Lives: We work hard, but not at the expense of well-being. We respect time, boundaries, and life outside of work.

Diverse Perspectives: We believe better ideas come from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints.

Empathy-Driven Design: We build with deep respect for our end users, listening closely to their feedback and needs.

ABOUT THE JOB

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.

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.

ABOUT YOU

Required:

• 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)

Preferred:

• 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.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

In your first 30 days, you will:

• Learn RADAR's pilot deployment workflows, stakeholders, tools, and readiness dependencies.
• Audit the current operational toolset - what's being used, what's inconsistent, and where the biggest friction points are.
• Review recent pilot deployments to understand execution gaps and recurring blockers.
• Establish a standard pilot tracker and operating cadence for active and upcoming pilots.

In your first 60 days, you will:

• Take full ownership of pilot readiness reviews, operating rhythms, and execution coordination.
• Implement standardized pilot readiness gates and documentation across all stakeholders.
• Strengthen vendor coordination and clarify special project execution expectations.
• Launch a consistent pilot closeout and retrospective process.

In your first 90 days, you will:

• Deliver measurable improvements across pilot readiness, execution predictability, and reporting quality — with visible progress in dashboard adoption, fewer missed readiness gates, and cleaner leadership updates.
• Publish a pilot program playbook and a special projects operating framework (covering closings, refurbishments, retrofits, and similar programs), each with standardized templates, checklists, vendor protocols, and closeout documentation that teams can pick up and run with.
• Establish a clean handoff model from pilot → potential fleet rollout, ensuring learnings, operational requirements, and scale-readiness inputs are captured and transferred consistently.

At RADAR, your base pay is one part of your total compensation package. The expected base salary range for this position is $90,000-$144,000. Individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors,  including job-related skills, experience and relevant education or training.You will also be eligible to receive other benefits including: equity, comprehensive medical and dental coverage, life and disability benefits, 401k plan,  flexible time off, and paid parental leave. The pay range listed for this position is a good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible base compensation at the time of posting. 

Research has shown that women & underrepresented minorities are more likely to read lists of requirements and consider themselves unqualified if they don't meet every single one. This list represents what we're ideally looking for, but everyone has unique strengths & weaknesses, and we hire for strength & potential, not lack of weakness.

Use of artificial intelligence or a LLM such as ChatGPT during the interview process will be grounds for rejection of your application process.