Director of Strategy & Operations

The Opportunity

Some people spend years becoming experts at diagnosing problems. The best operators do that — and then they fix them.

We're looking for someone who combines sharp strategic instincts with the hunger to own outcomes end-to-end. At Inspira, you'll work directly with the founders to identify the highest-leverage opportunities across our business, design the solutions, and build them yourself. No handoff. No waiting for someone else to execute. You move, it moves.

The business is at an inflection point. We have strong demand, a proven model, and a global network of counselors helping students get into the world's best schools. What we need now is the operational infrastructure to match our ambition — and the person to build it.

That's this role.

The Work

This is a player-coach role. You'll lead teams and develop people while staying close enough to the work to know when something isn't right — and fix it yourself when it needs to be fixed. We're not looking for someone who manages from a distance. We're looking for someone who sets the standard by living it.

Student-Counselor Matching & Customer Operations

• Own the student-counselor matching process end-to-end — optimizing it for quality, speed, and scale while staying close enough to spot when individual cases go sideways
• Build and iterate on logic-based workflows in HubSpot that reduce manual effort without losing the human judgment that makes matches work
• Instrument the process so performance is visible, measurable, and continuously improvable

Counselor Supply Engine

• Lead the recruitment, onboarding, and quality management of our global counselor network — while personally setting the standards that define what great looks like
• Oversee high-volume hiring pipelines and hold the bar on who makes it in and who doesn't
• Design the infrastructure that lets us scale supply without sacrificing quality — and audit it regularly to make sure it's holding

Customer Escalations & Support

• Lead the escalation team while staying close to the hardest customer situations yourself — you'll know when to delegate and when to step in
• Build the SOPs, protocols, and feedback loops that turn reactive fixes into systemic improvements
• Own the metrics — NPS, CSAT, refund rates — and drive structural changes when the numbers tell you something is broken

Operational Systems & Infrastructure

• Own HubSpot end-to-end: architecture, workflow configuration, automations, data hygiene, and reporting
• Identify what to automate, what to keep high-touch, and build the connective logic between both
• Create documentation and operational infrastructure that scales beyond any single person — including you

Cross-Functional & Strategic Work

• Partner with founders and leaders across Sales and Marketing on new service launches — owning the operational planning and execution, not just the advisory input
• Bring structure to ambiguous problems and a bias toward implementation over deliberation
• Be the person in the room who not only identifies what needs to change but leaves with ownership of making it happen

What We're Looking For

• 5–8 years of experience in strategy, operations, consulting, or a high-growth startup environment — with a track record of moving from diagnosis to execution
• You've built things, not just recommended them — processes, systems, and workflows that actually ran in production
• A natural player-coach: you develop and lead people without losing touch with the details that determine outcomes
• Hands-on CRM experience — HubSpot or comparable — you know what a well-architected workflow looks like and you can build it yourself
• Background in consulting, investment banking, or a strategy role at a fast-scaling company is a strong plus
• Marketplace or service operations experience is a strong plus — counselors, coaches, contractors, or service providers at scale
• The range to go from a founder-level strategy conversation in the morning to getting your hands dirty in a workflow builder in the afternoon
• Deep comfort with ambiguity and a bias toward action over deliberation
• Low ego. High standards. The kind of person who finds the broken thing before anyone else notices it.

Why This, Why Now

• Direct founder access and real decision-making authority from week one
• A business with genuine mission — the students we serve are getting into schools that change their lives
• The kind of operational complexity that sharpens you — and makes your next role easier to get and better to have
• Competitive compensation commensurate with experience
• Health, dental, and vision — base plans 100% employer paid | Flexible PTO | 401(k) with match

What We Look For

• A passion for building meaningful, authentic connections
• A positive, solutions-oriented mindset with a strong sense of ownership
• Curiosity and a desire to learn, experiment, and improve
• Resilience and persistence in the face of challenges
• Enthusiasm that motivates others and adaptability in a fast-changing environment
• High energy, strong follow-through, and a drive to get things done

Why you'll love Inspira

• Amazing people with a great vision and values
• Mission-driven team culture focused on student success
• Your work directly impacts the lives and careers of students across the globe
• Health, dental, and vision insurance, base plans 100% employer paid
• Pre-tax benefits (FSA, DCFSA, HSA, Commuter)
• Flexible paid time off (PTO) and paid holidays
• 401(k) with company match