Manager, Strategic Projects

About the role

We are seeking a hungry, growth-obsessed operator and leader to help drive the next chapter of Paraform's growth while building their team around them. In this role, you will own a book of business end-to-end, building deep relationships with founders and executives, running structured intake calls, pushing back on comp and requirements when the data supports it, and driving hires with urgency and precision. You will immediately begin thinking and working to grow and optimize your vertical, becoming the quality layer that translates complex role requirements into sharp recruiter briefs that ensure only the strongest candidates reach hiring managers. This position is more than a team lead role; you will help drive a vertical - expanding marketplace density, deploying incentives strategically, refining our delivery motion, and building toward P&L ownership as Paraform scales. You will shape how Paraform grows by feeding customer insight back across the business and partnering with sales, supply, product, and engineering to influence platform evolution at scale. If you are motivated by revenue ownership, energized by ambiguity, excited to work with an exceptional team, and want to build something that matters, this is the role for you.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Own a book of business end-to-end, building deep relationships with founders and executives, running structured intake calls, pushing back on comp and requirements when the data supports it, and driving hires with urgency and precision.
• Be the quality layer by deeply understanding each role, translating that into sharp recruiter briefs, and ensuring only the strongest candidates reach hiring managers, with your judgment serving as the bar.
• Leverage Paraform's recruiter marketplace by mobilizing recruiters, calibrating them in real time, and holding a high standard for quality and speed.
• Drive a vertical by driving marketplace density, deploying incentives strategically, and building toward target hires and revenue within your vertical while working with partners across the business (e.g., Sales, Supply, Marketing) to unlock growth and efficiencies.
• Coach and develop a team of SPLs, starting with 1-3 direct reports and growing to ~6-8+, with your vertical and team continuing to expand as you drive its growth.
• Set the standard for delivery excellence by driving execution quality across your team's engagements through coaching, live calibration, and direct feedback.
• Shape how Paraform grows by feeding customer insight back across the business and partnering with sales, supply, product, and engineering to influence how the platform evolves at scale.
• Build toward P&L ownership as verticals mature, taking on increasing commercial responsibility including role targets, hiring goals, incentive deployment across the business, and more.
• Own a book of business end-to-end while balancing multiple strategic initiatives and competing priorities with exceptional judgment.
• Establish clear playbooks and repeatable processes that enable scalable growth within your vertical and across the marketplace.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to align go-to-market motion, ensuring that demand creation and supply-side execution are tightly integrated.
• Identify and test new incentives and marketplace mechanisms that improve recruiter performance and hiring outcomes.
• Translate complex hiring needs into precise talent acquisition strategies that align with customer intent and market realities.
• Monitor and communicate performance metrics, using data to drive continuous improvement in both quality and speed.

Requirements

• 4-7 years of experience, with a foundation in both problem-solving (e.g., consulting / MBB) and growth/revenue-focused operator roles (e.g., category management, partnerships, new verticals, GM).
• Prior experience managing a multi-headcount team where you have coached and held people accountable to outcomes.
• Track record of owning customer relationships and driving revenue, demonstrated through selling to or managing relationships with founders, CXOs, or senior operators.
• Comfortable with performance-based comp and motivated by a target, not intimidated by it, and eager to grow your own slice of the business.
• Exceptional 80/20 instincts, knowing where to spend your time and not losing the thread across competing priorities.
• Resourceful and creative, having built things without a full toolkit, moved fast under ambiguity, and found fixes when the playbook did not exist.
• Resilient and comfortable with ambiguity, thriving when things are not fully figured out and able to hold multiple threads without dropping them.
• Caring, high-ownership leadership style, setting a high bar and investing in the people around you.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication.
• Bonus points for start-up and/or marketplace experience, such as operations, S&O, or account management at a company like Lyft.

Practical notes

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