Senior Director, Program Operations

Company Introduction WorldStrides is the global leader in educational travel and experiential learning. The company was founded in 1967 to provide middle school travel programs to Washington, D.C. and has grown to provide a wide range of programs for more than half a million students annually to over 100 countries around the world. WorldStrides offers experiential learning programs in educational travel, performing arts, language immersion, career exploration, service-learning, study abroad, and sports. Each of these experiences helps students to see beyond the classroom and to see the world – and themselves – in new ways. Job Description : As a collaborative and customer-centered leader, this role builds strong partnerships, aligns diverse stakeholders around a shared vision, and drives the design, innovation, and continuous improvement of a nationwide portfolio of educational programs. Working across the organization, the position leads strategic initiatives that deliver exceptional educational experiences and a consistent standard of quality, safety, and satisfaction. This role partners closely with adjacent functional areas — including Sales, Marketing, Product, Finance, Technology/IT, and HR — to reduce friction points across the customer journey and create meaningful outcomes for our customers, including students, families, academic partners, and staff. This role leads and helps shape the Program Operations organization, with the opportunity to build and evolve the team structure to support the business's next phase of growth. The current organization requires thoughtful redesign and right-sizing — driven by the need to align staffing with current business volume, not by performance — and this role will play a central part in building toward renewed growth. This role is accountable for the end-to-end delivery of complex educational programs, ensuring operational excellence through effective planning, execution, and cost governance. This role is accountable for a cost-of-sales budget of approximately $30M and is measured on a combination of participant satisfaction (NPS), quality and safety standards, and gross margin management. The position champions process optimization and change management while maintaining the highest standards of quality, safety, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. This role carries responsibility for participant welfare and safety at all times during program delivery, including off-hours on-call responsibility. The role requires full personal availability and engagement during the peak delivery season (June 1 – July 31), including extensive travel and time away from home; candidates should weigh this expectation carefully against personal and family commitments during the summer months. Responsibilities: Provide strategic leadership for a nationwide portfolio of educational programs by developing and executing vision, priorities, and operational strategies that advance operational excellence goals, educational quality, and participant outcomes. Lead, develop, and inspire a high-performing Program Operations team — building new capabilities where needed while strengthening and stabilizing existing team structures. This role will have real latitude to help define and build the team's future structure rather than inherit a fixed one. Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement. Oversee the end-to-end planning, execution, and evaluation of educational programs, ensuring excellence in curriculum implementation, staffing, logistics, materials, housing, training, communications, site operations, and overall program delivery. Partner with cross-functional leaders across Sales, Marketing, Product, Finance, Technology/IT, and HR to align organizational priorities and implement innovative solutions that enhance operational effectiveness, scalability, and the participant experience, while advancing a culture of teamwork, accountability, and shared success. Bring a strategic, business-minded lens to discussions with functional area leaders during program development — weighing cost, feasibility, timeline, and quality against long-term organizational priorities, and shaping decisions that support both the customer experience and business goals. Lead strategic operational improvement initiatives across the portfolio, optimizing operational systems and workflows — including identifying opportunities for automation and AI-enabled process improvement — to enhance scalability and participant outcomes while supporting change adoption. Monitor program performance through enrollment trends, financial results, operational metrics, quality standards, and key performance indicators; proactively identify risks and opportunities, implement corrective actions, and ensure continuous improvement. Ensure programs consistently achieve or exceed organizational goals for participant satisfaction, educational quality, customer service, and Net Promoter Score (NPS) while maintaining safe, engaging, and exceptional learning experiences. Direct workforce planning, recruitment, hiring, onboarding, training, and performance management for full-time and seasonal staff to ensure organizational readiness and operational excellence. Provide financial stewardship and P&L oversight for the cost-of-sales and operating budget through strategic planning, forecasting, contract administration, resource allocation, and fiscal governance to optimize profitability. Ensure all programs are delivered safely, on schedule, within budget, and in compliance with contractual commitments, organizational standards, and established operational objectives. Establish clear performance expectations, accountability measures, and operational governance to ensure departmental goals, timelines, quality standards, and service commitments are consistently achieved. Serve as the senior operational leader during complex situation