Implementation Manager

About Odyssey:

K-12 education is one of the most consequential determinants of a child’s future — and many families have had limited ability to shape how and where their child learns. Education Savings Account (ESA) programs are changing that. One of the fastest-growing public education initiatives in the U.S., they give states the ability to put education funding directly in the hands of families, who can then choose the learning experiences that best fit their child — from schools and tutors to therapy, curriculum, and technology.

But once these policies are signed into law, states face an enormous operational challenge. They must stand up entirely new programs, manage the secure and compliant flow of public funds, approve and monitor thousands of vendors, support families at scale, and prevent fraud — all while delivering a high-quality user experience.

That’s where Odyssey comes in.

We partner with state agencies to design, launch, and operate ESA and grant programs on their behalf. We provide the technology, program operations, vendor ecosystem, and family experience that make these programs actually work in the real world. Today, we operate across 6 states, and our platform powers programs serving 200,000+ students and over $1B in education funding — and we’re just getting started.

Most recently, we launched the Texas Education Savings Account (EFA) program — the biggest day-one ESA launch in the country — which has already received over 100,000 applications. It’s the kind of moment that captures exactly what we’re building toward: programs that work at scale, from day one, when it matters most.

We’re backed by respected investors, including a16z and Tusk Venture Partners, and we’re building the team that will take us to the next stage.

Odyssey sits at the intersection of GovTech, EdTech, and FinTech. We are a public-sector operator, a technology company, and a program delivery partner all at once. The work we do is civic infrastructure — it determines whether families can access life-changing educational opportunities.

Why This Work Is Different

This is not a traditional SaaS role. There’s no clean playbook.

Every state is a new launch — new policy, new constraints, new stakeholders, new operational model. We’re in the weeds with state partners, shipping while building the plane, and turning ambiguous policy into real systems that families depend on.

If you thrive in highly structured environments, this will feel uncomfortable. If you want ownership, speed, and problems that actually matter, you’ll feel right at home.

The Role
As implementation manager, you will be at the forefront of ensuring that the Odyssey platform is providing quantifiable value to our customers and our users. You will ensure that all implementations run smoothly, efficiently and exceed customer expectations. The implementation manager is the voice and advocate of the customer. Capturing this voice plays an integral role in the success of our product and company strategy. This requires a blend of strategic thinking, problem solving, project scoping and relationship management. This role will report directly into Odyssey’s Head of Implementation, who will be responsible for assigning your customers and helping shape your success criteria. This is a unique opportunity to join an early stage start-up and have a massive impact on Odyssey’s mission of ensuring access to high-quality education for families.

What You’ll Do

The implementation manager will be the day to day point of contact for our existing customers. You will be a trusted advisor to our customers, responsible for leading them through the deployment of Odyssey products. After go-live is achieved, you will remain working with our customers throughout the period of performance. It is critical that you bring back the ground-truth reality of what is happening at each of our deployments and share these learnings with the rest of the company. You will work cross-functionally with our product, engineering, support and leadership functions to ensure that our platform is providing maximum value and to help inform company strategy.

• Deploy Odyssey to our customers; ensuring successful completion of contractual requirements and go-live milestones.

• Become a trusted advisor to our State stakeholders.

• Lead meetings and project plans with State stakeholders to help shape the future of the Odyssey platform.

• Accomplish and exceed agreed upon goals with our customers to ensure renewal of contracts and positive case studies.

• Collaboratively partner with all Odyssey teams (engineering, finance, operations, customer support, and more) to provide value to your portfolio of customers.

• Work with the product team to help understand customer pain points.

• Lead the development and execution of implementation timelines (internally and externally).

• Ensure we’re deploying customers in a scalable, performant way.

About You

• You are a strong leader who can clearly communicate value proposition and vision. Although you will not have direct reports to begin with, you will be responsible for ensuring the broader Odyssey team works effectively together to deploy our platform.

• Organized with strong written and verbal communication skills. You will be responsible for communicating customer plans internally and externally.

• Brings 3+ years of experience in an implementation or customer success role (previously responsible for deployment of actual technology product).

• Experience working in an early stage SaaS startup environment.

• Prior military experience is a plus

• Experience working with government agencies is a plus.

• Strong technical acumen; although you may not write code for a living, you understand how to deploy technical systems and can be a trusted voice to have high-level technical discussions with the customer.

• High degree of empathy; ability to understand the perspective of our customers and end users to allow you to chart the path forward.

• Owner mindset, strong sense of accountability, and creative problem solver; you are constantly working to overcome obstacles in order to push your plan forward; you do not expect somebody else to solve your problems for you.

• A team player with a positive attitude, strong work ethic, and a commitment to continuous improvement.

• Analytical mindset; ability to use SQL and/or advanced excel techniques to investigate data.

Additional Details

• Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.

• We believe that everyone at Odyssey should be compensated fairly. We set our salary bands based on compensation data from hundreds of companies at our stage. The salary range for this role is $130,000 - $160,000 depending on experience, interview performance and location.

• Odyssey benefits include Medical/Dental/Vision plan(s), health services, short term disability, unlimited PTO and more.

Our Commitment to Equal Opportunity Employment:

Odyssey is an equal opportunity employer. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.

Why Odyssey:

Sitting at the intersection of tech, government, and education, Odyssey offers potential applicants an immediate and substantive impact for students and families. Supported by well-known investors and advisors, we are gaining traction quickly with ample opportunity for growth. As our team expands, we are looking for top-tier talent to join our mission in driving the future of education forward. Join us if you believe in the power of education as the single most important investment we can make as Americans today