Program Manager, Strategic Initiatives - NextGear Capital

NextGear Capital, a Cox Automotive company, is hiring a Program Manager, Strategic Initiatives. This role exists to close the gap between strategic decisions made at the senior leadership level and measurable outcomes delivered in the market - building and running the operating infrastructure that keeps four Strategic Focus Areas, the backbone of NextGear Capital's 2027+ strategy, moving in concert across a complex, matrixed organization.
The person in this seat must earn the trust of senior leaders and cross-functional directors, hold working teams accountable without formal authority, surface hard truths early, and protect the organization's focus against the constant pull of competing priorities. They bring structured discipline to ambiguous environments and know when to adapt the plan vs. hold the line.
This is a hybrid role based in Carmel, IN and will require the candidate to come into the office 3+ days as week.
KEY RESPONSIBILITES:

• Maintain a living master roadmap across all four Strategic Focus Areas - tracking initiative owners, milestone sequencing, and cross-functional dependencies in a single, accessible view

• Translate leadership decisions into structured project plans with clear accountabilities, success metrics, and delivery timelines; own the decisions log and trade-off record that preserve the institutional memory of strategic choices
• Design and run the operating rhythm: weekly SFA check-ins, monthly milestone reviews, and quarterly OKR health assessments - maintaining a clear view of what is moving, what is stuck, and what decisions are needed before the next touchpoint

• Facilitate cross-functional alignment sessions and steering committees with senior stakeholders - designing agendas that move groups from divergence to decision, managing dominant voices, and building genuine consent across Product, Technology, Sales, Risk, and Operations

• Serve as a disciplined steward of organizational focus - evaluating new work requests against strategic priorities, facilitating structured trade-off decisions with the SLT, and actively resisting scope creep to keep the organization focused on fewer things done well

• Build and maintain the dependency map across internal teams and Cox Automotive partner integrations - monitoring external timelines that could threaten NGC commitments and identifying blockers before they become crises

QUALIFICIATIONS:

• BS/BA Degree with 6+ years of project or program management experience, preferrably in the financial services, fintech or automotive industry. A candidate may also have a Master's Degree with 4+ years of relevant experience or a Ph.D. with 1+ year of experience. A nondegreed candidate will have 10+ years of relevant experience.
• Floorplanning experience strongly preferred
• PMP or equivalent certification
• Proven track record delivering results through influence rather than authority - driving accountability across senior peers and directors without a direct reporting line, with diplomacy and persistence
• Skilled facilitator of senior leadership alignment sessions - able to design agendas that produce real decisions, manage dominant voices, and build genuine consent rather than surface compliance; strong executive communication skills with proven ability to prepare and present risk summaries and decision briefs to VP and C-suite audiences
• Strong command of OKR frameworks, agile methodologies, and project management tools; able to distinguish between activity-based and outcome-based measurement;
• Comfortable surfacing risks, trade-offs, and inconvenient realities to senior leadership before they become crises - bringing hard truths forward constructively as a trusted advisor, not a critic
• Experience managing delivery dependencies across partner organizations or enterprise business units outside the direct chain of command
• Genuine curiosity about the lending business and ability to develop working knowledge quickly

USD 101,500.00 - 169,100.00 per year
Compensation:
Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $101,500.00 - $169,100.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.
Benefits:
The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company's needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.
Applicants must currently be authorized to work in the United States for any employer without current or future sponsorship.
EOE, including disability/vets