Senior Program Manager, AI Startups

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Dive in and do the best work of your career rney alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here. We value winning together—while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world.

Behind every great startup program is a well-oiled operations machine. As our Startup Senior Program Manager, you'll be the backbone of the Digital Ocean Startup Ecosystem—building the systems, processes, and data infrastructure that enable us to scale efficiently while delivering an exceptional experience to founders.

This role combines operational excellence with strategic thinking. You'll own the end-to-end startup application process, build automations to eliminate manual work, and create the data infrastructure that drives decision-making. You’ll take a leadership role on the team, proposing and developing new systems to improve efficiency and working cross-functionally across the organization. If you love building systems, optimizing processes, and turning chaos into clarity, this is your role.

• Own the end-to-end startup application process—from submission through approval, onboarding, and credit provisioning
• Manage application review workflows, approval criteria, and cross-functional handoffs with Sales
• Monitor application pipeline health: volume, approval rates, time-to-decision, and bottlenecks
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to streamline and automate the application process
• Identify opportunities for automation using tools like Zapier, n8n, or custom integrations
• Reduce manual work through process optimization, smart forms, and workflow automation
• Collaborate with Engineering and IT to implement technical solutions for application management

• Own operational processes and procedures for the entire team—document workflows, create SOPs, and maintain operational playbooks
• Define and manage cross-functional interlocks with Sales, Marketing, Support, Finance, Legal, and Product teams
• Establish clear escalation paths, approval workflows, and decision-making frameworks
• Identify process gaps and implement solutions to improve team efficiency and member experience
• Manage program operations calendar including application cycles, credit renewals, and key milestones
• Own vendor relationships for operational tools and platforms
• Lead operational planning for program launches, policy changes, and scaling initiatives

• Own data and analytics for the Startup team—be the single source of truth for all startup metrics
• Build and maintain dashboards in Looker or similar platforms tracking key program KPIs
• Define and track metrics including: application volume, approval rates, credit utilization, member retention, program ROI
• Drive creation of executive dashboards for leadership visibility into program performance
• Contribute data, insights, and analysis for Weekly Business Reviews (WBRs) and QBRs
• Partner with Data Analytics team to ensure data integrity, proper instrumentation, and reporting accuracy
• Conduct ad-hoc analysis to answer business questions and inform strategic decisions
• Translate data into actionable insights and recommendations for program improvements

• Serve as the operational point of contact for startup credit package issues, application questions, and account problems (working with the Community Manager)
• Triage and resolve member issues related to credits, billing, account access, and program eligibility
• Work closely with Sales and the Community Manager to resolve complex customer issues quickly
• Build and maintain internal knowledge base for common issues and resolutions
• Escalate systemic issues to Product, Engineering, or Leadership with recommendations
• Track issue trends and develop proactive solutions to…