Product Deployment Lead

About Ascend

Backed by private equity from people-focused Alpine Investors, Ascend is building a dynamic platform for regional accounting firms that enables them to stay independent while accessing the resources of a Top 25 firm to help them grow. Ascend provides access to growth capital, robust talent acquisition and training, leading quality management resources, best-of-breed technology, AI tools, an offshore captive, shared back-office services, a catalytic leadership system, and modernized equity incentives so that firms can surmount today's industry challenges to reach their full potential. For more information, visit ascendtogether.com.

About Alpine Investors

Alpine Investors is a people-driven private equity firm that is committed to building great companies by working with, learning from, and developing exceptional people. Alpine prides itself on fostering cultures where people value empowerment, diversity, fairness, integrity, and intellectual honesty. Founded in 2001, Alpine specializes in investments in companies in the software and services industries. Alpine has over $15 billion in AUM and has offices in San Francisco, New York, and Salt Lake City.

For more information on the firm, visit www.alpineinvestors.com

Position Summary

Reporting to the Product Deployment Manager, the Product Deployment Lead will be the senior, hands-on member of Ascend's Product Deployment team, driving adoption of Ascend's products across our partner firms. You will continue the deployment work at the core of the team, partnering directly with firms to roll out new products and features and supporting their ongoing use, while taking on the change management and leadership-level work that helps firms reach business goals such as the efficiency gained from product adoption. You will engage partner firm leaders, including CEOs and CGOs, to explain the business goals behind each deployment and work through questions on timing and change, make sound judgment calls on deployment decisions, and contribute to the cross-functional initiatives and process improvements that shape how Ascend deploys product. Your impact will be measured by product adoption, partner firm sentiment, and firms' progress toward their business-defined timelines and goals.

In this role, you will:

• Hands-On Product Deployment: Lead and execute product and feature deployments with partner firms, from planning through release and adoption, with a focus on releasing quickly and iteratively. Support partner firms' day-to-day use of the product and stay grounded in product details.
• Change Management & Adoption: Own the change management approach for your deployments, helping firms adopt new tools and ways of working in service of their business goals. Make sound judgment calls on change management and deployment decisions, and recommend pivots when outcomes call for them.
• Partner Firm Leadership Engagement: Build trusted relationships with leaders at our partner firms, including CEOs and CGOs. Explain the business goals behind deployments and address questions on goals, timing, efficiency, and change directly, rather than escalating them.
• Product Expertise & Enablement: Become a subject matter expert on our products. Create and deliver effective training materials, support testing and validation of new features before release, and communicate release and roadmap updates to partner firms and partner services teams.
• Process Documentation & Evolution: Contribute to our deployment process documentation and playbooks, and help evolve our processes as the team, the product, and the number of partner firms grow.
• Cross-Functional Partnership & Product Input: Partner with product managers, engineers, and partner services teams on cross-functional initiatives. Bring the partner firm perspective into product decisions and manage a strong feedback loop so firms see their feedback actioned.
• Senior Resource to the Deployment Team: Work alongside the Product Deployment Manager and the deployment team as a senior sounding board on deployment and change management decisions, taking on process and cross-functional work that currently routes through team leadership.
• Metrics & Outcomes: Define, monitor, and report on leading and lagging product adoption metrics aligned with desired outcomes and clearly communicate results to Ascend leadership.

Qualifications:

• 4+ years of experience deploying, implementing, or rolling out software products, with a track record of owning launches end to end and driving adoption
• Demonstrated change management experience, helping organizations adopt new tools and workflows in support of defined business goals
• Experience communicating with senior leaders, such as CEOs and executives, with the credibility to explain business goals and work through objections on timing, efficiency, and change
• Sound judgment on deployment and product decisions, weighing firm needs, product details, and business objectives
• Hands-on and grounded in product details; stays close to execution rather than relying on communication alone
• Experience partnering cross-functionally with product, engineering, and operations teams, and contributing to process documentation and process improvement
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex AI concepts to non-technical stakeholders. Familiarity with accounting or tax workflows and experience with AI-powered tools are preferred
• Remote role based in the U.S. or Canada, with in-person attendance at quarterly company gatherings

What You Can Count On:

We live by our values:

Own it. We seize growth opportunities with the passion, speed and accountability of an entrepreneur.

Serve whole-heartedly. We love our people and serve them with positivity and kindness.

Be excellent. We set a high bar because our mission matters.

Win together. We stay in sync, achieve as a team and celebrate each other.

Bring the sunshine. We have fun and bring enthusiasm to make the journey joyful.

At Ascend, we provide a fair and equal employment opportunity for all candidates regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, marital status, disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. Ascend hires and promotes individuals solely based on qualifications for the position to be filled and business needs.