Enterprise Implementation Specialist

Who We Are

At Kahuna, we help organizations unlock workforce potential through advanced skills management technology. Our enterprise SaaS platform enables organizations across healthcare, energy, manufacturing, and other complex industries to gain clear visibility into workforce capabilities, align skills to business needs, and drive operational excellence.

Our Customer Success organization plays a critical role in delivering measurable outcomes by ensuring customers achieve rapid time to value during implementation, in partnership with Customer Success teams who drive sustained value through adoption and expansion.

Role Overview

As an Enterprise Implementation Specialist, you are the primary project manager, delivery owner and day-to-day leader for complex, multi-site enterprise implementations of Kahuna’s Skills Management platform.

You own the implementation lifecycle end-to-end, from Sales handoff through go-live, including project planning, solution design, data migration, integrations, testing, deployment, and readiness. You coordinate all customer and internal stakeholders, drive delivery governance, and ensure the implementation remains on scope, on schedule, and on track for success.

You partner closely with a Customer Success Manager (CSM) who assumes ownership post go-live for adoption, optimization, renewals, and long-term outcomes. You ensure a clean, well-managed transition into Customer Success at the conclusion of onboarding.

This role is highly cross-functional, customer-facing, and execution-driven, requiring strong technical acumen, project leadership skills, and the ability to navigate complex enterprise environments.

Requirements

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Onboarding & Implementation Leadership

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of large-scale, multi-site enterprise implementations from kickoff through go-live, serving as the primary owner for execution and outcomes during onboarding.

• Own all project planning, including scope, timelines, milestones, dependencies, and risk management across complex enterprise environments.

• Serve as the single point of coordination for customer-side stakeholders during implementation, ensuring clear communication, decision-making, and accountability.

• Drive consistent implementation cadence through structured governance, recurring status reviews, and executive-level visibility as needed.

• Maintain structured documentation, agendas, follow-up notes, project plans and decision logs.

• Leverage AI tools to accelerate project documentation, status reporting, meeting summaries, and risk tracking, while applying independent judgment and ensuring the accuracy of all customer-facing output.

• Proactively identify delivery risks, scope changes, and dependencies, escalating appropriately and driving resolution to keep implementations on track.

• Apply Kahuna’s standardized implementation methodology, templates, and governance processes to drive predictable, high-quality delivery.

Solution Design & Governance

• Own and lead solution design activities, translating customer business requirements into scalable, supportable configurations of Kahuna’s platform.

• Facilitate solution design workshops to align stakeholders on workflows, data models, integrations, and deployment approach.

• Author, maintain, and drive accountability for the Solution Design Document, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and alignment with implementation scope.

• Use AI-assisted tools to synthesize requirements, draft solution design artifacts, and support data mapping and validation, reviewing all outputs for technical accuracy and alignment with the customer’s environment.

• Collaborate with the assigned CSM to ensure solution design aligns with long-term adoption and organizational goals.

• Participate in Kahuna’s Solution Design Board for governance, validation, and quality assurance.

Integration & Data Management

• Own and lead all integration activities during implementation, including planning, coordination, execution, and stabilization.

• Serve as the primary point of accountability for integrations with enterprise systems such as HRIS, LMS, ERP, and other upstream or downstream platforms.

• Define integration approach and sequencing, including SSO, API-based integrations, and file-based data exchanges (e.g., SFTP).

• Coordinate customer-side technical stakeholders, vendors, and internal engineering resources to ensure integrations are delivered on time and within scope.

• Oversee secure data imports and exports, conduct validation and reconciliation checks, and ensure data accuracy and system interoperability prior to go-live.

• Identify and manage integration risks, blockers, and dependencies, escalating as needed to maintain project velocity.

Testing, Deployment & Go-Live Support

• Own and manage all testing and deployment activities, including UAT planning, execution, and resolution of defects or gaps.

• Define and drive go-live readiness criteria, ensuring required data, integrations, configurations, and user enablement are complete prior to production deployment.

• Lead go-live planning and execution, coordinating Kahuna Product, Engineering, Support, and the customer’s project team to ensure a seamless deployment.

• Validate successful deployment against agreed implementation outcomes and formally transition the customer to Customer Success ownership following go-live.

Change Management & Customer Enablement

• Partner with customer leaders to design and execute onboarding-focused change management strategies that support successful implementation and go-live readiness.

• Develop implementation-phase communication, training, and rollout plans to prepare stakeholders, administrators, and end users for initial deployment.

• Provide best practices and guidance on competency management, workforce development workflows, and operational readiness during onboarding.

• Support customers in establishing foundational processes and governance needed for sustained adoption under Customer Success ownership post go-live.

Value Realization & Continuous Improvement

• Define and track implementation success metrics, including time to value, milestone attainment, and initial adoption indicators during onboarding.

• Ensure implementation outcomes align to the agreed success criteria established during kickoff and solution design.

• Identify opportunities to improve implementation efficiency, repeatability, and customer experience, contributing to standardized delivery practices and templates.

• Partner with Customer Success and Product teams to share insights from implementations and signal potential expansion or optimization opportunities following go-live.

Implementation Advocacy & Stakeholder Partnership

• Advocate for customer needs and delivery requirements during the implementation phase, ensuring commitments, timelines, and scope are executed as agreed.

• Serve as a trusted point of contact for customer stakeholders throughout onboarding, facilitating decision-making and issue resolution.

• Represent implementation feedback, risks, and dependencies internally to ensure timely support and resolution.

• Partner with Customer Success Managers to ensure a smooth transition from implementation to post-go-live ownership.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Coordinate closely with Sales during the handoff to confirm scope, assumptions, success criteria, and contractual alignment prior to kickoff.

• Work closely with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Customer Success to ensure enterprise implementations are delivered on time, within scope, and aligned to customer expectations.

• Collaborate with Engineering and Product teams to resolve technical issues, support integrations, and incorporate implementation learnings into platform improvements.

• Maintain clear role boundaries by owning implementation execution while Customer Success Managers own post-go-live adoption, value realization, renewals, and expansion.

Continuous Improvement & Delivery Excellence

• Contribute to the evolution of Kahuna’s implementation methodology, playbooks, templates, and governance standards.

• Identify opportunities to increase delivery efficiency, accelerate timelines, and improve customer experience.

• Share insights from implementations that support product enhancements, customer success strategy, and future services offerings.

Requirements & Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience leading enterprise SaaS implementations, complex technology deployments, or large-scale customer onboarding programs.
• Proven ability to own and deliver multi-site, multi-stakeholder implementations with competing priorities, dependencies, and timelines.
• Demonstrated experience serving as the primary execution owner or project manager for customer-facing delivery initiatives.
• Strong understanding of enterprise organizational structures and how workforce, learning, or operational systems are deployed and governed.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise integrations and data flows, including HRIS, LMS, ERP, or related systems, using APIs, SSO, and file-based transfers (e.g., SFTP).
• Ability to engage and lead conversations with both technical teams and senior business stakeholders with clarity and confidence.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience documenting requirements, solution designs, and implementation plans.
• Highly organized and execution-oriented, with a bias toward ownership, follow-through, and delivery accountability.
• Experience leading implementations for organizations with 5,000+ employees or complex multi-site environments.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as an AI-augmented Implementation Specialist, using AI tools to accelerate project planning, requirements gathering, documentation, and data validation, while maintaining accuracy and editorial quality on all customer-facing deliverables and adhering to data security and customer confidentiality standards.
• Comfortable treating AI-generated drafts, project plans, configurations, and data analyses as a starting point rather than a finished answer, applying independent judgment and technical validation to adapt them to customer environments that don’t fit a template.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience implementing SaaS solutions in complex or regulated industries such as Healthcare, Energy, Manufacturing, or Field Services.
• Familiarity with enterprise HR and learning ecosystems, including platforms such as Workday, SAP, Infor, Cornerstone, Relias, or Docebo.
• Experience working with large data sets, migrations, and validation processes across multiple systems.
• Demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders at the Director, VP, or executive level during transformation initiatives.
• Formal training or certification in project or change management (e.g., PMP, Agile, Prosci) is a plus, but not required.

Benefits

Why Join Kahuna?

• Impactful Work - Drive enterprise-level workforce transformation and skills strategy for global organizations.

• Collaborative Culture - Work with passionate professionals committed to innovation, transparency, and customer success.

• Professional Growth - Build deep expertise in SaaS, large-scale implementations, governance, and workforce analytics.

About Kahuna

Founded in 2018, Kahuna is a leading provider of skills management software that helps organizations optimize workforce development. We believe in deep collaboration with our employees, customers, and partners, fostering innovation and delivering software solutions that drive measurable impact.

Join us and help shape the future of workforce skills management at Kahuna. If you have the technical expertise, business acumen, and a customer-focused mentality, we encourage you to apply.