Senior Program Manager - Talent Acquisition Programs

SHIELD AI is seeking a Senior Program Manager to lead strategic Talent Acquisition (TA) program delivery and continuous improvement, along with priority People Experience (PX) initiatives. This role blends program management, recruiting operations, process optimization, and change management to strengthen end-to-end hiring and improve experiences for candidates and hiring managers.

Key Responsibilities

• Plan, coordinate, execute, and launch complex TA programs and cross-functional PX initiatives, including recruiting process optimization, interviewer enablement, hiring capacity planning, candidate experience, recruiting technology implementations, and talent-program rollouts.
• Collaborate with TA and PX leaders to define program scope, objectives, milestones, timelines, risks, dependencies, resources, and success measures.
• Convert strategic hiring priorities into actionable roadmaps, workstreams, implementation plans, and sustainable operating models.
• Maintain integrated program plans and operating rhythms, monitor progress, and proactively manage risks, issues, dependencies, and decisions.
• Drive alignment and accountability across recruiters, coordinators, sourcers, hiring managers, interviewers, systems teams, and other partners to deliver milestones and intended outcomes.
• Ensure programs transition from implementation to sustainable business-as-usual operations, including clear ownership, documentation, and performance measures.
• Lead assessment and optimization of priority TA processes across the end-to-end recruiting lifecycle, including workforce demand intake through preboarding and recruiting operations.
• Map current-state processes and design future-state workflows to improve speed, quality, consistency, compliance, candidate experience, hiring-manager experience, and operational effectiveness.
• Identify process gaps, bottlenecks, redundancies, manual work, inconsistent practices, and unclear ownership, then determine root causes and develop scalable solutions.
• Partner with TA leaders and subject-matter experts to clarify roles, decision rights, handoffs, service expectations, escalation paths, and operating mechanisms.
• Develop and implement standardized playbooks, SOPs, templates, toolkits, and governance practices for consistent execution across recruiting teams and hiring stakeholders.
• Work with PX Systems and other stakeholders to improve ATS workflows, reporting, integrations, automation, and effective use of recruiting technology.
• Embed continuous improvement into TA programs using operational data, stakeholder feedback, candidate insights, and lessons learned.
• Lead change management strategies that support successful adoption and long-term sustainability of new TA programs, systems, tools, and processes, including stakeholder impact assessment and readiness plans.
• Track adoption, stakeholder readiness, and effectiveness, then adjust implementation plans to improve future initiatives.
• Ensure redesigned processes include supporting documentation, training materials, communications, ownership, and reinforcement mechanisms.
• Build trusted relationships across Talent Acquisition, PX, Finance, Legal, IT, business leadership, and hiring teams, facilitating alignment, decision-making, and issue resolution.
• Facilitate working sessions to identify root causes, evaluate options and tradeoffs, and align stakeholders on practical solutions.
• Escalate risks, tradeoffs, and decisions appropriately, providing clear recommendations for timely resolution.
• Deliver executive-ready communications on program status, recruiting process performance, risks, outcomes, and recommendations.
• Establish governance models, operating rhythms, and reporting mechanisms; maintain program artifacts such as project plans, process maps, action plans, decision logs, risk registers, and operating documentation.
• Use quantitative and qualitative data to identify opportunities, inform recommendations, and measure outcomes.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, Industrial Engineering, Operations, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience leading complex programs, process improvements, transformations, or organizational change within Talent Acquisition, HR, People Operations, Operations, or a related environment.
• Demonstrated success managing cross-functional initiatives with multiple stakeholders and workstreams in a high-growth or similarly dynamic organization.
• Strong program and project management skills, including planning, governance, risk and dependency management, execution, and performance measurement.
• Experience supporting Talent Acquisition programs with a working understanding of the end-to-end recruiting lifecycle and the needs of candidates, recruiters, and hiring teams.
• Experience assessing and redesigning end-to-end processes, identifying root causes, clarifying roles and handoffs, and implementing scalable solutions, frameworks, playbooks, or SOPs.
• Hands-on change management experience, including stakeholder analysis, communications, training, enablement, adoption, and reinforcement.
• Ability to use recruiting, operational, survey, adoption, and other quantitative and qualitative data to guide decisions and measure impact.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, analytical, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to bring structure to ambiguity and influence outcomes without direct authority.

Technologies

• ATS
• Recruiting technology
• PX Systems

Location

San Diego, CA (onsite)

Compensation

USD 170,000 - 245,000 per year

Benefits

• Pay within range listed plus Bonus, Benefits, and Equity.
• Temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment).