Senior Program Manager - Talent Acquisition Programs

SHIELD AI is seeking a Senior Program Manager to lead Talent Acquisition (TA) programs and priority People Experience (PX) initiatives in San Diego, CA (onsite). This role focuses on delivering, optimizing, and improving end-to-end hiring experiences through strong program management, recruiting operations, process design, and change management.

You will partner across Talent Acquisition, PX, and key stakeholders to turn strategic hiring priorities into practical roadmaps, scalable workflows, and operating models. You will also drive continuous improvement using operational data and stakeholder feedback, supporting long-term adoption of new processes, systems, and tools.

What you’ll do

• 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.
• Work with TA and PX leaders to define program scope, objectives, milestones, timelines, risks, dependencies, resources, and success measures.
• Translate 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 achieve milestones and intended outcomes.
• Ensure smooth transition from implementation to business-as-usual operations with clear ownership, documentation, and performance measures.
• Lead end-to-end assessment and optimization of priority TA processes across the recruiting lifecycle, including workforce demand intake, requisition launch, sourcing, screening, interviewing, selection, offer management, preboarding, and recruiting operations.
• Map current-state processes and design future-state workflows that improve speed, quality, consistency, compliance, candidate experience, hiring-manager experience, and operational effectiveness.
• Identify 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 to support consistent execution.
• Partner with PX Systems and 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 adoption and long-term sustainability of TA programs, systems, tools, and processes.
• Create communication, engagement, training, enablement, and reinforcement plans based on stakeholder impact and organizational readiness.
• Track adoption, readiness, and effectiveness, then use findings to adjust implementation plans and improve future initiatives.
• Build trusted relationships across Talent Acquisition, PX, Finance, Legal, IT, business leadership, and hiring teams.
• Facilitate stakeholder alignment, decision-making, process design, and issue resolution across multiple workstreams.
• Deliver concise, executive-ready updates on program status, recruiting process performance, risks, outcomes, and recommendations.
• Establish governance models, operating rhythms, and reporting mechanisms, and maintain program artifacts such as project plans, process maps, decision logs, risk registers, and operating documentation.

What you bring

• 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.
• Proven ability to manage cross-functional initiatives with multiple stakeholders and workstreams in a high-growth or dynamic organization.
• Strong program and project management skills, including planning, governance, risk and dependency management, execution, and performance measurement.
• Experience supporting Talent Acquisition programs and an understanding of the end-to-end recruiting lifecycle and 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 you’ll work with

• ATS
• Recruiting technology
• PX Systems

Compensation & benefits

• Salary range: USD 170,000 - 245,000 per year
• Bonus + Benefits + Equity (within the stated compensation structure)
• Temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)