People Operations Program Manager

Join Hadrian, a fast-growing startup in the defense industry, as a People Operations Program Manager. In this role, you will identify process breakdowns, build smarter workflows, and drive strategic programs that shape the employee experience. You will work closely with various teams, including People Partners, Recruiting, Engineering, and Finance, to align People programs with business needs. The position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including 100% coverage of platinum medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans, a 401k, a relocation stipend, and a flexible vacation policy.

• Identifying and addressing process breakdowns, building smarter workflows, and driving strategic programs to enhance the employee experience.
• Leading the end-to-end redesign of manual, repetitive, or high-friction processes across the employee lifecycle, coordinating stakeholders, and driving implementation of improvements.
• Architecting and implementing a tiered People support model, ensuring employees receive the appropriate level of support, and monitoring operational performance.
• You are a strong project manager, a clear thinker, and a builder - and you thrive when the scope is broad and the work is meaningful
• High adaptability: you're energized by a shifting scope, not unsettled by it, and you bring structure to ambiguous situations rather than waiting for it to be handed to you
• Comfortable with data - you can pull a report, interpret what it's telling you, and translate it into a recommendation that a business leader can act on
• Strong project management fundamentals: you work from a plan, communicate proactively, manage dependencies, and don't let things fall through the cracks
• 5+ years of experience in People operations, HR consulting, program management, or a closely related field, with a track record of owning complex, cross-functional initiatives from scoping through delivery
• Demonstrated experience with process improvement and operational design - you've looked at broken or inefficient workflows and built better ones, ideally with technology or automation as part of the solution
• Familiarity with AI tools and automation platforms (Claude, Zapier, Workato, or similar) and genuine curiosity about how they can be applied to People operations
• You've worked in a high-growth, operationally intense environment—startup, manufacturing, defense, or similar—where you had to build programs while the business was moving at full speed
• You have hands-on experience with Jira Service Management or a comparable service management platform, and you understand how to use it as a strategic operational tool rather than just a ticketing system
• You've led an AI or automation implementation in a People or operations context - not just recommended it, but scoped it, rolled it out, and measured the impact
• You're an exceptional communicator who can write a crisp project brief for the CHRO and a clear how-to guide for a new hire on the factory floor—and you know the difference between the two
• You see the People function as a lever for business performance, not a support function that reacts to requests