AI-Driven Program Manager, People Ops

Highlevel; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 109,000 - 136,000; Full time

Job summary

HighLevel, a remote-first company delivering an AI-powered business operating system, is hiring a Program Manager to help turn People priorities into clear plans, coordinated programs, and strong execution. Reporting to the Chief of Staff in the CPO’s Office, this senior IC supports planning, cross-functional projects, and structure across teams.

The ideal candidate is highly organized, calm under pressure, an excellent listener, and a problem solver who turns ambiguity into executable plans.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant experience in People/HR programs, program management, People Operations, business operations, HR project management, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional programs in a fast-moving organization.
• Strong AI fluency and an interest in building with AI and automation to improve People work.
• Strong program and project management skills with the ability to create structure where the path is not obvious.
• Excellent organization skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities, stakeholders, and dependencies.
• Strong judgment and an understanding of when to move independently versus when subject-matter expertise or leadership input is required.
• Exceptional listening, writing, and communication skills.
• Ability to synthesize complex or incomplete information into clear recommendations and actionable plans.
• Calm, practical problem solving under pressure.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management skills.
• Comfort working across a wide variety of People topics without needing to be the subject-matter expert in every discipline.
• High emotional intelligence and discretion when working with sensitive employee or business matters.
• A builder mindset with an interest in improving systems, processes, and ways of working.
• Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to adjust quickly when business priorities change.

Responsibilities

• People Planning & Operating Rhythm: Support annual and quarterly People planning cycles, including priorities, timelines, dependencies, milestones, and follow-through.
• Leverage AI to build and maintain planning tools, trackers, decision logs, and operating mechanisms that give People leaders visibility into progress and risk.
• Coordinate cross-functional inputs for workforce planning, budgeting, organizational planning, and other recurring People processes.
• Prepare clear updates, recommendations, and materials for People leadership and executive discussions.
• Drive follow-through on decisions, actions, and commitments across People workstreams.
• Continuously improve how the People organization plans, tracks, and executes its priorities.
• Cross-Functional Special Projects: Lead cross-functional initiatives from initial scoping through implementation, particularly where ownership is unclear, multiple functions are involved, or dedicated project leadership is needed.
• Take loosely defined priorities and turn them into clear workstreams, owners, timelines, dependencies, and decision points.
• Coordinate stakeholders across People and partner functions to keep complex work moving.
• Conduct research, gather stakeholder input, synthesize findings, and develop recommendations to support decisions.
• Surface risks, tradeoffs, resource constraints, and decisions to the Chief of Staff and appropriate leaders.
• Support projects involving topics such as People policy, new program design, operating model changes, compliance readiness, employee programs, or other emerging business needs.
• Partner with the appropriate functional owners and subject matter experts so that specialized work remains with the teams accountable for it.
• Adapt quickly when priorities change, including pausing, redirecting, or closing work cleanly when leadership changes course.
• Program Management & Execution: Lead assigned people programs from planning through implementation.
• Establish clear ownership, governance, milestones, and escalation paths.
• Maintain visibility into progress, dependencies, risks, and decisions.
• Build practical documentation, playbooks, and processes that make programs repeatable and scalable.
• Identify friction, duplicated effort, manual work, or unclear ownership and recommend better ways of working.
• Use AI, automation, and other tools to reduce manual coordination, streamline documentation and reporting, and improve the speed and quality of program execution.
• Research, Recommendations & Executive Support: Quickly develop working knowledge of unfamiliar People topics and identify the right subject-matter experts to involve.
• Translate complex or incomplete information into concise recommendations, options, and next steps.
• Support the Chief of Staff with analysis and preparation for high priority People initiatives and decisions.
• Help connect work across People functions so dependencies, risks, and gaps are visible early.
• Create clear leadership ready materials that make complex work easier to understand and act on.

Skills

8+ years exp

Cross-functional programs

AI fluency

PM skills

Organization skills

Judgment

Communication skills

Synthesis ability

Problem solving under pressure

Cross-functional collaboration

People topics versatility

Emotional intelligence

Builder mindset

Ambiguity tolerance

Job description

HighLevel, a remote-first company delivering an AI-powered business operating system, is hiring a Program Manager to help turn People priorities into clear plans, coordinated programs, and strong execution. Reporting to the Chief of Staff in the CPO’s Office, this senior IC supports planning, cross-functional projects, and structure across teams.

The ideal candidate is highly organized, calm under pressure, an excellent listener, and a problem solver who turns ambiguity into executable plans.