Director, People Operations

About the Job:

LaunchDarkly is looking for a Director, People Operations to lead the operating model, service delivery, and continuous improvement of People Operations and Talent Acquisition operations across the employee and candidate lifecycles.

Reporting to the Senior Director, People Operations, you will lead a connected portfolio spanning global People Operations, Talent Acquisition Operations, employee and candidate experience, compliance-related workflows, operational governance, and team capability for a growing global company. You will translate business and People priorities into clear ownership, scalable processes, strong controls, and a reliable operating rhythm.

This role will work in close partnership with the Director, People Programs, Systems & Analytics. The Director, People Operations will own operational outcomes, service delivery, process execution, and stakeholder partnership. The Director, People Programs, Systems & Analytics will own managing the strategy and roadmap for People programs, systems, analytics, AI, data governance, and change enablement. Together, these leaders will create a practical, integrated People operating model that is trusted by employees, candidates, managers, HRBPs, and business leaders.

Responsibilities:

People Operations Leadership

• Establish the global People Operations operating model across the employee lifecycle, including onboarding, offboarding, employee data changes, employment documentation, employee support, contingent workforce processes, international operations, and related service delivery.
• Manage the activities of the People Operations and Talent Acquisition Operations teams, creating clear expectations, effective prioritization, strong collaboration, and a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.
• Establish service standards, escalation paths, operating rhythms, and ownership models that make it easy for employees, managers, HRBPs, and cross-functional partners to get the right support.
• Own operational readiness and execution for policies, compliance-related workflows, employment agreements, audits, immigration and mobility processes, accommodations, background checks, and other high-risk employee lifecycle activities in partnership with Legal and relevant subject-matter experts.
• Improve the consistency, quality, and equity of the employee experience across U.S. and international processes while accounting for local requirements and operational complexity.
• Build scalable documentation, self-service resources, controls, and standard operating procedures that reduce avoidable manual work and improve accuracy.
• Manage key People Operations vendors and partnerships, including service quality, contracts, issue resolution, risk management, and performance against expectations.
• Serve as an escalation point for complex People Operations issues, using sound judgment, discretion, and a strong understanding of employee trust and business risk.

Talent Acquisition Operations

• Establish the operating model for Talent Acquisition Operations, including recruiting intake, role setup, approvals, job posting workflows, interview coordination, interview loop management, candidate communications, offer process support, and recruiting operations reporting.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition leadership to improve recruiter and coordinator capacity, operating discipline, candidate experience, hiring-manager partnership, and consistency across recruiting workflows.
• Establish clear ownership and service standards across recruiting operations, including intake quality, scheduling, interview readiness, candidate handoffs, and offer-to-onboarding transitions.
• Identify opportunities to simplify and strengthen Greenhouse and connected recruiting workflows in partnership with the Director, People Programs, Systems & Analytics and technical partners.
• Support scalable recruiting programs, vendor management, executive recruiting operations, contingent recruiting processes, and other Talent Acquisition priorities as the business evolves.
• Use recruiting and operational signals to surface bottlenecks, clarify tradeoffs, and recommend improvements to hiring velocity, quality, candidate experience, and team capacity.

Partnership with People Programs, Systems & Analytics

• Partner with the Director, People Programs, Systems & Analytics to maintain one integrated roadmap across People Operations, Talent Acquisition Operations, People programs, systems, analytics, and AI.
• Translate operational pain points and stakeholder needs into clear requirements, process improvements, system enhancements, reporting needs, and measurable outcomes.
• Jointly define operating metrics, service-level expectations, data requirements, and success measures for employee and candidate lifecycle processes.
• Ensure new systems, workflows, programs, and automation are operationally sound, documented, adopted, and supported after launch.
• Partner on data quality, process governance, access controls, reporting definitions, and responsible use of automation and AI involving employee or candidate information.
• Create a disciplined operating rhythm for prioritization, dependency management, risk review, decision-making, and communication across the People portfolio.

Cross-functional Partnership and Change

• Partner closely with HRBPs, Recruiting, Finance, Legal, IT, AppEng, TechOps, Payroll, Workplace, Internal Communications, and external vendors to deliver reliable People and Talent processes.
• Lead change adoption for operational changes, including stakeholder alignment, communications, training, readiness, issue management, and post-launch improvement.
• Bring structure to ambiguous work, identify root causes, and make practical decisions that balance employee experience, candidate experience, compliance, speed, scalability, and cost.
• Represent People Operations and Talent Acquisition Operations in cross-functional planning, business reviews, and executive discussions.
• Build strong relationships with business leaders and managers so People processes are understood, usable, and aligned to business needs.

Qualifications:

• 15+ years of experience in People Operations, HR Operations, Talent Operations, shared services, or a similarly complex People function, including 5 years leadership experience across both employee and candidate lifecycle operations.
• Demonstrated success designing or scaling a global People Operations or Talent Acquisition Operations operating models at both small as well as medium-to-large sized companies.
• Experience leading and developing teams across multiple operational disciplines, with a track record of creating clarity, accountability, and strong service delivery.
• Strong understanding of employee lifecycle operations, recruiting operations, HR compliance, employee data, HR systems, recruiting systems, and cross-functional dependencies.
• Experience with Greenhouse or an equivalent recruiting system, including workflows, approvals, reporting, integrations, or process improvement.
• Experience improving operational controls, documentation, self-service, service delivery, data quality, and process consistency at scale.
• Experience designing, managing, or improving integrations across HR systems and connected People tools to support reliable data flows and scalable operations.
• Experience partnering effectively with Legal, Finance, IT, Payroll, HRBPs, Recruiting, and business leaders on sensitive or high-impact work.
• Sound judgment when handling confidential employee and candidate information, compliance-related matters, escalations, and employee experience risks.
• Strong program management, prioritization, change leadership, written communication, and executive communication skills.
• Ability to use data and operational metrics to diagnose issues, set priorities, measure outcomes, and communicate recommendations.
• Willingness to remain close enough to the work to understand process details, remove barriers, and personally solve complex problems when needed.

About You:

• You are a thoughtful, service-oriented People leader who combines operational discipline with empathy and care.
• You create clarity in complex environments and are comfortable making decisions when ownership, process, or information is incomplete.
• You see the connections between People Operations, Talent Acquisition, systems, data, compliance, and employee experience.
• You are hands-on enough to understand how work gets done and strategic enough to build a model that scales.
• You build trust through sound judgment, transparency, follow-through, and respect for confidential information.
• You are collaborative and pragmatic, with a strong instinct for root-cause analysis and continuous improvement.
• You care about creating consistent, equitable, and people-centered experiences for employees, candidates, managers, and internal partners.

What Success Looks Like:

• People Operations and Talent Acquisition Operations have clear ownership, service standards, escalation paths, and operating rhythms.
• Employees, candidates, managers, HRBPs, and business leaders experience more consistent, responsive, and equitable support.
• Core employee and candidate lifecycle processes are documented, measurable, scalable, and supported by appropriate controls and self-service resources.
• People Operations and Talent Acquisition Operations teams are engaged, capable, and organized around the highest-value work.
• Greenhouse and connected workflows support a reliable, efficient, and high-quality recruiting experience in partnership with the People systems function.
• The People team has a clear, integrated roadmap across operational execution, programs, systems, analytics, and AI, with well-managed dependencies and decisions.
• Operational risks, data-quality issues, manual work, and process fragmentation are identified early and reduced over time.
• People leaders and business partners trust the function to deliver practical solutions, communicate clearly, and follow through on commitments.

Pay:

Target pay ranges based on Geographic Zones* for Level M4:

• Zone 1: San Francisco/Bay Area or NYC Metropolitan Area, Boston, Seattle - $191,800 - $263,670**
• Zone 2: Irvine, LA, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Austin, Portland, Philadelphia, Chicago - $172,600 - $237,270*
• Zone 3: All other US locations - $163,000 - $224,070**
• All Zones Inclusive of a 15% Bonus Target

LaunchDarkly operates from a place of high trust and transparency; we are happy to state the pay range for our open roles to best align with candidate needs. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location. Restricted Stock Units, health, vision, dental, and mental health benefits are provided in addition to salary.

About LaunchDarkly:

Modern software delivery was supposed to be the foundation for a thriving digital business but reality has proven otherwise. Slow, inefficient development cycles, costly outages, and fragmented customer experiences are preventing developers from building their best software. The LaunchDarkly platform helps developers innovate on new features faster while protecting them with a safety valve to instantly rewind when things go wrong. Developers can target product experiences to any customer segment and maximize the business impact of every feature. And by gradually rolling out new application components, they escape nightmare "big-bang" technology migrations.

The LaunchDarkly platform was built to guide engineers to the next frontier of DevOps by:

• Improving the velocity and stability of software releases, without the fear of end customer outages
• Delivering targeted experiences by easily personalizing features to customer cohorts
• Maximizing the business impact of every feature through the ability to experiment and optimize
• Coordinating the release and optimization of software to provide consistent experiences across mobile platforms and device types
• Improving the effectiveness and productivity of engineering teams, by providing insights into engineering cadence and stability

At LaunchDarkly, we believe in the power of teams. We're building a team that is humble, open, collaborative, respectful and kind. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. LD invites any applicant to review our written Affirmative Action Plan. To do so, contact People Ops at hr@launchdarkly.com.

Do you need a disability accommodation?

Fill out this accommodations request form and someone from our People Operations team will contact you for assistance.

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