People Operations Program Manager

Job description

HADRIAN - MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE Hadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America. By combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing, we help aerospace and defense companies build rockets, satellites, aircraft, ships, and other mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at significantly lower cost. Following our $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation, Hadrian is rapidly expanding our manufacturing footprint, launching new capabilities across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more, while scaling our Factory-as-a-Service platform to transform how critical products are built. Backed by leading investors including JPMorgan Chase, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Lux Capital, T. Rowe Price, and Morgan Stanley, we’re building the future of American manufacturing—and looking for exceptional people to help make it happen. If you’re ready to take on the most challenging and rewarding work of your career while helping create American manufacturing jobs for generations to come, you’re exactly who we’re looking for. The Role: The People Operations team builds the infrastructure that lets Hadrian scale. We think in systems, work like product managers, and put the people experience at the center of everything we do. We are hiring a People Operations Program Manager to identify where our processes break down, build smarter workflows, and drive the strategic programs that shape the employee experience at Hadrian. You'll be the person who looks at how we work and asks 'how do we make this 10x better'—whether that means redesigning a process, introducing an AI-powered solution, or owning a company-wide people program end to end. One quarter you're standing up our tiered support model and mapping AI automation opportunities. The next you're running the performance review cycle or turning engagement survey results into action. 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. What You’ll Do - Diagnose manual, repetitive, or high-friction processes across the employee lifecycle and lead the end-to-end build of their redesign—scoping the solution, coordinating stakeholders, and driving implementation of AI-enabled improvements. - Architect and implement our tiered People support model, ensuring employees get the right level of support at the right time—from self-service resources to specialist escalation—and that the model scales as we grow. - Use Jira Service Management and People data to monitor operational performance, surface trends, and bring data-driven recommendations to People leadership on where to invest time and resources. - Lead strategic People initiatives as they arise; acting as the program management engine for the team on high-priority projects that need structure, momentum, and an owner. - Build and maintain internal People team resources - playbooks, SOPs, project trackers, and knowledge bases - so institutional knowledge is captured and operations run consistently at scale. - Partner closely with People Partners, Recruiting, Engineering, and Finance to align People programs with business needs and ensure cross-functional dependencies are managed proactively. What We’re Looking For - 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. - Strong project management fundamentals: you work from a plan, communicate proactively, manage dependencies, and don't let things fall through the cracks. - 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. - 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. What Will Set You Apart - 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 scop