Technical Program Manager, People Innovation Labs

Details

People Innovation Labs is a product, design, and engineering team embedded in the People organization. The team builds AI-powered products that improve how OpenAI finds and supports exceptional talent and helps employees do their best work. Its work spans recruiting, HR, learning, performance, culture, and company-wide knowledge.

The Technical Program Manager will lead execution across a portfolio of complex, cross-functional software initiatives. The role partners with product managers, designers, engineers, and teams across the People organization to translate product strategy into coordinated execution, manage dependencies and risks, support launches, drive adoption, and create feedback loops for ongoing product iteration.

Responsibilities

• Independently lead complex, high-priority technical programs from early planning through launch, adoption, and ongoing iteration.
• Translate strategy and team objectives into clear, executable plans in partnership with product and engineering leadership.
• Establish program structures, decision-making forums, operating cadences, and accountability across multiple teams.
• Align product, design, engineering, data, operations, and other stakeholders around priorities, responsibilities, and delivery plans.
• Partner with engineering leads to manage technical dependencies, sequencing, delivery risks, and launch readiness.
• Identify strategic or execution gaps, develop recommendations, and drive decisions.
• Anticipate risks and blockers, clarify tradeoffs, resolve disagreements, and escalate decisions when needed.
• Own communication, enablement, change management, and rollout strategies for new products and workflows.
• Lead post-launch user engagement through onboarding, training, office hours, hands-on support, and other adoption programs.
• Build trusted relationships with users and gather candid feedback about product effectiveness and challenges.
• Observe how products fit into real workflows and identify confusion, friction, and unmet needs.
• Combine qualitative feedback, usage data, and operational signals to identify what is working and what needs to change.
• Translate user insights into actionable recommendations for product, design, and engineering.
• Create feedback loops that help teams test assumptions, learn quickly, and iterate toward product-market fit.
• Define and track program health, adoption, user sentiment, and operational outcomes.
• Maintain visibility into priorities, progress, dependencies, and risks across the portfolio.
• Prepare decision-oriented updates and recommendations for senior leadership.
• Improve planning and execution practices while keeping processes lightweight.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in technical program management, product operations, or a similar role leading complex software initiatives.
• Experience independently leading multiple high-impact programs involving several technical and business teams.
• Experience taking new software products from early planning through launch, adoption, and rapid iteration toward product-market fit.
• Willingness to work directly with users and provide hands-on support while products are new.
• Ability to build trust with users, ask effective questions, and gather candid feedback.
• Ability to identify patterns across qualitative feedback, usage data, and operational signals and turn them into actionable recommendations.
• Strong technical fluency and the ability to partner with engineers on architecture, integrations, data dependencies, security, reliability, and delivery tradeoffs.
• Experience leading significant operational or organizational change alongside technical product delivery.
• Ability to influence senior leaders, drive difficult decisions, and build alignment across teams with competing priorities.
• Ability to identify and address strategic or execution gaps without detailed direction.
• Clear and direct communication across technical teams, operational partners, users, and executives.
• Ability to move between organizational strategy and detailed, hands-on execution.
• Ability to bring structure to fast-moving work without adding unnecessary process.
• Interest in how AI can change the way organizations operate and how people work.

Benefits

• Base salary of $257,000–$335,000 per year, plus equity and performance-related bonuses for eligible employees.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax accounts for health, dependent care, and commuter expenses.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental, medical, and caregiver leave.
• Paid time off, company holidays, office closures, and paid sick or safe time.
• Mental health and wellness support.
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage.
• Annual learning and development stipend.
• Daily office meals and eligible meal delivery credits.
• Relocation support for eligible employees.