As a People Team Program Manager, you will design and manage complex people programs, ensuring efficient execution and alignment with company goals while improving organizational processes.
Do you want to change the world? Zipline is on a mission to transform the way goods move. Our aim is to solve the world’s most urgent and complex access challenges by building, manufacturing and operating the first instant delivery and logistics system that serves all humans equally, wherever they are. From powering Rwanda’s national blood delivery network and Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, to providing on-demand home delivery for Walmart, to enabling healthcare providers to bring care directly to U.S. homes, we are transforming the way things move for businesses, governments and consumers. The technology is complex but the idea is simple: a teleportation service that delivers what you need, when you need it. Through our technology that includes robotics and autonomy, we are decarbonizing delivery, decreasing road congestion, and reducing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution, while providing equitable access to billions of people and building a more resilient global supply chain.
Join Zipline and help us to make good on our promise to build an equitable and more resilient global supply chain for billions of people.
ABOUT YOU AND THE ROLE
As a People Team Program Manager, you will design, lead, and operationalize some of Zipline’s most important people programs and rhythms. You’ll take ambiguous, high-impact initiatives—like company-wide compensation cycles, employee feedback programs, and core People operating cadences—and turn them into durable, scalable systems.
This role sits at the intersection of strategy and execution. You’ll define the what and the how, manage multiple complex workstreams at once, and ensure that critical People programs run smoothly so teams across Zipline can stay focused on our mission.
WHAT YOU’LL DO- Own and drive complex, cross-functional People initiatives end-to-end (e.g., annual compensation cycles, employee sentiment surveys, workforce planning, systems improvements, People Team operating rhythms).
- Translate ambiguous goals and executive priorities into clear program roadmaps with defined milestones, success metrics, and risks.
- Manage timelines, dependencies, and stakeholders across the People Team, Finance, Legal, and business leaders.
- Support and continuously improve People team planning cycles, operational workstreams and program retrospectives.
- Identify systemic inefficiencies and design process improvements that create long-term leverage.
- Conduct deep discovery work, including stakeholder mapping, requirements gathering, and current-state assessments across interconnected systems.
- Design solutions that address root causes, balance speed with sustainability, and anticipate second-order organizational impacts.
- Lead initiatives from problem definition through pilot, iteration, and handoff to long-term owners.
- Make thoughtful prioritization decisions across competing demands, ensuring the highest-impact work moves forward.
- Navigate technical, operational, and organizational complexity with minimal direction, knowing when to escalate and when to push forward independently.
- Create clear documentation, playbooks, and training materials that enable others to sustain and evolve programs over time.
- Program & Project Management: 5+ years of experience, including at least 3 years leading complex, multi-stakeholder programs with tight deadlines. Experience in People/HR domains (e.g., compensation, org design, talent analytics, workforce planning) is strongly preferred.
- People & Business Fluency: Exposure to or direct experience overseeing People or Talent programs. Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in HR, Business, or a related field.
- Systems Thinking: You naturally see how people, processes, tools, and incentives interact and design solutions that work across boundaries.
- Strategic Ownership: Proven ability to define vision and strategy for program areas, not just execute predefined plans.
- Communication & Influence: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to create clear narratives for executive audiences and influence without authority.
- Analytical Problem Solving: Strong ability to break down ambiguous problems, identify root causes, and develop practical, creative solutions.
The starting cash range for this role is $120,000 - $160,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.
Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies.
We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!
Zipline South San Francisco, California, USA Office
South San Francisco, CA, United States
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