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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Employee Experience Program Manager

💰 $110,000 - $160,000

Human ResourcesPeople OperationsProgram Management

🎯 Role Definition

The Employee Experience Program Manager leads cross-functional initiatives that improve the end-to-end employee lifecycle, increase engagement, and operationalize the Voice of the Employee. This role combines program and project management, people analytics, and stakeholder enablement to design, implement, and scale programs for onboarding, manager enablement, career mobility, recognition, and wellbeing. The Employee Experience Program Manager partners closely with HR Business Partners, Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, Compensation & Benefits, and People Analytics to translate business priorities into measurable people outcomes.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • HR Business Partner (HRBP) or Senior HR Generalist with program delivery experience
  • Employee Engagement / Employee Experience Specialist or Program Manager
  • Project Manager or Operations Manager in People/People Ops teams

Advancement To:

  • Senior Employee Experience Program Manager / Lead
  • Director of Employee Experience or Director of People Programs
  • Head of People Operations or VP, Employee Experience

Lateral Moves:

  • Learning & Development Program Lead
  • Talent Management or Career Mobility Program Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design, manage, and deliver enterprise-wide employee experience programs (onboarding, offboarding, manager enablement, internal mobility, recognition and wellbeing) from concept through launch and ongoing optimization, ensuring alignment with company strategy and HR priorities.
  • Create program charters, roadmaps, delivery plans, and success metrics (KPIs) for employee lifecycle initiatives; track program timelines, budgets, and dependencies to ensure on-time and on-budget delivery.
  • Own the Voice of the Employee strategy: design and execute cadence of engagement surveys, pulse checks, focus groups, and action-planning processes; synthesize qualitative and quantitative insights into prioritized recommendations and measurable action plans.
  • Partner closely with People Analytics to define and monitor employee experience metrics (e.g., engagement scores, eNPS, retention, onboarding time-to-productivity) and translate data into narrative reports for leaders and executives.
  • Lead cross-functional working groups with Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, IT, Facilities, and Compensation to operationalize standardized onboarding and offboarding journeys that deliver an exceptional employee experience and consistent employer brand.
  • Serve as the program manager for manager enablement initiatives: design manager playbooks, training rollouts, communications, and toolkits to improve people manager capability and drive consistent people practices globally.
  • Build and maintain program governance, stakeholder communications, and executive-level dashboards to keep senior leaders informed and to secure cross-functional alignment and resourcing.
  • Lead pilot programs (e.g., return-to-work, flexible work, career mobility pilots), evaluate outcomes, and scale successful pilots across the organization with clear change management plans.
  • Manage vendors and external partners (survey platforms like Qualtrics/Glint, HRIS, LMS, recognition platforms) including RFPs, contracts, SLAs, and partner integration to ensure tools support program outcomes.
  • Drive continuous improvement through A/B testing, cohort analysis, and iterative changes based on employee feedback, people metrics, and operational performance data.
  • Translate strategic HR objectives into operational program requirements and deliverables, writing clear requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria for workstreams and technical teams.
  • Work with HRIS and People Operations to ensure program workflows are integrated with HR systems (Workday, BambooHR, SuccessFactors, etc.) and that system changes support scale and automation of employee experience processes.
  • Develop communication and change management plans (including messaging, roll-out schedules, FAQs, and manager briefings) for each program launch to maximize adoption and minimize disruption.
  • Facilitate cross-functional workshops and design sprints to map employee journeys, identify friction points, and define value-driven solutions that elevate the employee experience.
  • Coach and influence senior leaders and managers to embrace and operationalize employee experience initiatives, leveraging data and storytelling to build leadership sponsorship and accountability.
  • Create and manage training programs, toolkits and self-service resources that enable managers and employees to self-serve on common lifecycle needs (onboarding checklists, role clarity frameworks, and career mobility resources).
  • Oversee budget planning and forecasting for employee experience programs, monitoring spend, and ensuring ROI through measurable outcomes and efficiency improvements.
  • Ensure programs incorporate DEI principles, equitable practices, and accessibility across global employee populations, partnering with Diversity & Inclusion teams to remove barriers and ensure inclusive design.
  • Manage program risks and escalations, proactively identifying dependencies and building mitigation plans to keep delivery on track.
  • Build and maintain a repository of standard operating procedures, runbooks, and playbooks that drive repeatable excellence in how the organization designs and executes employee experience programs.
  • Use employee segmentation and persona development to tailor program delivery (by location, function, or tenure) to increase relevance and impact of initiatives.
  • Lead quarterly business reviews and post-program retrospectives to report outcomes, share learnings, and define next-phase roadmaps for continuous improvement.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Provide project support for HR operational tasks when programs require ad hoc coordination across global teams and time zones.
  • Maintain vendor relationships for survey and engagement tools, troubleshooting issues with platform admins and IT partners.
  • Assist in the development of internal marketing and awareness campaigns to drive program adoption, including email campaigns, intranet content, and manager toolkits.
  • Mentor junior program managers or HR generalists on program delivery best practices and stakeholder management.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Program management and delivery: proven experience managing multi-workstream HR or People programs at scale (program charters, roadmaps, OKRs).
  • People analytics & measurement: ability to define metrics, build dashboards and interpret engagement, retention, and performance data (experience with eNPS, engagement surveys).
  • HRIS and systems integration: hands-on experience with Workday, SuccessFactors, BambooHR, or similar and designing system workflows to support employee lifecycle processes.
  • Survey & feedback platforms: experience implementing and running employee feedback tools such as Qualtrics, Glint, Culture Amp or similar.
  • Change management frameworks: practical experience applying change management techniques (Prosci or equivalent) to drive adoption of people programs.
  • Project tools & agile delivery: skilled in Jira, Asana, MS Project, or similar tools with experience in sprint planning, Kanban, and cross-functional delivery.
  • Data analysis & visualization: strong Excel skills and experience with SQL, Python, Tableau, Power BI, or Looker to analyze and visualize people data.
  • Vendor management: experience managing third-party vendors, contracts, implementation timelines, and integrations.
  • Learning design & enablement: ability to build manager toolkits, training content, and enablement programs that scale.
  • Documentation & SOPs: strong experience creating playbooks, runbooks, and program documentation for repeatable delivery.

Soft Skills

  • Strategic partnership: ability to influence and build credibility with senior leaders and cross-functional partners.
  • Communication & storytelling: excellent written and verbal communication with the ability to translate data into compelling narratives and recommendations.
  • Stakeholder management: skilled at balancing competing priorities, negotiating trade-offs, and securing stakeholder buy-in.
  • Problem solving: strong analytical mindset with a bias for action and data-driven decision making.
  • Empathy and design thinking: human-centered approach to program design that understands employee needs and diverse perspectives.
  • Adaptability: thrives in ambiguous environments and can rapidly adjust priorities as business needs change.
  • Project leadership: ability to lead cross-functional teams and keep complex programs on track.
  • Coaching & influence: comfortable mentoring managers and peers to adopt new ways of working.
  • Attention to detail and organization: meticulous in planning, documentation, and execution.
  • Global mindset: experience designing programs for distributed teams across multiple countries and cultures.

(Note: the combined hard and soft skills list includes 20+ specific skills; the role typically requires at least 10 of these.)

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Organizational Psychology, Business Administration, Communications, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree (MA, MS, MBA) in Organizational Development, Human Resources Management, Business Administration, or related discipline.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Human Resources Management
  • Organizational Psychology
  • Business Administration
  • Industrial-Organizational Psychology
  • Communications

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 5–8 years progressive experience in HR/People Operations, program management, or employee experience roles; or equivalent combination of experience and education.

Preferred:

  • 8+ years with proven ownership of enterprise-wide employee experience programs, strong people analytics experience, and history of partnering with senior leaders to drive people strategies.
  • Demonstrated experience with HRIS integrations, global program rollouts, vendor management (Qualtrics/Glint, Workday), and change management certification (Prosci preferred).
  • Experience working in fast-paced, growth-stage or matrixed organizations with distributed teams.
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