Senior Manager, Community Programs – Operations

Role Overview

• Lead and develop a high-performing team of community professionals and contractors by creating clarity, accountability, and scalable ways of working. Build team capability, establish strong operating rhythms, and reduce single-threaded dependency through documentation, prioritization, and repeatable processes.
• Own the strategy and execution of flagship community programs and lifecycle motions that drive hacker retention, satisfaction, progression, and long-term loyalty. Ensure Community investments are tied to measurable business outcomes, including stronger cohort progression, improved engagement quality, healthier retention of high-value researchers, and increased value for customers. Focus on attracting and retaining high-value researchers who drive meaningful security outcomes, not just overall engagement volume.
• Champion an AI First approach by identifying opportunities to improve community operations, lifecycle engagement, reporting, and support workflows through automation and AI-enabled tools. Help the organization build more scalable, intelligent systems that improve researcher experience and team productivity. Use emerging tools, experimentation, and hands-on execution to accelerate program performance and unlock new ways to improve the researcher experience.
• Adapt quickly to evolving researcher needs, market dynamics, tooling maturity, and company priorities. Make thoughtful tradeoffs, sequence work against capacity, and keep the team focused on the highest-impact opportunities as Community continues to grow and scale.
• Define, track, and improve KPIs related to hacker retention, satisfaction, lifecycle progression, engagement, and program effectiveness. Build clear feedback loops across programs, communications, events, and experiments to identify what is working, where friction exists, and what actions will most improve outcomes at scale. Serve as Community’s primary data liaison to help ensure continuity and acceleration of existing programs as they relate to data architecture, lifecycle measurement, and tooling design. Partner closely with cross-functional teams to translate Community needs into durable data and systems requirements.
• Redesign community motions, operating models, and engagement approaches by simplifying complexity and focusing on what drives the most value for hackers, customers, and HackerOne. Improve how programs are structured, how milestones and recognition are delivered, how researchers move through lifecycle stages, and how community systems scale over time. Bring a builder-and-breaker mindset to the role: challenge assumptions, test new approaches, and roll up your sleeves to develop and execute creative solutions.
• Partner closely with Product, Marketing, Customer Success, Events, Data, and Operations teams to improve the end-to-end researcher experience. Translate voice-of-community insights into prioritized recommendations, operational improvements, and scalable lifecycle interventions that align community strategy to company goals. Act as the primary owner of HackerOne’s Diverse Hacker Advisory Board, using it as a strategic feedback and governance mechanism to help accelerate the researcher experience on HackerOne. Given the impact on customer outcomes, we are looking for someone to help further define our partnership with Customer Success; particularly around feedback loops, program performance insights, and aligning community strategy to retention and expansion goals.
• Lead and support community-led activations, researcher-facing programs, and event-related motions with a focus on quality, consistency, and measurable follow-through. Ensure these efforts contribute to long-term researcher growth, engagement, ecosystem health, and platform value.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in community, program, lifecycle, marketplace, or operations leadership roles, with demonstrated success scaling programs or operational motions
• 3+ years of experience leading high-performing teams, including coaching, performance management, contractor/vendor oversight, and team development
• Experience building or scaling programs using data, automation, CRM workflows, or other operational systems
• Experience defining metrics and using them to improve business outcomes, program effectiveness, and user engagement
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills, with the ability to drive alignment across Product, Marketing, Operations, and go-to-market partners
• Experience in cybersecurity, vulnerability management, developer ecosystems, or similarly technical community environments
• Competency using emerging AI tools to support experimentation, iteration, and hands-on problem solving. Familiarity with human-in-the-loop, agentic, or automation-driven workflows.

Tech Stack

• Cyber Security

Benefits

• Health (medical, vision, dental), life, and disability insurance*
• Equity stock options
• Retirement plans
• Paid public holidays and unlimited PTO
• Paid maternity and parental leave
• Leaves of absence (including caregiver leave and leave under CO's Healthy Families and Workplaces Act)
• Employee Assistance Program *Eligibility may differ by country