Senior Director, People Operations

About the Job:

LaunchDarkly is seeking a strategic, highly operational Senior Director, People Operations to lead and scale the systems, tools, analytics, and programs that enable our global People organization to meet the business critical needs of the Company. This leader partners closely with Company leaders, the People Leadership team and cross-functional stakeholders to translate business priorities into scalable People Operations solutions.

In this role you will lead a high-performing team responsible for HRIS and people technology, analytics and reporting, onboarding and lifecycle operations, and programs and processes that deliver exceptional outcomes throughout the employee journey. 

Responsibilities:

• Own the People Operations strategy and operating model across systems, programs, analytics, and service delivery for a fast-growing distributed, global workforce. Familiarity with current AI service offerings in the HR/TA space and ability to lead assessment, implementation and optimization of AI tooling across People organization solutions.
• Lead and develop a high-performing People Operations team with clear rhythms, prioritization, governance, and scalable support practices.
• Own the People technology ecosystem, including HRIS and integrated tools (e.g., payroll, benefits administration, onboarding, performance, and TA systems integrations).
• Lead HRIS implementations and optimizations (migrations, module rollouts, integrations, vendor selection) from strategy through execution, change management, and adoption.
• Drive People program and cross-functional initiatives with strong program/project management discipline, building roadmaps and execution plans that balance near-term needs with long-term scalability.
• Build and deliver People analytics and reporting (dashboards, metrics, executive-ready insights) across the employee lifecycle; establish data definitions and governance for accuracy and consistency.
• Own and continuously improve onboarding operations and core employee lifecycle processes (changes, transfers, offboarding, compliance workflows) in partnership with TA, IT, Legal, Finance and business leaders.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition Operations on ATS/tooling, workflow optimization, compliance, and seamless handoffs from recruiting through onboarding.
• Partner with Total Rewards to help operationalize and scale benefits and compensation practices, including organization readiness for annual compensation reviews and benefits cycles.
• Manage key People Operations vendors (contracts, renewals, performance, roadmap alignment) and ensure compliance, controls, and audit readiness in partnership with Legal, Finance, and IT/Security.

Qualifications:

• 15 years of experience in People Operations/HR Operations/TA or HR, including 7 years in senior operations leadership (Senior Manager/Director or above), ideally in high-growth tech environments. 
• Proven HRIS expertise with successful end-to-end implementations, optimizations, and integrations (e.g., Workday, Rippling, UKG, BambooHR, ADP, etc.). Must have experience across the whole stack of HR systems and technology including traditional HRIS functions and Talent Acquisition systems.
• Strong program/project management skills with a track record of delivering complex, cross-functional initiatives from strategy through execution on a global basis for rapidly-growing technology companies.
• Demonstrated strength in analytics and reporting—building dashboards, defining metrics, and translating data into decisions and recommendations.
• Working knowledge of Talent Acquisition Operations and recruiting systems/processes (e.g., Greenhouse, Lever), including recruiting analytics.
• Experience scaling onboarding and employee lifecycle operations, including documentation, enablement, and stakeholder management.
• Knowledge of  Benefits and Compensation operations and associated cycles, controls, and vendor coordination.
• Excellent cross-functional partnership and communication skills, with the ability to influence across People, Finance, Legal, IT/Security, and business leadership.
• Proven people management experience, both direct line and matrixed, and the demonstrated ability to coach high-performing teams of subject matter experts.
• Bachelor’s degree in HR, Business, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Experience supporting a globally distributed technology workforce and partnering across multiple regions and time zones.
• Hands-on experience improving People service delivery models (ticketing/knowledge base/SLAs) and building scalable self-service.

Please note: This role will require occasional travel as needed to LaunchDarkly’s Oakland HQ office for both Bay Area local and West Coast remote candidates.

Pay:

Target pay ranges based on Geographic Zones* for Level M5:

• Zone 1: San Francisco/Bay Area or NYC Metropolitan Area, Boston, Seattle - $214,000 - $295,000**
• Zone 2: Irvine, LA, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Austin, Portland, Philadelphia, Chicago - $193,000 - $265,000**
• Zone 3: All other US locations - $182,000 - $251,000**
• All Zones Inclusive of 20% Bonus Target

LaunchDarkly operates from a place of high trust and transparency; we are happy to state the pay range for our open roles to best align with your needs. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location.

*Within the United States, our geographic pay zones are defined by counties surrounding major metropolitan areas.
**Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), health, vision, and dental insurance, and mental health benefits in addition to salary.

About LaunchDarkly:

Modern software delivery was supposed to be the foundation for a thriving digital business but reality has proven otherwise. Slow, inefficient development cycles, costly outages, and fragmented customer experiences are preventing developers from building their best software. The LaunchDarkly platform helps developers innovate on new features faster while protecting them with a safety valve to instantly rewind when things go wrong. Developers can target product experiences to any customer segment and maximize the business impact of every feature. And by gradually rolling out new application components, they escape nightmare "big-bang" technology migrations. 

The LaunchDarkly platform was built to guide engineers to the next frontier of DevOps by:

• Improving the velocity and stability of software releases, without the fear of end customer outages
• Delivering targeted experiences by easily personalizing features to customer cohorts
• Maximizing the business impact of every feature through the ability to experiment and optimize
• Coordinating the release and optimization of software to provide consistent experiences across mobile platforms and device types
• Improving the effectiveness and productivity of engineering teams, by providing insights into engineering cadence and stability

At LaunchDarkly, we believe in the power of teams. We're building a team that is humble, open, collaborative, respectful and kind. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. LD invites any applicant to review our written Affirmative Action Plan. To do so, contact People Ops at hr@launchdarkly.com. 

Do you need a disability accommodation?

Fill out this accommodations request form and someone from our People Operations team will contact you for assistance.