Recruiting Operations Program Manager

Anthropic is seeking a strategic Recruiting Operations Program Manager to design and build scalable systems for recruiting. This role involves owning strategic initiatives end-to-end, diagnosing operational bottlenecks, designing solutions, leading cross-functional implementations, and transitioning programs. The manager will work on high-impact projects shaping global recruitment, combining systems thinking, program leadership, and deep operational expertise to balance speed with sustainability and talent quality.

Must Have

• Own 2-3 quarter-long strategic programs end-to-end.
• Define success metrics and transition criteria for program handoff.
• Lead cross-functional teams through complex initiatives.
• Scope ambiguous challenges into clear plans with milestones.
• Create comprehensive documentation, playbooks, and training materials.
• Manage recruiting planning cycles and operating rhythms.
• Partner with recruiting leaders on operational plans and resource allocation.
• Identify and mitigate operational risks.
• Collaborate with Talent Systems to optimize recruiting tools.

Good to Have

• Experience designing and implementing recruiting operations or systems in high-growth technology companies (500-5,000 employees).
• Expertise with recruiting technology platforms (Greenhouse, BrightHire, Workday).
• Background in management consulting, internal strategy, or chief of staff roles in People/Talent functions.
• Experience with organizational design, workforce planning, or HR transformation initiatives.
• Understanding of frontier technology, AI, or the recruiting landscape for technical talent.
• Proven ability to zoom between strategic thinking and tactical execution.
• Knowledge of global recruiting, employment law requirements, or international expansion considerations.

Perks & Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits
• Optional equity donation matching
• Generous vacation and parental leave
• Flexible working hours
• Lovely office space
• Visa sponsorship

About the role

Anthropic is seeking strategic Recruiting Operations Specialists to design and build the systems that enable recruiting at scale. We need builders who can take our most complex recruiting infrastructure challenges from current-state to future-state—architecting solutions that balance speed with sustainability while maintaining the talent quality and human-centered practices that define us.

In this role, you'll own strategic initiatives end-to-end: diagnosing operational bottlenecks, designing scalable solutions, leading cross-functional implementations, and transitioning programs to permanent owners. You'll work on high-impact, high-visibility projects that directly shape how Anthropic recruits globally. This combines systems thinking, program leadership, and deep operational expertise—you'll need to think like a strategist, execute like a program manager, and understand recruiting operations well enough to design solutions that actually work at scale.

We're hiring multiple Recruiting Operations Program Managers. Some will focus more heavily on transformation initiatives; others will focus on planning and operations. All will need to flex across both.

Responsibilities

• Own 2-3 quarter-long strategic programs end-to-end: scope complex problems, design solutions, lead cross-functional implementation, and establish sustainable ownership before moving to the next initiative
• Define success metrics and transition criteria upfront—what adoption, documentation, and process embedding are needed before handoff
• Lead cross-functional teams through complex initiatives—managing dependencies, aligning stakeholders across recruiting, talent systems, candidate experience, and business partners, and driving to delivery
• Scope ambiguous challenges into clear plans with defined milestones, success metrics, and owner transitions
• Rapidly prototype and iterate based on feedback; test ideas, learn what works, and refine as you go
• Create comprehensive documentation, playbooks, and training materials that enable permanent owners to sustain and evolve the work long-term
• Manage recruiting planning cycles and operating rhythms (OKR planning, roadmap tracking, leadership reporting, hiring forecasts) that keep the recruiting function aligned and visible to leadership
• Partner with recruiting leaders to translate business strategy (hiring targets, geographic expansion, talent quality standards) into operational plans and resource allocation
• Identify and mitigate operational risks; surface capacity constraints and trade-offs to leadership proactively
• Partner cross-functionally to streamline processes and ensure compliance
• Collaborate with Candidate Experience & Programs on interview initiatives, interviewer enablement, and candidate journey improvements
• Work with Talent Systems to implement and optimize recruiting tools, workflows, and automations

You may be a good fit if you

• Have 6+ years of experience building systems and programs in fast-growing organizations, with demonstrated success designing solutions to complex, ambiguous problems from scratch
• Have strong program and project management skills—you can scope complex initiatives, manage multiple workstreams and dependencies, and drive clarity from ambiguity
• Bring exceptional systems thinking; you see how different operational pieces connect and design holistic solutions rather than point fixes
• Have a track record of working across organizational silos and influencing senior leaders without direct authority—you build credibility and alignment quickly
• Experience with change management initiatives at scale
• Demonstrate strong written and verbal communication skills, including ability to distill complex operational challenges into clear narratives for executive audiences
• Thrive in ambiguity and rapid context-switching; you're energized when the path isn't clear yet and you have to figure it out
• Bring genuine curiosity about how organizations scale, what makes recruiting operations work effectively, and what drives recruiting outcomes

Strong Candidates May Also Have

• Experience designing and implementing recruiting operations or recruiting systems in high-growth technology companies, particularly in the 500-5,000 employee range
• Demonstrated expertise with recruiting technology platforms (Greenhouse, BrightHire, Workday, etc.) and ability to optimize workflows and integrations
• Background in management consulting, internal strategy roles, or chief of staff positions in People/Talent functions
• Experience with organizational design, workforce planning, or HR transformation initiatives
• Understanding of frontier technology, AI, or the recruiting landscape for technical talent (not required, but helpful for context)
• Proven ability to zoom between strategic thinking and tactical execution—comfortable in both 30,000-foot problem definition and hands-on implementation
• Knowledge of global recruiting, employment law requirements, or international expansion considerations

The expected base compensation for this position is below. Our total compensation package for full-time employees includes equity, benefits, and may include incentive compensation.

Annual Salary:

$170,000 - $220,000 USD

Logistics

Education requirements: We require at least a Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience.

Location-based hybrid policy: Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices.

Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate. But if we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa, and we retain an immigration lawyer to help with this.

We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification. Not all strong candidates will meet every single qualification as listed. Research shows that people who identify as being from underrepresented groups are more prone to experiencing imposter syndrome and doubting the strength of their candidacy, so we urge you not to exclude yourself prematurely and to submit an application if you're interested in this work. We think AI systems like the ones we're building have enormous social and ethical implications. We think this makes representation even more important, and we strive to include a range of diverse perspectives on our team.

How we're different

We believe that the highest-impact AI research will be big science. At Anthropic we work as a single cohesive team on just a few large-scale research efforts. And we value impact — advancing our long-term goals of steerable, trustworthy AI — rather than work on smaller and more specific puzzles. We view AI research as an empirical science, which has as much in common with physics and biology as with traditional efforts in computer science. We're an extremely collaborative group, and we host frequent research discussions to ensure that we are pursuing the highest-impact work at any given time. As such, we greatly value communication skills.

The easiest way to understand our research directions is to read our recent research. This research continues many of the directions our team worked on prior to Anthropic, including: GPT-3, Circuit-Based Interpretability, Multimodal Neurons, Scaling Laws, AI & Compute, Concrete Problems in AI Safety, and Learning from Human Preferences.

Come work with us!

Anthropic is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco. We offer competitive compensation and benefits, optional equity donation matching, generous vacation and parental leave, flexible working hours, and a lovely office space in which to collaborate with colleagues. Guidance on Candidates' AI Usage: Learn about our policy for using AI in our application process