Senior Manager, Talent Operations

Planet•Arlington, VA

20d•Hybrid

About The Position

Planet is executing one of its most ambitious hiring years — onboarding hundreds of new team members across multiple geographies to deliver on our growth plan, launch a second manufacturing hub in Berlin, and scale our Earth intelligence products to market. Behind every hire is a complex operational machine: ATS workflows, interview scheduling, offer approvals, compliance checks, onboarding handoffs, and dozens of process touchpoints that determine whether a candidate has a world-class experience or drops out of the funnel. As Senior Manager, Talent Operations, you will own that machine. You will lead a team of operations specialists, recruiting coordinators, and support staff that keeps the entire hiring lifecycle running smoothly — from requisition creation through offer acceptance. You will drive the Talent Operations Roadmap, which includes active projects spanning AI interview assessment tool deployment, global process standardization, headcount approval flow redesign, SLA audits, and interview process documentation. This role sits at the intersection of process design, technology, compliance, and candidate experience. You will be responsible for ensuring that our operational infrastructure scales at the same pace as our hiring ambitions — and that every touchpoint in the recruiting process reflects the quality and rigor candidates expect from a company building technology that monitors the entire planet. This role reports directly to the Senior Director of Talent Acquisition and Talent Management. You will partner closely with the Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition to ensure that the operational data flowing out of your systems — pipeline velocity, stage conversion rates, scheduling throughput — feeds directly into the capacity model that drives recruiting resource allocation. This is a critical role. This hire will immediately unblock a significant body of work and drive operational leadership to a function that touches every hire the company makes. This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to work from our Washington D.C. office 3 days per week.

Requirements

6+ years of experience in talent operations, or HR operations.
4+ years managing a team of coordinators and operations specialists at a scaling technology company.
Deep expertise with Greenhouse ATS or a comparable enterprise applicant tracking system, including administration, workflow configuration, custom reporting, and integration management.
Experience driving SLA compliance and process adherence across a distributed recruiting team — you have built the dashboards, set the targets, and held people accountable.
Experience managing recruiting coordination at scale (100+ hires per quarter), including complex multi-timezone scheduling, onsite coordination, and high-volume offer processing.
Track record of successfully deploying new recruiting technology — AI tools, scheduling automation, assessment platforms — with measurable adoption and impact metrics.
Project management capability to run multiple concurrent workstreams (roadmap execution, tool deployment, process redesign) without dropping priorities.
Experience with global hiring operations, particularly EMEA compliance, offer letter localization, and navigating local employment requirements.
Data-oriented mindset — you use pipeline metrics, SLA data, and process analytics to identify bottlenecks and make decisions, not intuition alone.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting a German entity setup, including familiarity with German employment compliance.
Background in aerospace, hardware, or manufacturing recruiting operations where compliance requirements such as export control and security clearances add operational complexity.
Experience with headcount planning and approval workflow tools that integrate with HRIS and finance systems.
Lean Six Sigma, PMP, or similar process improvement credentials that demonstrate operational rigor.
Experience building or rebuilding a talent operations function from the ground up — including establishing SLAs, standing up reporting, and creating documentation where little or none existed.

Responsibilities

Own and execute the Talent Operations Roadmap — a portfolio of active projects including AI assessment tool evaluation and rollout, global process standardization, headcount approval flow redesign, SLA audit and enforcement, and interview training program development.
Lead and develop a team of operations and coordination professionals across multiple offices, setting priorities, coaching on operational excellence, and ensuring coordination coverage meets the needs of a growing recruiting team.
Drive scorecard SLA compliance to target by implementing process controls, automated reminders, and accountability mechanisms within the ATS — turning a lagging metric into a leading indicator of interview quality.
Reduce time-to-fill by identifying and streamlining operational bottlenecks — particularly in interview scheduling, offer approval workflows, and pre-offer document processing.
Operationalize the selected AI interview assessment tool across the full recruiting team, including training, change management, hiring manager onboarding, and usage analytics tracking.
Own ATS administration, configuration, and optimization — including custom workflows, approval chains, reporting dashboards, offer templates, and compliance-driven fields for global hiring across multiple entities and geographies.
Lead the headcount approval flow redesign — documenting the current state, mapping the ideal state, building automated workflows, and launching with clear communication and documentation.
Ensure onboarding compliance for all new hires across multiple geographies, working closely with People Operations to hand off candidates cleanly and verify all pre-hire documentation including background checks, export control clearances, work authorization, and international entity requirements.
Build and maintain the talent operations knowledge base — ensuring all processes, policies, and SLAs are documented, current, and accessible to the recruiting team and hiring managers.
Partner with the Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition to provide the operational data that feeds the capacity model — including pipeline velocity metrics, stage conversion rates, and scheduling throughput — so that resource allocation decisions are grounded in real process performance.