Role Summary

Reporting to the Director, Talent Development & People Programs, the Senior Talent Development & People Programs Manager leads five deeply interconnected domains that shape how Rowan's culture is lived every day: Employee Listening, Recognition, Mentoring, Strategic Employee Resource Groups, and Guiding Principles Integration.

This role is responsible for designing and evolving the systems, experiences, and practices that strengthen employee experience and engagement, reinforce Rowan's culture and Guiding Principles, foster connection and development, and create meaningful opportunities for employees to contribute, grow, and thrive. Success requires the ability to think strategically, influence across the organization, and execute with excellence in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.

The role includes significant opportunities for contribution and growth, including leading or partnering across onboarding, leadership/management development, performance management, and/or career development.

Travel: Ability to travel up to (20%) to company location or for meetings.

Location: Denver, CO (hybrid in-office role)

Compensation: $125k - $150k (Offers Bonus)

Essential Responsibilities

Employee Listening & Engagement

• Own and evolve Rowan's enterprise employee listening strategy, including survey and listening channel design, communications, action planning, feedback-to-action processes, measurement, and executive reporting; partner with People Operations on platform administration and analytics
• Enable a leader-owned action planning process; build and maintain manager enablement resources
• Maintain a year-round listening cadence that integrates surveys, lifecycle listening, and non-survey data into a coherent rhythm that generates organizational intelligence
• Interpret data in partnership with the People Ops Analyst to identify priorities, cultural signals, and risks; make recommendations for action and measurement
• Partner with People Ops on vendor relationship management at a strategy level; work with People Ops on platform operations

Guiding Principles

• Serve as the operational owner of Guiding Principles integration across the employee lifecycle - working across People & Culture, senior leaders, and cross-functional stakeholders to embed Guiding Principles in hiring, onboarding, performance, recognition, development, and promotion
• Partner with Internal Communications to create campaigns, stories, and experiences that translate Guiding Principles into visible, everyday behaviors across the employee experience

Recognition

• Own and evolve Rowan's recognition strategy, ensuring recognition reinforces Guiding Principles, strengthens culture, and motivates performance at both the individual and team level
• Build manager capability and habit around recognition through tools, templates, and nudges that make meaningful recognition easy and frequent; integrate recognition skills into manager training

Mentoring

• Design and manage Rowan's mentoring program end-to-end: program structure, matching methodology, communications, milestone touchpoints, and outcome measurement; use data and feedback to iterate over time
• Connect mentoring directly to career development and leadership pipeline goals - accelerating growth, building cross-functional relationships, and supporting employee navigation of their development at Rowan
• Manage the external mentoring platform vendor relationship to ensure the platform supports the program design and participant experience

Strategic Employee Resource Groups (SERGs)

• Lead the design, launch, and management of Rowan's SERG infrastructure to strengthen belonging, community, employee connection, and business impact
• Partner with initial SERG leaders and executive sponsors to stand up Rowan's first SERG - including governance, sponsorship framework, programming standards; ensure structure that enables SERG leaders to lead with confidence from launch
• Define, track, and measure SERG success through a defined set of indicators (e.g. participation signals, program quality, and organizational impact); use data insights to evolve the SERG strategy and operating model
• Partner with People Operations and SERG leaders on event logistics; manage any external SERG platform vendor relationship

Education, Skills, and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Business, or a related field
• 8+ years of progressive experience in organizational development, people programs, employee experience, or culture - with demonstrated end-to-end ownership of programs and processes
• Demonstrated experience designing or managing at least one of the following: employee engagement/listening strategy, recognition program, mentoring program, or Strategic/Business ERG program
• Experience using employee survey/listening data to identify priorities and make recommendations for action
• Demonstrated experience consulting with senior leaders, with the ability to diagnose needs, earn credibility, and influence leaders
• Demonstrated experience building and scaling programs, frameworks, or processes from the ground up in a high-growth or rapidly evolving hybrid or distributed environment
• Strong project and change management skills, with the ability to manage cross-functional programs and multiple initiatives simultaneously
• Highly organized with the ability to execute with excellence in a fast-paced, high-growth environment
• Clear, direct communicator who can translate complex ideas into engaging, practical content for diverse audiences and influence effectively across all levels of the organization, including senior executives
• Demonstrated ability to partner across functions with a collaborative and influencing style that builds trust and drives alignment without direct authority
• Grounding in behavioral science principles as it applies to organizational culture and employee experience and uses that understanding to design programs that drive real and lasting change
• Ability to analyze data, identify trends, measure solution effectiveness, and translate insights into action using data across multiple sources
• Highly skilled at working independently from strategy through execution in an organization where the path may need to be created
• Proficient working with HR systems, technologies, platforms, survey tools, and SharePoint

Preferred Experience and Skills

• Master's degree in a relevant field
• Experience managing vendor relationships for HR, Talent, Learning, or culture solutions
• Experience standing up or significantly evolving a Business/Strategic ERG program, including governance design.
• Experience designing recognition programs tied to company values or cultural reinforcement.
• Familiarity with employee experience frameworks or culture-building methodology.
• Experience with facilitation in hybrid or distributed environments
• Demonstrated ability to leverage AI-enabled tools to improve productivity, content development, learning experiences, or program scalability

Fueled by Excellence & Collaboration

At Rowan, we are a distributed team united by a common mission to transform data center delivery. Across our two offices, we offer a hybrid work environment supported by teamwork, technology, and in-office gathering time to help you be successful. We are headquartered in downtown Denver, Colorado and have an office in Seattle, Washington. Our team of talented and passionate individuals is spread out across the U.S.

Here to support you

At Rowan, we want to make sure you can do great work. We offer competitive benefits focused on helping you be and achieve your best.

• Hybrid working environment

• Team building and educational opportunities

• Generous benefits package including robust health benefits and a 401(k)-company contribution

• Unlimited PTO

• RTD ECO pass or parking reimbursement

• Competitive compensation, bonus, and an incentive plan