Senior Manager, People & Culture, Innovation

Senior Manager, People & Culture Innovation

Supporting AI & Org Transformation | Product Development

Needham, MA | Hybrid 

About the Role:

SharkNinja is a global product innovation company operating across two iconic brands - Shark and Ninja - with a portfolio spanning 30+ product categories and a relentless pace of commercialization. Our Product Development (PD) organization is at the heart of how we win: bringing hardware, software, and digital experiences to market faster than anyone else in the industry.

We are integrating AI across the PD and Engineering organizations - not as a pilot, but as a structural shift in how our teams work, design, and deliver. This is a newly created role within the People & Culture (Human Resources) function, purpose-built to lead that transformation from an organizational and workforce perspective. The Senior Manager, People & Culture, AI & Org Transformation will serve as the embedded people strategy leader driving AI-enabled org design, role and workflow redesign, and workforce readiness across PD and Engineering.  This role reports into the VP, People Innovation & Performance, Product Development & Engineering.

The Senior Manager, People & Culture, Innovation role partners closely with the Senior Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP) for PD & Engineering, functional engineering and design leaders, and cross-functional P&C partners including Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, and Total Rewards. The Senior Manager, People & Culture requires someone who can operate with senior stakeholder credibility, translate AI trends into tangible workforce implications, and move quickly in an environment that does not reward hesitation.

What You’ll Own:

AI Transformation Strategy & Workforce Planning

• Partner with the Senior Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP) and Product Development / Engineering leadership to define the people strategy for AI adoption across Product Development and Engineering - covering workforce implications, role evolution, and capability gaps.
• Build and maintain a PD / Engineering AI transformation roadmap from a workforce perspective, aligned to SharkNinja’s enterprise AI initiative and commercial priorities
• Monitor GenAI and agentic AI trends and translate them into actionable workforce strategy: which roles are affected, in what timeframe, and what SharkNinja should do about it
• Develop KPIs and measurement frameworks to track AI adoption, workforce readiness, and organizational impact; present findings to PD and HR leadership

Org Design & Job Architecture

• Lead org design analysis and redesign efforts associated with AI adoption within PD and Engineering, in collaboration with functional leaders and the broader People & Culture team
• Apply task-level decomposition to identify which work within roles is a candidate for AI augmentation, automation, or human-AI teaming - and design job architectures accordingly
• Define new role types as needed: AI workflow coordinators, human-AI teaming roles, and governance-oriented positions that don’t yet exist in our job architecture
• Ensure job architecture, competency frameworks, and career paths reflect AI-era skills and are connected to downstream People & Culture processes (hiring, performance, comp)

Workflow & Process Redesign

• Identify high-priority PD and Engineering workflows affected by AI tools and lead redesign efforts in partnership with functional process owners
• Map current-state workflows, surface automation opportunities and human-AI handoff points, and design future-state processes that are implementable, not theoretical
• Build a repeatable workflow redesign methodology that HRBPs and functional leaders can use to scale this work across teams and categories
• Apply structured process improvement approaches (Lean, Agile, or equivalent) and establish feedback loops to measure impact over time

Change Enablement & Adoption

• Lead change enablement planning for AI initiatives across PD and Engineering - stakeholder engagement, communications strategy, and adoption sequencing
• Develop change strategies that account for workforce anxiety, role evolution, and the cultural dynamics of an engineering and design-heavy population
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior PD and Engineering leaders on the human side of AI adoption: what it means for their teams, their org structures, and their talent

People & Culture Partnership & Stakeholder Leadership

• Operate as an embedded People & Culture thought partner to the Senior HR Business Partner, with shared accountability for the strategic people agenda across PD and Engineering
• Partner with Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, and Total Rewards to connect AI-driven job design outputs to hiring, performance, and compensation frameworks.
• Collaborate with the broader P&C team and SharkNinja’s enterprise AI initiative leads to ensure PD/ENG strategy is integrated, not siloed.

What You Bring:

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Data/Software Analytics
• 5+ years of progressive experience in Human Resources, People strategy, or org transformation - with at least 3 years working directly in or alongside a Product Development, Engineering, or R&D function
• Demonstrated experience leading or contributing to org design, job architecture, or role redesign efforts in the context of a major technology or operational transformation
• Expert working knowledge of AI, GenAI, and agentic AI concepts - sufficient to engage credibly with engineering leaders and translate capability implications into workforce strategy without relying on technical translation from others
• Experience in workflow mapping or business process improvement, with the ability to identify automation opportunities and design human-AI handoff points
• Strong executive presence and communication skills; able to prepare and present to VP and C-suite audiences with minimal direction
• Demonstrated ability to operate in a fast-moving, matrixed environment where priorities shift and ambiguity is the norm, not the exception

Preferred

• Master’s degree in Information Science, Human Computer Interaction, Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, Business Analytics, or a related field
• Experience at a consumer products, hardware, or technology company with high SKU complexity and compressed innovation cycles
• Familiarity with organizational design methodologies (e.g., Galbraith Star Model, Kates Kesler) and digital org design tools (e.g., OrgVue)
• Familiarity with task decomposition or work design methodologies (e.g., Mercer Work Design, Gloat, Reejig, or equivalent)
• Experience with workflow automation tools (e.g., Microsoft Power Automate, Copilot Studio) sufficient to engage credibly in automation design conversations
• Prior consulting experience in AI organization or workforce transformation

What It Takes to Succeed in This Role:

This role exists at the intersection of people strategy and business transformation. It will not be filled by someone who needs a playbook - because one does not exist yet. The right person brings structure to ambiguity, earns credibility quickly with engineering leaders who are skeptical of HR, and delivers work that drives decisions rather than describes them.

SharkNinja moves fast. Our Product Development teams ship products across 30+ categories on compressed cycles, our organizational structures evolve with the business, and our leadership expects P&C to be ahead of problems - not responding to them. If that pace energizes you, this is the right environment.

SharkNinja is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex.