Program Manager, Global Employee Recognition & Experience

Program Manager, Global Employee Recognition & Experience Scottsdale, Arizona, United States Join Axon and be a Force for Good. At Axon, we’re on a mission to Protect Life. We’re explorers, pursuing society’s most critical safety and justice issues with our ecosystem of devices and cloud software. Like our products, we work better together. We connect with candor and care, seeking out diverse perspectives from our customers, communities and each other. Life at Axon is fast-paced, challenging and meaningful. Here, you’ll take ownership and drive real change. Constantly grow as you work hard for a mission that matters at a company where you matter. Your Impact The Manager, Global Employee Experience PM is the operating engine of Axon’s Culture & People Experience team. You’ll lead Culture Operations & PMO: the operating plan, budget and forecast, vendor contracts, project plans, and cadence that let our culture swim lanes deliver on time, on budget, and anchored to our CME pillars of Customer, Mission, and Employee. This is a individual contributor leadership role. You’ll turn a broad, global portfolio, spanning signature moments like the Company Kick‑Off, New Hire Orientation (NHO), recognition, onboarding, annual Compliance training, and site experience across our offices, into one clear plan with clear owners. This role blends project management, program execution, operational excellence, and employee experience, ensuring that our processes are scalable, consistent, and reflective of Axon’s culture. You’ll partner across teams to create a smooth, engaging, and well‑organized experience for employees as they join and grow within the company. What You’ll Do Location: Scottsdale, Seattle or Boston. 4 days a week in office (Tues‑Fri) Reports to: Vice President of Culture and People Experience Lead the Culture Operating Plan. Build and maintain the annual operating plan across all Culture swim lanes, from Signature Moments and Recognition to Onboarding, Axon Aid, and Site Experience. Set the planning and review cadence, and track milestones, dependencies, risks, and decisions for every program in the portfolio. Run the Culture PMO.Establish standard PMO practices so programs are repeatable, scalable, and consistently executed across regions and sites. Drive adoption of Monday.com as the Culture program management platform and maintain the Culture SharePoint hub as the home for playbooks, templates, vendor records, and program artifacts. Own the Culture budget and forecast.Manage the department budget end to end: monthly forecasting with Finance, a single source of truth for spend, burn‑rate alerts, and program‑level budget accountability with each lane owner. Manage vendors and contracts. Own Culture vendor contracts and renewals (e.g., MetaCoach, Picnic, Bonusly, event venues) in partnership with Procurement, including terms, renewal calendars, and vendor performance. Lead the Company Kick‑Off activations.Serve as program lead for Axon’s largest culture moment, owning the operating rhythm, timeline, and cross‑functional coordination with Executives, Marketing, HALO, and lane owners. Run the Employee Experience operating cadence.Lead the weekly rhythm for a flat pod of EE Program Managers: status reviews, priority setting, capacity planning, and escalations. This role leads through influence and has no direct reports. Own end‑to‑end project management for annual compliance training. Lead the yearly program from planning through launch and close‑out. This includes the timeline, milestones, risks, and decisions across all required modules Own Culture intake channels.Manage the Shape Culture inbox and Culture Zendesk queue, including triage, routing rules, and timely, high‑quality responses, using AI‑assisted workflows where they help. Champion AI enablement. Help every Culture teammate use AI tools such as Claude to work faster, reduce manual work, and scale programs. What You’ll Bring 3+ years in program management, PMO, business operations, or employee experience operations, including 2+ years owning a multi‑program portfolio. A proven track record building and running a PMO or program portfolio, including operating plans, governance cadences, intake and prioritization, RAID tracking, and executive‑ready status reporting. Experience owning a department or program budget, forecasting monthly with Finance, and managing spend to plan. Experience negotiating, managing, and renewing vendor contracts in partnership with Procurement. Hands‑on experience with work management platforms (Monday.com, Asana, Smartsheet, or similar) and collaboration hubs such as SharePoint; familiarity with dashboards and BI tools (e.g., Sigma, Snowflake) is a plus. Ability to drive accountability and alignment across peers, a flat team, and senior stakeholders without direct reporting lines. Experience delivering high‑visibility, company‑wide programs or events with executive stakeholders. Exceptional organization and attention to detail, with a strong sense of ownership and follow‑through. Clear, concise written and verbal communication, including executive updates and cross‑functional briefings. Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to stay calm and solutions‑oriented under pressure. Don’t meet every single requirement? That’s ok. At Axon, we Aim Far. We think big with a long‑term view because we want to reinvent the world to be a safer, better place. We are also committed to building diverse teams that reflect the communities we serve. Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they check every box in the job description. If you’re excited about this role and our mission to Protect Life but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification listed here, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. The above job description is not intended as, nor should it be construed as, exhaustive of all duties, responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with this job. The job description may change or be supplemented at any time in accordance with business needs and conditions. Some roles may also require legal eligibility to work in a firearms environment. Axon’s mission is to Protect Life and is committed to the well‑being and safety of its employees as well as Axon’s impact on the environment. All Axon employees must be aware of and committed to the appropriate environmental, health, and safety regulations, policies, and procedures. Axon employees are empowered to report safety concerns as they arise and activities potentially impacting the environment. We are an equal opportunity employer that promotes justice, advances equity and values diversity and fosters inclusion. We’re committed to hiring the best talent — regardless of race, creed, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances — and empowering all of our employees so they can do their best work. If you have a disability or special need that requires assistance or accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please email View email address on click.appcast.io. Please note that this email address is for accommodation purposes only. Axon will not respond to inquiries for other purposes. Voluntary Self-Identification For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file. As set forth in Axon’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law. If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows: A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service‑connected disability. A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three‑year period beginning on the date of such veteran’s discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service. An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense. An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985. #J-18808-Ljbffr Axon