Talent Program Manager

Hybrid, Chicago

TEAM: Talent and Employee Experience

REPORTING TO: VP, Talent and Employee Experience

ABOUT US

tms unites technology, marketing, and sourcing to drive transformational change for the world’s leading brands. With 1,200+ employees across 26 countries, we offer an impressive range of solutions – from inspiration and innovation to category management and delivery.

Operating as a creative agency, a strategic consultancy, a sourcing business, and a technology provider, we engage with over 110 million customers every single day for our clients, including McDonald’s, T-Mobile, O2, Starbucks, and adidas.

Most importantly, we're a place where you can achieve great things, and be recognized as the best.

WHAT MATTERS THE MOST

Breakthrough, business-driving ideas come from extraordinary people with the freedom to be their most authentic selves at work. Authenticity and diversity are critical elements of our business. They can only be realized when we create access and equity for all. We foster a culture of inclusion and belonging and aspire to be ever-evolving.

tms is a place where brilliant people are better together. If you want your ideas to be heard and to contribute to a culture of inclusion and authenticity, bring us your voice! Visit us at tmsw.com.

WHY WE THINK YOU WILL LOVE THIS ROLE 

The Talent Program Manager will sit within our People team — a strategic, collaborative group focused on building an engaging, high-performance culture. In this role, you will own core programs that shape how our employees grow, perform, and feel connected to our mission. You’ll operate as a program manager across performance, development, organizational effectiveness and engagement initiatives, bringing structure to evolving workstreams and ensuring consistent employee experiences globally. If you love building impactful people programs and partnering across teams to bring ideas to life, this role is for you.

WHAT YOU WILL BRING TO THE ORGANIZATION

Strategic Program Leadership

• Proven ability to build, scale, or optimize programs such as performance management, development planning, organizational effectiveness, or engagement initiatives
• Experience aligning talent programs to broader business and culture strategies
• Strong data orientation — able to use analytics to evaluate program effectiveness and drive improvements

Project & Process Excellence

• Demonstrated success leading cross-functional project teams from planning through launch
• Strong program management discipline — roadmap creation, timelines, governance, and stakeholder updates
• Ability to design processes and frameworks that are repeatable, efficient, and scalable
• Skilled at identifying gaps and building structure in Talent Management programs

Change Enablement & Communication

• Experience designing change management strategies that enable adoption across global or distributed teams
• Strong communication skills — able to craft messaging for leaders, managers, and employees at different levels of detail in partnership with communications team
• Ability to build training, tools, or enablement resources that drive understanding and execution in partnership with learning and development team
• Confidence facilitating meetings, workshops, trainings or live sessions

Relationship Building & Influence

• High emotional intelligence and ability to build trust across functions and levels
• Experience working in matrixed, global, or rapidly evolving organizations
• Comfortable leading through influence rather than authority
• Collaborative mindset — seeks input, unblocks others, and operates with transparency

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO HAVE

• 7+ years of progressive HR experience in talent management, employee experience, or HR program management
• Hands-on experience with HR technology platforms (SuccessFactors strongly preferred)
• Familiarity with engagement or survey tools and translating insights into action
• Strong documentation skills — able to create playbooks, templates, or toolkits
• Comfort with Microsoft Office Suite, including building decks and dashboards

 And we’d love you to…  

• Be energized by building and iterating in a fast-moving environment
• Bring creativity, empathy, and curiosity to every challenge
• Thrive when collaborating with others to solve complex people problems
• Champion employee connection and experience

 Any of the following would be a plus

• Experience with employee listening strategies (surveys, focus groups, stay interviews)
• Exposure to facilitation, coaching, or leadership development
• Experience supporting career frameworks, competency models, or skills strategies
• Background in consulting, professional services, or high-growth environments