People Programs Manager

About the role:

Reporting to the Senior Director, Talent Acquisition and Culture, the People Programs Manager will own and evolve the programs and moments that shape how people feel about working at Forter. This is a strategic IC role focused on driving recognition, culture, events, swag, and DEI initiatives while partnering cross-functionally to amplify Forter's employer brand and Employee Value Proposition.

You'll sit on the People team and operate at the intersection of culture, communications, and community, touching every layer of the employee lifecycle from day one through long tenure. You'll own your programs end-to-end, set the vision, manage vendors and budgets, and bring creative thinking to how we show up for our people globally and locally.

What you’ll be doing:

Employee Experience Programs

• Design and improve core EX programs: Own and continuously evolve recognition, milestone moments, onboarding experiences, and culture moments, ensuring they land with impact across a global workforce.
• Shape the global events cadence: Partner with local employee experience teams to develop and evolve a global events calendar, ensuring consistency of experience while preserving local relevance across geographies.
• Develop and manage the swag program: Lead Forter's swag strategy end-to-end, including vendor selection, inventory management, quality standards, and distribution for employees, candidates, and new hires.
• Connect programs to company momentum: Design and activate recognition and celebration moments tied to company milestones and wins, from new client launches to product achievements, ensuring employees feel the impact of the company's success.
• Identify experience gaps: Audit the employee journey on an ongoing basis and propose scalable, high-impact solutions where gaps exist.

EVP & Employer Brand

• Activate Forter's Employee Value Proposition: Partner with Marketing and TA to define, articulate, and activate the EVP, ensuring alignment between how we show up as an employer externally and what employees actually experience internally.
• Spotlight employee stories: Surface and amplify authentic employee journeys across internal and external channels, including content, social, career pages, and events.
• Partner on brand repositioning: Work closely with Marketing to ensure Forter's brand evolution is reflected internally, embedding updated messaging, values, and identity into employee programs, communications, and key moments across the lifecycle.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

• Lead DEI programming: Drive Forter's DEI initiatives with a specific focus on building and enabling Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).
• Build ERG infrastructure: Develop the frameworks, charters, governance, programming support, and budget allocation that allow ERGs to operate and grow effectively.
• Partner on priorities and progress: Work with People leadership and business leaders to set DEI priorities, measure impact, and design programming tied to awareness moments and heritage months.

Budget & Vendor Management

• Own program budgets: Manage budget planning, tracking, and reporting across your full program portfolio.
• Manage vendor relationships: Lead external partnerships with event venues, recognition platforms, swag suppliers, and ERG program tools, including RFPs, contracts, and ongoing performance management.
• Drive efficiency: Identify opportunities to improve cost-effectiveness without compromising employee experience quality.

Global & Local Balance

• Build programs that scale: Design initiatives that work globally while making space for local culture, office identity, and regional nuance.
• Partner with local Employee Experience teams: Work alongside Employee Experience Partners and office leads to customize programs appropriately across Forter's markets.
• Operationalize consistency: Balance centralized standards with decentralized flexibility, ensuring every employee has a connected Forter experience regardless of location.

What you’ll need:

• 4-8 years of experience across People Programs, HR, or a related function including but not limited to Employee Experience, Culture & Belonging, and Internal Communications.
• Demonstrated experience running multiple programs simultaneously with strong project management discipline.
• Experience supporting or building DEI initiatives and/or ERGs.
• Track record of cross-functional partnership, especially with Marketing, TA, or Communications.
• Budget ownership experience; comfortable with planning cycles and spend tracking.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to craft messaging that resonates at every level of the org.
• Experience in a global company with multi-site complexity.
• High ownership orientation; you see gaps and close them without being asked.
• Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to build structure where little exists.

About us:

Digital commerce is built on trust. At every point along the eCommerce journey, businesses must make a critical decision: Can I trust this customer? Answering this simple question accurately and instantly is powerful—it can accelerate revenue growth and strengthen a company’s connection with its customers. How do we do it? Forter was founded on the insight that it's not about what is being purchased, nor where— but who is behind the interaction.

The Forter Decision Engine finds patterns across more than one billion identities in our dataset. We isolate fraudsters and protect customers—ensuring everyone gets the experience they deserve.  Given that trust is central to how we operate, Forter is very much driven by a defined set of values. We attract remarkable talent and have retention and engagement levels that are well above benchmarks. We’re meticulous about strengthening our culture as we grow and ensuring this is an environment where people can have outsized impact. 

Trust is backed by data –  Forter is a recipient of over 10 workplace and innovation awards, including: 

• Great Place to Work Certification (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)
• Fortune’s Best Workplaces in NYC (2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025)
• Forbes Cloud 100 (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025)
• #3 on Fast Company’s list of “Most Innovative Finance Companies” (2022)
• Anti-Fraud Solution of the Year at the Payments Awards (2024)
• SAP Pinnacle Awards “New Partner Application Award” (2023)
• Fintech Breakthrough Awards – Best Fraud Prevention Platform (2023)

Life as a Forterian:

We are a team of over 500 Forterians spread across 3 different continents. Since 2013, we've raised $525 million from investors such as Tiger Global, Bessemer, Sequoia Capital, March Capital and Salesforce Ventures. We're on a mission to bring trust to global digital commerce so that companies like Nordstrom, Priceline, Instacart and ASOS can block fraud, drive revenue and improve customer experience.

At Forter, we believe unique people create unique ideas, and valuable experience comes in many forms. So, even if your background doesn't match everything we have listed in the job description, we still encourage you to apply and tell us why your skills and values could be an asset to us. By welcoming different perspectives, we grow together as humans and as a company.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary 
• Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)
• Matching 401K Plan 
• Comprehensive and generous health insurance, including vision and dental coverage
• Home office allowance 
• Generous PTO policy 
• Half day Fridays

At Forter, we embrace a hybrid work model that blends in-person connection with the flexibility of remote work. Team members based near our key hubs are expected to work from the office at least three days per week. We believe that regular face-to-face collaboration fuels professional development, strengthens our culture, and builds the relationships that help teams thrive.

*Forter does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to Forter (or any related) jobs alias or directly to any Forter employees. Forter will not be responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Salary Range: $119,000 - $147,000 annually + bonus + equity + benefits
The referenced salary range is based on the Company's good faith belief at the time of posting. Actual compensation may vary based on factors such as geographic location, work experience, market conditions, and skill level.