Performance Development Program Manager

Job Title:

Performance Development Program Manager

Requisition ID:

R027660

Job Description:

Job Title: Performance Development Program Manager

Reporting to: Associate Director, Chief of Strategy, Learning & Development

Department: Human Resources

Location: Santa Monica, CA / Irvine, CA

Your Mission:

At Xbox, we’re at our best when our people are at their best. As Performance Development Program Manager within our Learning, Development & Performance Center of Excellence, you will power the systems, programs, and experiences that fuel a high-performance culture across our teams.

In this role, you will lead the execution of performance management, 360 feedback, talent review, and succession planning programs, ensuring that they are effective, efficient, and integrated with learning & development outcomes.

This role is about turning strategy into action. You’ll partner closely with HR Business Partners, Legal, HR Centers of Excellence, and business leaders across multiple teams to ensure our talent practices are consistent, scalable, and built for impact, while still flexible enough to meet the needs of a dynamic, fast-moving organization.

What You’ll Do:

Drive a High-Performance Culture Through Performance Management:

• Execute performance management programs that reinforcåe clarity, accountability, and high standards.
• Strengthen manager capability to drive accountability, deliver high-quality feedback, and elevate team performance.
• Enable business leaders to clearly assess and differentiate performance to ensure top talent is recognized and developed.
• Build and scale tools, resources, and training that strengthen coaching capability and support continuous growth at all levels.

Lead 360 Feedback & Development Experiences:

• Administer scalable 360 feedback programs including tool/vendor management, survey design, and participant experience.
• Partner with Learning, Development & Performance Business Partners to effectively interpret results and guide leaders through development conversations
• Integrate 360 feedback into broader talent processes, including performance management, talent reviews, and succession planning
• Drive adoption of a continuous feedback culture by embedding 360 insights into ongoing performance and growth conversations, not just annual cycles.

Elevate Talent Review & Succession Planning:

• Lead scalable, high-quality talent review processes that enable clear, data-informed talent decisions and prioritization.
• Partner with HRBPs, Learning & Performance Business Partners, and business leaders to assess performance and potential, calibrate talent, and improve consistency and quality of talent decisions.
• Support succession planning across business units for critical roles, strengthening bench depth and ensuring ready-now and ready-next successor pipelines.
• Synthesize insights across performance, 360 feedback, and talent reviews to provide a holistic, data-driven view of talent and organizational health.
• Translate talent insights into actionable outputs, including development actions, succession plans, and enterprise talent strategies.

Operate as a Performance Development SME Across Xbox:

• Drive consistent, high-quality execution of performance and talent programs across multiple business units, ensuring alignment to enterprise standards within Microsoft Gaming.
• Partner with HRBPs, Learning & Performance Business Partners and business leaders to adapt and implement programs in ways that reflect local business needs while maintaining global consistency.
• Collaborate across regions and with Legal/HR partners to ensure programs are aligned with local regulatory requirements, employment practices, and cultural considerations
• Act as a subject matter expert on performance development, feedback, and talent practices - guiding leaders to raise expectations and improve team outcomes.
• Navigate and align across diverse stakeholders to drive adoption, consistency, and impact of COE-led programs at scale.

Use Data to Drive Better Talent Decisions:

• Analyze and synthesize performance, feedback, and talent data to identify key trends, risks, and opportunities across the organization.
• Translate data into clear, actionable insights that inform talent decisions, workforce planning, and development priorities.
• Partner with People Insights to evolve how we measure performance, potential, and talent health, including metrics, dashboards, and reporting.
• Enable leaders, Learning & Performance Business Partners and HRBPs to leverage data effectively in talent discussions, improving the quality and consistency of decision-making.

Deliver with Excellence:

• Own end-to-end execution of key talent cycles across performance management, 360 feedback, talent reviews, and succession planning, ensuring a seamless and high-quality experience at scale.
• Drive operational excellence across programs, managing timelines, dependencies, stakeholder alignment, and communications across multiple teams and business units.
• Partner with People Tech to optimize and scale Workday and related systems, ensuring they effectively support and enable all performance and talent processes.
• Continuously improve programs through feedback, data insights, and external benchmarking, with a focus on efficiency, scalability, and impact.
• Ensure all talent programs are fair, compliant, scalable, and aligned to regional employment practices and organizational policies

Minimum Requirements

Experience

• 6 -10+ years of experience in Talent Management, Performance Management, Talent Assessments, Organizational Development, I-O psychology or related fields
• Proven experience running performance management cycles, 360 feedback programs, and talent reviews
• Experience partnering with People Tech teams and leveraging systems (e.g., Workday, PowerBI, measurement tools, etc.) to enable and scale talent programs.
• Experience partnering across global regions, with an understanding of how to adapt programs to meet local regulatory and business requirements.
• Experience driving change management and adoption of talent programs in dynamic, fast-paced environments.

Knowledge and Skills

• Deep knowledge of performance management, feedback, talent review, and succession planning practices
• Working knowledge of employment practices and ability to partner effectively with Legal and HR to ensure compliant, fair, and consistent talent processes.
• Strong program management skills with the ability to execute complex, cross-functional initiatives at scale
• Strong analytical and data interpretation skills, including advanced Excel proficiency; experience with PowerBI or similar tools a plus
• Advanced PowerPoint, presentation design, and executive storytelling skills, with the ability to synthesize complex data and insights into clear, decision-ready narratives and recommendations
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to drive alignment across diverse stakeholders.

Extra Points

• Experience working within a COE model and supporting multiple business units.
• Comfortable operating in a high-performance culture where priorities evolve quickly and expectations are high.
• Experience in gaming, tech, media, or entertainment

Our World

 

At Activision, we strive to create the most iconic brands in gaming and entertainment. We’re driven by our mission to deliver unrivaled gaming experiences for the world to enjoy, together. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, Crash Bandicoot™, Tony Hawk’s™ Pro Skater™, and Guitar Hero®. As a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and products, our “press start” is simple: delight hundreds of millions of players around the world with innovative, fun, thrilling, and engaging entertainment experiences.

We’re not just looking back at our decades-long legacy; we’re forging ahead to keep advancing gameplay with some of the most popular titles and sophisticated technology in the world. We have bold ambitions to create the most inclusive company as we know our success comes from the passionate, creative, and diverse teams within our organization. 

We’re in the business of delivering fun and unforgettable entertainment for our player community to enjoy. And our future opportunities have never been greater — this could be your opportunity to level up. 

Ready to Activate Your Future? 

Our ability to build immersive and innovative worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment.  We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!

 

The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.

 

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.  

 

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to [email protected]. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest. 

 

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics.

Rewards

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!  Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance;
• 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;
• Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;
• Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others;
• If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company.  You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/.

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $87,480.00 - $161,910.00 Annual. These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location. Your Talent Professional can share this role’s range details for your local geography during the hiring process. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable.