Director, Graduate Builders - Program Lead

Own Company
Own Company

San Francisco, CA, USA

Posted on Jul 16, 2026

Description

Build the Program That Builds the Future

AI is rewriting how careers begin — and Salesforce is going all in. We're hiring hundreds of early-career AI Builders around the world to fuel the growth of Agentforce, Data Cloud, and the next wave of customer transformation. They need a leader, and a lighthouse. Someone to design their year-long journey, build their community, and turn this brand-new program into the most sought-after launchpad in tech.

That's this role.

As part of the Builder Center of Excellence (CoE), you'll own the global Graduate Builder Program end to end — a rare, ground-floor opportunity to define a flagship talent program from a blank page. The strategy, the experience, the culture, the brand: you architect it, you scale it, you make it iconic.

If you've ever wanted to point at something and say "I built that" — this is it.

What You'll Own

1. Program Strategy — Architect the Blueprint

The Graduate Builder Program is a brand-new, year-long experience for our earliest-career AI Builders, and you get to define it from first principles:

  • Strategy: Set the global program strategy and operating model — capacity planning, compensation design, and how Graduate Builders should be deployed within Operating Units (OUs)

  • Recruiting: Define how we hire and recruit this talent, shaping the pipeline strategy for future Technical and Strategic Builders

  • Enablement: Partner closely with Global Field Readiness to build the end-to-end enablement journey — AI-first onboarding, structured curriculum, and milestone-based readiness and certification frameworks

  • Collaboration: Design the program experience itself: how grads collaborate, learn, and grow from day one through graduation

  • Operations: Establish the operational backbone: KPIs, governance, reporting cadences, manager playbooks, and mentorship frameworks that keep quality high as the program scales

2. Community & Culture — Build the Movement

Hundreds of talented & hungry new employees, distributed globally, embedded across OUs — your job is to make them feel like one cohort with one identity:

  • Create a powerful global cohort community that connects grads across geographies and teams

  • Strike the balance: keep every grad aligned to the central global strategy while meeting the real needs of their own OUs and teams

  • Bring the program to life through innovation challenges, demo days, speaker series, and Builder community moments

  • Build the program's reputation as a powerhouse inside Salesforce — and a magnetic external brand that makes universities and top candidates want to start their careers here

  • Foster a culture of learning, innovation, inclusion, and continuous growth

3. Stakeholder Alignment — Rally the Company

A program this ambitious only works with the whole company behind it. You'll be its champion and connector:

  • Global Field Readiness: partner on the full enablement journey, from onboarding through ongoing development

  • FutureForce Recruiting: define the interview plan and hiring path to bring in exceptional early AI talent at scale

  • OU Leaders and Managers: support a global ecosystem of Graduate Builder leaders to ensure every grad gets a consistent, high-quality experience wherever they land

  • Executive Stakeholders: earn buy-in, share progress and metrics, and keep the program moving forward with data, feedback loops, and operational insight

Key Responsibilities

Graduate Builder Program Strategy

  • Define and evolve the global Graduate Builder Program strategy and operating model

  • Build a scalable AI-first workforce development program aligned to Salesforce’s Builder strategy

  • Establish standardized onboarding, development, and graduation frameworks across OUs

  • Drive long-term talent pipeline strategy for Technical and Strategic Builder roles

Enablement & Learning

  • Partner with Enablement and Field Readiness teams to develop onboarding and learning journeys

  • Work with Field Readiness to build structured AI-first curriculum

  • Define milestone-based readiness and certification frameworks

Program Operations & Governance

  • Lead global program operations and governance

  • Establish KPIs, reporting, and operational cadences

  • Drive consistency across embedded OU graduate experiences

  • Develop manager playbooks, operational guidance, and escalation frameworks

Manager & Mentor Ecosystem

  • Lead and support a global manager ecosystem overseeing Graduate Builders

  • Build mentorship, buddy, and coaching frameworks

  • Ensure a high-quality and consistent graduate experience globally

Workforce Planning & Recruiting Partnership

  • Partner with Recruiting and Workforce Planning teams to align hiring strategy with Builder capacity needs

  • Support university and emerging talent recruiting initiatives

  • Help establish Salesforce as a premier destination for early AI talent

Community & Culture

  • Build strong cohort identity and community across globally distributed graduates

  • Lead innovation challenges, demo days, speaker series, and Builder community engagement initiatives

  • Foster a culture of learning, innovation, inclusion, and continuous growth

Executive Stakeholder Management

  • Present program progress, metrics, and recommendations to senior leadership

  • Partner cross-functionally to align workforce development strategy with business priorities

  • Drive continuous program improvement through data, feedback loops, and operational insights

Who You Are

  • 10+ years in enablement, talent development, workforce strategy, operations, or related fields

  • You've built or scaled onboarding, academy, or emerging-talent programs — and loved it

  • Experience in or alongside technical, consulting, pre-sales, AI, or customer-facing organizations

  • Strong program management and operational leadership; experience leading managers and cross-functional initiatives

  • Executive-level communicator who can inspire a grad on day one and a C-suite sponsor in the same afternoon

  • Strategic and hands-on — you set the vision and drive the execution

  • Energized by ambiguity, global scale, and high-growth, transformational environments

  • A builder and systems thinker with a passion for launching the next generation of AI talent

What Success Looks Like

  • Graduate Builders ramp fast and deliver real customer impact

  • OUs compete to get grads because the program is a proven talent pipeline

  • Enablement and onboarding scale globally with consistency and quality

  • Strong retention, engagement, and promotion outcomes across the cohort

  • Managers feel equipped and supported to develop early-career talent

  • Salesforce becomes the destination for the AI generation to start their careers

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.