Shane Noe
Astranis Space Technologies
“Don't fight the wave. Be curious. Learn. Help shape what comes next.”
Shane Noe has been named to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, the annual award recognizing up to 100 leaders in each category of talent acquisition. Honorees are nominated by peers or found by committees that look for excellent work wherever it happens, then chosen for the depth of their craft and their impact on hiring. This is Shane's story.
Shane Noe, SVP, Head of People at Astranis Space Technologies, describes himself as a “recovering finance guy”, but his path into talent and people leadership is anything but conventional.
It began at Cal Poly, where he studied finance and won acceptance into Apple's prestigious finance development rotational program, an early opportunity that shaped the trajectory of everything that followed. Over two years he rotated through nine roles across Apple's headquarters and global offices, gaining exposure to engineering, sales, strategy, and finance, and, just as importantly, learning what great leadership looked like… and what it didn't.
After completing the program he stayed on in corporate finance, immersed in forecasting models and revenue analysis, until Google's treasury team recruited him away. There, at just 25 years old, he found himself personally trading billions of dollars a month in foreign exchange derivatives.
“It was insane responsibility,” he recalls. “And it taught me two things quickly: I wasn't the smartest person in the room, and culture matters more than people realize.”
Discovering the Power of People and Data
Seeking a smaller environment with greater impact, Shane joined Box in strategic planning and analysis. The role put him in the room with senior leadership during annual planning cycles, a vantage point from which he could observe executives across every function. The one who stood out most wasn't the CEO or the CFO. It was the Chief People Officer.
“What struck me was how that leader anchored business conversations back to people strategy,” Shane says. “It was the first time I really saw HR operating as a strategic function.”
When Box's finance partner to the People team departed, Shane stepped in temporarily and uncovered something surprising. Despite headcount representing the majority of company costs, recruiting and HR were operating with almost no data infrastructure. Recruiters were overwhelmed, targets were missed, and leaders didn't have answers, not because they didn't care, but because they lacked visibility.
So Shane started building. He created funnel metrics, capacity models, and basic KPIs, and he redesigned reporting from the ground up. Within weeks, recruiting performance became measurable, predictable, and defensible. The work caught the attention of recruiting leadership and prompted a career-defining question: Have you ever considered recruiting?
From Finance to Talent Transformation
Mentors advised him to stay on the CFO track. Shane made the leap anyway, moving into recruiting operations leadership at Box, convinced that combining quantitative rigor with talent strategy could unlock massive impact. “It was the most fun I'd had at work,” he says. “Recruiters are optimistic by nature, that energy is contagious.”
His success at Box led to a call from Okta, where he helped scale recruiting through a period of explosive growth. The team grew to over 130 people, supporting more than 2,400 hires per year. What set the function apart was data. Shane built one of the most advanced people analytics and recruiting intelligence systems in the company, giving leaders the ability to forecast hiring outcomes weeks or months in advance.
“At one point, recruiting may have been the most data-driven function in the entire organization,” he says.
That visibility earned him broader responsibility across people analytics, workforce planning, and People Operations, bringing the same rigor to the entire HR organization.
Rounding Out as a People Leader
To deepen his leadership range, Shane joined ClickUp, where he expanded into compensation, HR business partnerships, real estate, and talent development. The experience rounded out both the operational and human sides of leadership, critical preparation for the step that came next.
About nine months ago, he moved into his first Head of People role at Astranis, and the decision was a deliberate one. “I wanted a role reporting directly to the CEO, and an executive team that truly understood the strategic value of People,” he says.
Astranis didn't just say the right things, it proved them. When Shane delivered his final presentation, every executive rearranged their schedule to attend. “That told me everything,” he says. “They get it.”
Advice for Talent Leaders in an AI Era
As AI reshapes talent and people functions, Shane sees strong parallels to the rise of data in recruiting a decade ago. “Don't fight the wave,” he advises. “Be curious. Learn. Help shape what comes next.”
He believes AI will fundamentally change the work, and that the leaders who embrace it early will define the future of the profession. Fear, he says, is optional.
Beyond the Resume
Outside of work, Shane co-founded the SnowGlobe Music Festival in Lake Tahoe, a winter electronic music festival that grew to 60,000 attendees over three days at its peak. MTV acquired the festival in 2017, capping a side venture that showcased entrepreneurial instincts far beyond HR.
He also remains deeply committed to sharing knowledge with the talent community, regularly speaking at industry events and advocating for more data-driven decision-making across recruiting and HR.
The Talent 100 exists to celebrate the people shaping the future of how the world hires, and few embody that better than Shane. We are honored to welcome Shane Noe to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, and grateful for the experience, perspective, and craft they bring to this community. Congratulations, Shane. Welcome to the Talent 100.
About the Talent 100
The Talent 100 is an annual list spotlighting the leaders who push HR and talent acquisition forward, organized by Noon AI. Honorees are selected through peer nominations and independent selection committees. Selection is entirely merit-based, with no fees or pay-to-play requirements.
