After months of promising major changes to its personnel operation, USC hired a general manager for its football program.

Chad Bowden will be USC’s next general manager, a person familiar with the decision not authorized to speak publicly told The Times, after spending the previous three years at Notre Dame.

Bowden, 30, was named general manager and assistant athletic director at Notre Dame last March, after Michigan pursued him for its GM job. Notre Dame proceeded to make a run to the national championship game, losing to Ohio State.

At USC, Bowden is expected to be one of the highest-paid personnel directors in college football. He’ll have a significant job ahead of him, with landscape-altering changes on the horizon in college football and at USC, where the personnel operation has lagged behind other blueblood programs.

Plans to hire a new GM were first put into motion last August, as athletic director Jen Cohen put on a full-court press to lure Alabama’s Courtney Morgan to L.A. But a $1 million salary wasn’t enough to convince Morgan, who took less money to continue working alongside Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer, both of whom worked under Cohen at Washington.

How Bowden and a revamped personnel operation will work with USC’s coach, Lincoln Riley, remains to be seen. Riley worked closely with Dave Emerick, USC’s current general manager, on all personnel matters. It’s also unclear how Emerick’s role will change. A person familiar with the situation told The Times that he was expected to remain with the program in a different role.

Before coming to Notre Dame with coach Marcus Freeman, Bowden served as a recruiting staffer at Cincinnati. He’s made a rapid ascent, stepping into key personnel roles at two of college football’s proudest programs.