Head of Talent/Recruiting Lead
Head of Talent
Talent is the single biggest lever at an early-stage company. Every hire shapes culture, velocity, and trajectory. You'll build the recruiting function from the ground up – owning strategy, process, and execution across all roles.
This is a player-coach role. You'll be hands-on in sourcing, screening, and closing candidates while simultaneously building the infrastructure, processes, and eventually the team that scales recruiting as the company grows. You'll partner directly with founders on hiring strategy, compensation decisions, and organizational design.
The best recruiting leaders at this stage are builders, not just managers. You should be energized by the craft of recruiting – finding exceptional people, telling a compelling story, and closing competitive candidates against bigger companies with deeper pockets. You'll need to be scrappy, data-driven, and deeply networked in the talent markets that matter.
What You'll Do
Partner with founders and leadership to define hiring strategy, prioritize roles, and forecast headcount
Own full-cycle recruiting for critical hires: sourcing, screening, interview coordination, offer negotiation, and closing
Build recruiting infrastructure from scratch: ATS implementation, interview processes, scorecards, and candidate experience
Develop employer brand and talent marketing; careers page, job descriptions, social presence, and content
Create and maintain compensation philosophy, leveling frameworks, and offer benchmarking
Source proactively through direct outreach, referrals, events, and community engagement
Track recruiting metrics and use data to optimize funnel performance and hiring outcomes
Hire and develop recruiting team members as volume increases
Qualifications
6+ years of recruiting experience, with at least 2 years in a leadershipor solo Head of Talent role
Track record of building recruiting at a high-growth startup, ideally through a 10→50+ employee scale
Hands-on recruiting skill – you can source, screen, and close, not just manage others doing it
Deep networks in technical talent markets: engineering, product, design, AI/ML
Experience implementing and optimizing ATS systems (Ashby, Greenhouse, Lever)
Strong understanding of compensation benchmarking and offer strategy in competitive markets
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, ability to represent the company to candidates at all levels
Data-driven approach to recruiting with experience tracking and optimizing key metrics
Nice to Have
Experience recruiting for AI/ML roles and familiarity with the technical talent landscape
Background recruiting at a company in the same vertical (fintech, healthtech, legaltech, etc.)
Experience building recruiting at multiple startups through different growth stages
Established relationships with executive recruiters and search firms
Experience with employer branding, recruiting marketing, or talent community building
Background as a recruiter at a top-tier tech company