Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition

Summary
Location: Irvine, CA (onsite, four days per week)

About Kardion
Kardion is a cardiovascular medical device company developing next-generation mechanical circulatory support technology, with dual headquarters in Irvine, California and Stuttgart, Germany. Every moment matters. Our team is building toward a future where circulatory support gives patients and clinicians more time, more options, and more certainty.
Summary
Kardion is building the team that will take a new heart pump therapy through FDA approval and into hospitals. As our Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition, you will own how we find, assess, and hire that team. You will run full-cycle recruiting for engineering, quality, regulatory, clinical, supply chain, IT, finance, and G&A roles, as well as executive searches, as US headcount grows several times over by commercialization. You will partner directly with the CEO and executive team and build the recruiting engine from the ground up.
Essential Responsibilities

• Partner with hiring managers and executives to translate PMA, manufacturing, and launch milestones into prioritized hiring plans with clear timelines.
• Run structured intake meetings that define the success profile, must-have skills, interview panel, scorecard, and target start date for every role.
• Own full-cycle recruiting: sourcing, screening, interviews, debriefs, references, offers, and closing.
• Build multi-channel pipelines for hard-to-find medical device talent (catheter and delivery systems, mechanical circulatory support, design and manufacturing quality, regulatory, and clinical) through direct outreach, referrals, LinkedIn Recruiter, and industry networks.
• Lead or partner on director, VP, and C-level searches, managing sensitive and confidential processes with the CEO.
• Manage recruiting agencies only for approved searches, hold them to agreed terms, and reduce agency spend over time.
• Coordinate interviews across US and German teams and time zones, including onsite visits and finalist presentations.
• Prepare offers with People & Culture using market data and internal equity, and hand off smoothly to onboarding.
• Own the ATS: keep records clean and reportable for audits, and track time-to-fill, pipeline health, source of hire, offer acceptance, and agency spend.
• Deliver a professional, inclusive candidate experience that shows candidates the mission and pace of an early-stage medical device company.
• Keep hiring compliant with California law, including pay transparency, the Fair Chance Act, and fair hiring practices.
• Other duties as assigned.

What Success Looks Like in Year One

• Priority roles filled on the timelines that support PMA submission and manufacturing scale-up.
• A repeatable hiring process in place: intake, structured interviews, scorecards, and debriefs for every role.
• Agency spend meaningfully reduced as direct sourcing ramps up.
• Monthly recruiting dashboard shared with the CEO and executive team.

Skills, Qualifications & Key Knowledge Areas

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Communications, Psychology, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 6+ years of full-cycle talent acquisition, including 3+ years in medical device; cardiovascular or Class III device experience strongly preferred.
• Proven success filling technical and regulated roles such as R&D engineering, quality, regulatory, and clinical, plus director and VP-level searches.
• Startup or high-growth experience: comfortable building process while carrying a full requisition load.
• Active medical device network in Southern California.
• Skilled with ATS platforms (JazzHR or similar) and LinkedIn Recruiter; uses data to drive decisions.
• Strong interviewing, assessment, and influencing skills with executives and hiring managers.
• Sound judgment and discretion with confidential information.
• Working knowledge of California employment law as it applies to hiring.

Environment

• Office: Irvine, CA, onsite Monday to Thursday.
• Travel: minimal; occasional industry events and university outreach.

Additional Information
Physical abilities: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, stand, walk, talk, and hear for up to 8 hours per day. The employee regularly lifts and carries up to 10 pounds and occasionally up to 20 pounds. Duties involve daily keyboard and computer use and require close vision. These demands are representative of those needed to perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Language abilities: Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, with the ability to communicate clearly and professionally with colleagues in the US and Germany.
Compensation and benefits: The base salary range for this role is [TBD]. Final pay depends on job-related skills, experience, and location. This role may be eligible for equity and an annual incentive bonus, plus Kardion's benefits package.
Equal opportunity: Kardion is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Kardion will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with the California Fair Chance Act.