Head of People & Talent

Build the recruiting system, management foundations and operating practices for a small team taking high-consequence infrastructure to market.

Dipp AI is building a compact team for a technically demanding category. Hiring well means understanding what each role must accomplish, finding evidence of unusual depth, running a rigorous and respectful process, and helping every new colleague become effective without adding layers of ceremony.

You will establish the company's people and talent function with the founding team. The immediate work is hands‑on: role design, sourcing, structured interviews, candidate communication, references, offers and onboarding. As the team grows, you will build the underlying systems for compensation, leveling, manager support, performance, benefits and workplace policy.

This role requires judgment beyond recruiting volume. You will help distinguish genuine systems depth from polished presentation, design fair assessments for different disciplines, protect candidate trust, and build practices appropriate for a company serving customers from startups to Fortune 100 enterprises across industries.

What you will do

• Translate company priorities into clear role scorecards, hiring plans and realistic sequencing with the founding team
• Personally source and close senior engineering, product, research, security, customer and commercial talent
• Design structured interviews and work samples that test job‑relevant evidence while respecting candidate time
• Own candidate communication, references, offers, onboarding and the first months of employee experience
• Establish compensation bands, leveling principles, benefits administration and essential people policies
• Build lightweight systems for goal setting, feedback, manager development and performance decisions
• Track funnel quality, time, candidate experience and hiring outcomes without optimizing for activity alone
• Create an inclusive, high‑accountability operating environment suited to consequential infrastructure work

What we look for

• A record of personally hiring exceptional senior technical talent in an early‑stage or technically demanding environment
• Strong judgment about evidence, references, assessment design and closing
• Working knowledge of compensation, leveling, employment practices, benefits and people operations
• Excellent discretion, follow‑through and written communication
• Comfort moving between strategy and detailed execution without a large recruiting or HR team
• Ability to challenge vague requirements and turn them into an equitable, job‑relevant process

Experience

• 7+ years across talent, people operations or recruiting leadership, including meaningful hands‑on execution
• Built or substantially improved the people systems of a growing technology company
• Experience hiring infrastructure, security, AI, enterprise product or customer‑engineering teams is strongly valued

Education

• No specific degree required; demonstrated judgment, operating depth and results matter most
• Experience building a people function inside a startup counts more than any credential.

Compensation and benefits

• Equity with a standard four‑year vest and early‑stage upside
• Health, dental and vision coverage
• Company‑provided hardware and professional‑development budget
• Direct partnership with the founding team on company design
• Hybrid collaboration in New York
• 401(k) with company contribution and an annual learning budget.