Head of People and Recruitment

We’re hiring a Head of People and Recruitment to build the systems and culture that will let us double our team to 30+ staff over the next two years.

Tarbell’s work depends entirely on the people we hire and how well we support them. You’ll own the people function end-to-end: running hiring processes for 10+ new staff and 25+ new fellows annually, building the onboarding systems and policies that retain them, and shaping the culture of a rapidly growing organization. There’s significant scope to define how the role develops through this period of rapid growth.

About the Tarbell Center

The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism supports journalism that helps society navigate the development and deployment of advanced AI. We provide funding and training to strengthen AI reporting at major news outlets.

Since 2023, we’ve raised ~$20M in funding and supported 50+ journalists through fellowships, grants, and residencies. We’re now in a period of rapid expansion as we scale from a $4M budget in 2025 to $14M by 2027.

Across our programs, we’ve supported a wide range of impactful reporting:

• Accountability reporting: Our journalists have broken corporate accountability stories about OpenAI’s legal tactics against nonprofits and xAI violating its own safety policies. A recent investigation about Character.AI's failure to protect minors on its platform contributed to the company banning under-18s within a week of publication.
• AI policy coverage: Our reporters have produced expert policy analysis, revealed exclusive information about state-level AI policy developments, and investigated AI policy lobbying.
• Impacts from AI: Coverage of the impacts from current systems, ranging from the climate impacts to mass discrimination, and the emerging risks from frontier models, such as sabotaging shutdown mechanisms or helping engineer pandemics.
• Sensemaking: We’ve supported explanatory journalism that helps the public make sense of the circular funding deals, advancements in automating AI R&D, military integration, and developments in China.

We believe journalism will be essential to helping society understand and respond to AI advancements in the coming years. By 2030 we aim to grow Tarbell into the leading institution supporting AI journalism globally, providing the funding and training needed to make that possible.

About the role

You’ll own people and recruitment at Tarbell, reporting to the Operations Director. The role splits into four areas:

Recruitment support

You’ll partner closely with hiring managers across the organization to run rigorous, effective hiring processes. That means:

• Helping managers specify criteria, write job descriptions, and design application questions
• Designing and administering work tests and interviews, and supporting managers in evaluating them
• Managing candidate communications throughout the process, making sure every applicant has a positive experience with Tarbell, whether or not they’re hired
• Proactively identifying and reaching out to potential candidates for open roles, either directly or through hiring managers
• Co-leading fellow recruitment and selection with the Fellowship team, helping design and run processes that attract top emerging journalists and AI talent globally

People operations

You’ll own the day-to-day systems that keep Tarbell running:

• Drafting, negotiating, and communicating contracts and offer letters
• Onboarding new staff and fellows
• Developing and maintaining staff policies and making sure staff understand them
• Managing payroll, taxes, and government reporting across multiple jurisdictions
• Onboarding 25+ fellows annually, including contracts, onboarding, and continuing support throughout their placement

Culture

You’ll work with the leadership team to translate high-level principles into the day-to-day reality of working at Tarbell:

• Developing and reinforcing organizational culture
• Planning staff retreats and other events
• Building and managing the wider Tarbell community of fellows and grantees
• Monitoring job satisfaction and identifying ways to improve it

General operations

As the second operations hire for a small but growing organization, you’ll work across programs to solve problems and increase impact:

• Deploying and maintaining software tools
• Helping program leads to manage complex projects and fix problems before they happen
• Being someone that staff, fellows, grantees, and partners can always turn to with a question or problem, whatever it is.

Who we’re looking for

We expect:

• Operations experience. 3–5 years in HR, recruiting, or related operations, ideally at a small-to medium-sized organization where you’ve worn multiple hats. You don’t need to have done every part of this role before, but you should have meaningful experience across at least some of the areas above.
• Excellent written and verbal communication. Whether writing a job description, organizing community events, or mediating staff disputes, your communication is clear, professional, and supportive. People like talking with you.
• Strong project management. You build systems that scale, maintain standards under pressure, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. You’re detail-oriented and people trust you to follow through.
• Good judgment about people. You can quickly assess candidates, give hiring managers useful pushback, and navigate sensitive situations with discretion.
• Generalist mindset. You’re willing and able to take on tasks outside of your core areas of responsibility. Whether that’s setting up budgets in Ramp, troubleshooting a coworker’s software issue, or correcting spelling errors on the website, no task is too big or too small for you.

Bonus points for:

• Skill in other areas of operations like accounting, budgeting, or IT
• A background that includes active sourcing or headhunting, not just inbound recruitment
• Experience building HR functions from the ground up at a growing organization

While we’re most excited to hire an experienced professional who can own the role from day one, we’ll also consider strong candidates earlier in their careers for a Senior Operations Associate variant of the role. This role would have the same scope but would involve more support from the Operations Director as you grow into ownership over the first 12 months.

Compensation and location

We’ll offer a salary of $118,000 – $164,000 in the US or £78,000 – £93,000 in the UK, based on experience and seniority.

Our benefits include:

• 33 days of annual leave in total (including national holidays)
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave, increasing with tenure
• $2,000 per year in professional development funding
• Up to 5% employer contribution towards a standard pension/401(k)
• For employees based in the US: Platinum health, dental, and vision plans, with 95% of premiums paid for by Tarbell
• Flexible working hours
• Productive, collaborative offices in London and San Francisco

We prefer candidates based in London or the San Francisco Bay Area and will require such candidates to work 2 days/week from our office space. We’re also open to candidates based in New York or Washington DC.

Please inquire with View email address on click.appcast.io if questions or concerns regarding compensation or benefits might affect your decision to apply.

Application process

Interested candidates should submit an application (<15 minutes) via Airtable by Sunday, June 14, 2026 at 11:59pm PT.

The application process will involve paid work tests, a structured interview, reference checks, and a paid in-person work trial. We will acknowledge receipt of all applications and aim to get back to candidates within 10 business days of the application deadline. Our ideal start date is September 2026, though flexibility is offered for exceptional candidates.

Tarbell is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate against qualified employees or applicants based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, sexual preference, marital status, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law or local ordinance.