Head of Talent / Recruiting Lead

We're building an AI-native teammate that works inside the tools your team already uses, connects across your entire stack, and handles real work across finance, marketing, ops, and engineering. Head of Talent/Talent Lead
Lead talent acquisition for a portfolio of early-stage AI companies — sourcing and closing top talent, designing hiring systems, and partnering with founders on org design. Talent metrics management

Experience setting up a hiring function
Ability to hire across engineering, GTM, and ops
Experience with AI workflows, scorecards, interview loops, ATS setup
This is not a "manage a team of recruiters" role. You'll be sourcing, screening, and closing top 1% talent yourself — while building the system that lets us 5x the team without lowering the bar. Every hire goes through you. Run full-cycle hiring for engineering, GTM, and operations roles across NYC, Warsaw, and Munich.
Source proactively — outbound is the default, inbound is a bonus. Build target lists, write outreach that gets replies, run your own pipeline.
Design the hiring system from scratch: AI workflows, scorecards, interview loops, calibration, ATS setup, referral programs, employer brand — built to scale from 20 to 100+.
Sell the mission, the product, the equity, the team.
Partner with founders on org design — who we hire next, when, and why.
Own talent metrics: time-to-hire, source quality, offer acceptance, retention at 6 months.

Hires you've made are still here, still shipping, 12 months in.
The hiring system runs without you having to be in every loop — but you still are, because you want to be.
We're hiring faster than competitors and losing fewer candidates at offer stage.

Onsite in NYC — hiring is a contact sport and the best calibration happens at the whiteboard, not over Zoom.
Our client is an early-stage AI company building autonomous agents to replace the SaaS stack. This is the first dedicated talent role, created to build the entire hiring function from the ground up and scale the team from 20 to 100+ across NYC, Warsaw, and Munich. The ideal candidate is a 'doer' who will own sourcing, screening, and closing for technical (engineering), GTM, and operations roles. They must have experience setting up an ATS, designing interview loops, and creating talent metrics. Was the first or second talent hire at a successful, high-growth tech startup.
Demonstrable track record of high-quality outbound sourcing for competitive engineering roles.
Has personally built and implemented recruiting systems (ATS, scorecards, AI workflows) from zero.
Experience hiring for other AI or autonomous agent companies.

Experience is primarily in managing teams of recruiters, with no recent hands-on sourcing.
Not currently based in NYC or unwilling to work onsite full-time.
Primarily an inbound or agency recruiter without in-house system-building experience.
This is a keystone hire. The right candidate is a builder who is energized by the 'contact sport' of in-person recruiting and wants to be the single owner of the talent domain. Experience with international hiring, specifically in Europe (Poland, Germany).
Familiarity with using AI tools within the recruiting workflow.
A strong existing network of talent in the AI/ML space.
The role is strictly on-site in New York City, and the company is not offering visa sponsorship or relocation support at this time.