Head of Talent
- Compensation
- $185K–$225K
- Work mode
- Hybrid/On-site
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
- Industry
- Talent Marketplace / HR Technology
Your market value for this role
Compared with 27 live mandates (all Head of Function mandates).
Base salary only; excludes equity and bonus. Benchmark your own package →
The mandate
We are looking for a Head of Talent to build the organization in-house talent engine and grow the company from \~50 to 250 people. This is a player-coach role. You'll still personally source and close candidates, while also setting the strategy, managing executives and building a team from the ground up. We need someone who has built a talent function from scratch and has a proven record of scaling startup headcount (e.g., 30 to 90+), especially for highly technical engineering roles. You'll take over from our interim talent lead and become one of the most important people in the company as we replace agencies and contractors with a function we own.
Key responsibilities
- Building the organization in-house sourcing and full-cycle recruiting function, and hiring and leading 3–6 recruiters alongside the existing team
- Personally sourcing and closing hard-to-hire engineers, who make up most of our hiring, while also covering GTM, product, design and operations roles
- Working with executives on headcount plans, hiring budgets and comp and leveling frameworks, and using data to report on pipeline health and time-to-fill
- Setting up structured interviews, calibrated scorecards and a fast, decisive process that keeps the bar high and protects the culture as we grow
- Owning the handoff from hire to onboarding, hiring an HR generalist and laying the groundwork for future HR leadership
What you bring
- Building a CRUD app:
- We’re building a platform that’s only possible due to deep technology investments and thinking hard from first principles. Cargo-culting what’s come before won’t be sufficient.
- If you’re looking to do mostly plumbing / lego piece assembling, the organization may be very frustrating for you.
- An easy job:
- We’re building a lot of things from the ground up for the first time. Working at the organization is like a research project where you have to ship to intelligent, opinionated customers regularly.
- It’s basically guaranteed you’ll be handed a task that is too difficult for you to do. You might fail sometimes. You might have no idea where to start. Our team leans heavily on each other, but there’s no getting around the difficulties.
- We're constantly pushing on pace as we build alongside our early customers and you'll need to work very hard. That said, we aren’t into performatively working long hours. We seek to optimize quality x speed and ensure our team is doing their best work.
- A small team:
- We don’t have an army of engineers. If you find something is broken, you are probably the best one to fix it
- All the code we write has to punch above its weight in maintainability and toil reduction
- If you have a good idea, you have much more ability to put it into action than at a large company
- We need generalists: specialization is for big companies that already have everything figured out. If you’re smart, flexible and like digging into everything, we want you.
- Working in a regulated space:
- Mortgage is regulated both federally and at the state level.
- We move fast, but breaking things isn’t an option.
- Direct Wall Street pricing — cutting out intermediary markup
- 74% lower cost to originate — through automated credit, compliance, and capital workflows
- API-first extensibility — enabling any company to embed mortgage origination into their product
Location & engagement details
San Francisco Bay Area · Hybrid
Equity: Competitive equity; Visa sponsorship details: Not open to any visas (e.g. US the organization, Green Card holders); Hybrid work policy: 3 days in-office in the San Francisco Bay Area (Palo Alto preferred) or New York City
About this mandate
This is a live head of function search with direct introductions to the hiring team. The role sits in talent marketplace / hr technology and is located in San Francisco Bay Area on a hybrid/on-site basis, with compensation of $185K–$225K.
This is a confidential search. Read the brief above, then apply below for this role. The company name is shared once there's a close match and mutual interest.
Most senior mandates are filled this way — privately, before any listing exists. Read how unadvertised executive roles actually get filled.
- This is a confidential search. The company name and full role details are only discussed on a call with one of our recruiters if there is a close match.
- We use your details — your LinkedIn profile URL and email address — to match you against this mandate and any other closely matched roles.
- A verifiable email address, LinkedIn profile and a recent PDF resume are required. Submissions from bots, spammers or unverifiable profiles are removed.
- There is no call booking at this stage. Calls are scheduled only after we identify a close match.
Who can apply
- C-suite, EVP/SVP, VP and Head of function leaders
- Proven scale-up, venture-backed or enterprise leadership experience
- Track record of building and leading teams in the relevant function
Final hiring decisions rest solely with the hiring company. Outcomes depend on role availability and decisions made by the hiring team.
Apply — Head of Talent
This application is for this role only. It is reviewed against the brief above, and you will be contacted if there is a close match.
- This is a confidential search. The company name and full role details are only discussed on a call with one of our recruiters if there is a close match.
- We use your details — your LinkedIn profile URL and email address — to match you against this mandate and any other closely matched roles.
- Handled confidentially — your details are never shared without your consent.
- A referral is an introduction, not a guarantee of an interview or an offer.
- Final hiring decisions rest with the hiring company; outcomes depend on role availability and their decisions.