Strategic Talent Acquisition Leader

We are seeking a strategic Talent Acquisition Leader to build, scale, and mature our hiring function for a fast-growing autonomous drone defense and AI-powered product organization. This role designs a scalable Talent Acquisition engine that supports rapid growth, evolving capability needs, and mission-critical hiring across technology and business functions.

This is a business-critical leadership role that shapes how we attract, evaluate, and hire world-class talent. We seek a hands-on recruitment leader who is equally comfortable strategizing with leadership and personally executing critical steps of the hiring process—from candidate screening to offer creation. The ideal candidate has prior experience across every stage of end-to-end recruitment and acts as a subject matter expert, ensuring both speed and governance compliance.

A. Talent Acquisition Strategy & Leadership

• Build and execute a company-wide Talent Acquisition strategy aligned with business goals, capability building, and future workforce planning.
• Translate organizational growth plans into structured hiring roadmaps, quarterly plans, and execution mechanisms.
• Act as a strategic talent partner to Founders, CXOs, Business Leaders, and Hiring Managers.

B. Technology + Business Hiring

Lead hiring across specialized and diverse roles including:

• Autonomous Systems, Robotics, AI/ML, Embedded Engineering, Cybersecurity, Cloud, Data, Product, Engineering
• Sales, Pre-Sales, Business Development, Marketing, Customer Success, Finance, HR, Operations
• Leadership roles across functions

C. Build Scalable Hiring Processes

• Create structured recruitment frameworks, interview loops, SLAs, hiring dashboards, and documentation systems.
• Standardize job descriptions, interview rubrics, evaluation forms, and decision-making processes.
• Implement predictable hiring mechanisms that scale with organizational growth.

D. Workforce & Talent Planning

• Partner with business teams to understand future capability needs.
• Build proactive talent pipelines for niche, critical, and high-impact roles.
• Conduct quarterly workforce planning and hiring capacity analysis.

E. Talent Intelligence & Market Mapping

• Conduct market research on talent availability, competitor talent pools, compensation trends, and sourcing strategies.
• Build talent intelligence reports for leadership decision-making.

F. Solve Hiring Bottlenecks

Identify and resolve bottlenecks across:

• Sourcing channels
• Interview readiness
• Panel bandwidth
• Decision cycles
• Compensation alignment
• Offer conversions
• Notice periods
• Internal processes and documentation gaps

G. Build & Lead TA Teams

• Hire, mentor, and lead a high-performing Talent Acquisition team.
• Define ownership, specialization, KPIs, and execution culture.
• Drive accountability, speed, and quality across the hiring lifecycle.

H. Data-Driven Recruitment

Use hiring data to improve:

• Time-to-Hire
• Quality-of-Hire
• Offer-to-Join Ratio
• Source Effectiveness
• Cost-of-Hire
• Hiring Manager Experience
• Process predictability and SLA adherence

Required Skills & Experience

• 7–12 years of experience in Talent Acquisition, with at least 3+ years in a leadership role.
• Experience scaling hiring in high-growth product/technology organizations.
• Strong understanding of technical hiring (AI/ML, Robotics, Engineering, Cybersecurity, Product).
• Proven ability to build recruitment processes, frameworks, and TA teams.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to operate in fast-paced, ambiguous, high-accountability environments.
• Experience with hiring dashboards, ATS systems, and recruitment analytics.

Competencies

• Strategic Thinking
• Execution Excellence
• Stakeholder Management
• Problem Solving & Decision Making
• Talent Intelligence
• Process Design & Optimization
• Leadership & Team Building
• Data-Driven Mindset
• High Ownership & Accountability

What Success Looks Like

• Predictable, scalable hiring processes
• Reduced Time-to-Hire and improved Quality-of-Hire
• Strong talent pipelines for critical roles
• High hiring manager satisfaction
• Clear documentation, SLAs, and audit-ready processes
• A high-performing TA team with strong execution culture
• TA functioning as a business partner, not a support function