Head of Talent

Who you are

You have over 6 years of experience in recruiting or talent leadership within high-growth tech companies — you've successfully navigated the challenges of building teams in competitive environments and understand what it takes to attract top talent. Your experience spans both technical and go-to-market roles, allowing you to effectively communicate with diverse candidates and understand their unique strengths.

As a strategic leader and practical operator, you excel at setting hiring roadmaps in collaboration with founders and other key stakeholders — you know how to define what 'great' looks like across various teams and ensure that the hiring process aligns with the company's vision and goals. You are comfortable sourcing, assessing, and closing high-impact hires, including senior engineers and executives, and you thrive in high-stakes situations where your decisions can significantly impact the company's future.

Your ability to design effective interview loops, scorecards, and hiring bars sets you apart — you understand the importance of building scalable recruiting workflows and infrastructure, especially when leveraging internal AI tools to enhance the hiring process. You are committed to fostering a culture of speed, ownership, and high standards within the recruiting team, ensuring that every candidate has a positive experience and that Exa builds a reputation as an employer of choice.

What you'll do

In this role, you will set the hiring roadmap alongside the founders and Chief of Staff, defining the criteria for what constitutes a successful hire across teams. You will personally source and close high-impact hires, running critical searches end-to-end when the stakes are high. Your responsibilities will include designing interview loops and scorecards that reflect the company's values and hiring standards, as well as building scalable recruiting workflows that utilize Exa's internal AI tools.

You will manage and develop a team of GTM and Technical Recruiters, instilling a culture of speed and ownership within the recruiting team. Your leadership will shape how candidates experience Exa, ensuring that the company attracts elite talent and builds a strong organizational culture. You will work closely with the founders to build the early organizational structure, competing effectively against companies like Anthropic and OpenAI for top research talent.

What we offer

This is an in-person opportunity based in San Francisco, where you will be part of a dynamic team that is building a next-gen embeddings-based search engine for AI. You will have the chance to work with a talented group of individuals from prestigious backgrounds, including Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. As Exa scales rapidly, you will play a crucial role in defining the company's future and culture, making a lasting impact on the organization and the industry as a whole.