Head of People & Talent

RadixArk•Palo Alto, CA

11h•Hybrid

About The Position

We're looking for a Head of People & Talent to build our People and Recruiting function from the ground up. This is a true 0-to-1 role — you won't be inheriting a playbook, you'll be writing it. You'll own the full recruiting lifecycle across engineering, research, and AI roles, while simultaneously standing up the HR operations, compensation, benefits, and people analytics infrastructure that will carry us through the next phase of growth. You'll report directly to the Head of Finance & Operations and work in close partnership with the founders. This is a rare opportunity to define what "great" looks like for People at RadixArk — and to build it yourself. This role is not for the faint of heart. We move fast, operate with a sense of urgency, and expect the same from everyone on the team.

Requirements

7+ years of experience across recruiting and people operations, with meaningful time in a leadership or senior individual contributor role at a high-growth tech company
You've hired for technical and research roles (engineers, ML researchers, etc.) and know what great looks like
Experience building or significantly scaling a People function — you've done far more than recruit
Comfortable owning comp, benefits, HR ops, and recruiting coordination — not just the top of funnel
Highly organized and execution-oriented — you can manage multiple open roles, operational workstreams, and scheduling complexity simultaneously without dropping the ball
Scrappy, resourceful, and highly responsive — you treat recruiting like a competitive sport
Strong communicator who can run a candidate pitch, a hiring manager kick-off, and a board headcount update with equal confidence
Low ego, high output — you do what it takes to get the right people in the door and keep them there

Nice To Haves

Experience with immigration processes (H-1B, O-1) a strong plus

Responsibilities

Full-cycle recruiting for engineering, research, and AI roles — from sourcing and outreach to offer and close
Sourcing strategy — proactively building pipelines through LinkedIn, referrals, university networks, and creative outreach
Candidate experience — managing communication and keeping candidates warm and engaged throughout the process
Recruiting ops — owning our ATS, tracking pipelines, and reporting on hiring metrics
Own end-to-end interview scheduling across all open roles — coordinating across candidates, interviewers, and time zones with speed and precision
Prepare and manage interview materials, scorecards, and debrief logistics so every loop runs smoothly
Build and maintain recruiting presentations and materials for candidate pitches, hiring manager kick-offs, and leadership reporting
Track coordination workflows and flag bottlenecks to keep hiring velocity high
HR operations — onboarding, offboarding, maintaining employee records, and building lightweight but scalable HR processes
Compensation & offers — designing our comp philosophy, building salary bands, and owning the offer process end to end
Benefits — selecting and managing our benefits programs and vendors as we scale
People analytics — building the reporting and dashboards that give leadership visibility into headcount, hiring velocity, and workforce trends
Coordinating with legal on immigration, compliance, and employment matters (H-1B, O-1, etc.)