Head of Talent

Laurel•San Francisco, NY

6h•Hybrid

About The Position

Laurel is on a mission to return time. As the leading AI Time platform for professional services firms, we’re transforming how organizations capture, analyze, and optimize their most valuable resource: time. Our proprietary machine learning technology automates work time capture and connects time data to business outcomes, enabling firms to increase profitability, improve client delivery, and make data-driven strategic decisions. We serve many of the world's largest accounting and law firms, including EY, Aprio, Crowell & Moring, and Frost Brown Todd, and process over 1 billion work activities annually that have never been collected and aggregated before Laurel’s AI Time platform. Our team comprises top talent in AI, product development, and engineering—innovative, humble, and forward-thinking professionals committed to redefining productivity in the knowledge economy. We're building solutions that empower workers to deliver twice the value in half the time, giving people more time to be creative and impactful. If you're passionate about transforming how people work and building a lasting company that explores the essence of time itself, we'd love to meet you. About Laurel Laurel’s mission is simple and ambitious: return time to people . We believe the company that best understands how digital work is done can rewrite the working model for the knowledge economy, so people can create twice the value in half the time. We’re a $100M Series C , ~100-person team distributed across San Francisco (EPD hub) and New York (GTM hub), with a deep philosophy of talent density, and a bias toward speed, impact, and truth-telling. Startups are hard, and we choose to do it the hard way on purpose: small, dense, fast, and relentlessly focused. We are now hiring our Head of Talent to build and run a centralized recruiting function that can keep pace with the company we are becoming—one that moves fast, corrects fast, and hires only stunning talent. Role Summary The Head of Talent will be Laurel’s senior recruiting leader, reporting to the Chief People Officer and operating as the company’s primary bar-raiser and talent strategist. You will: Own full-spectrum recruiting (technical + non-technical) across Engineering/Product, GTM, and G&A Centralize and elevate Laurel’s recruiting capability (process, tools, systems, pitch, employment brand) Lead all execution—from intake to sourcing to close—operating in high-speed, high-precision mode Build a world-class recruiting function Partner deeply with hiring managers to clarify needs, sharpen signals, and make better/faster decisions Push back with conviction when expectations are misaligned or when talent quality is at risk Move towards a steady 15–20 hires per quarter, without compromising our bar, values, or velocity This is a role for someone who loves the work of recruiting and who wants to build leverage, not headcount. You are the person who ensures we hire the team that can actually achieve our mission.

Requirements

Full-cycle recruiting mastery across technical and non-technical roles
Experience building or optimizing recruiting functions (centralized systems, processes, and tools)
Track record of 8–10 hires per quarter without compromising the bar
Experience influencing leadership teams and pushing back with data, clarity, and conviction
Strong ability to assess talent quality and see around corners in org design and team evolution
Deep understanding of how different functions (EPD, GTM, G&A) operate, succeed, and hire
Experience managing contractors/RPO and evaluating build-vs-buy recruiting models
Move fast and decisively, but not sloppily
Prefer centralization, clarity, and simplicity in process
Thrive in hybrid environments and make time together meaningful
Communicate directly, cleanly, and without politics
Are energized by being a truth-teller and bar-raiser
Can zoom out to strategy and zoom right back into sourcing or running a calibration session
Care about purposeful work with exceptional people, not work/life balance for its own sake
Feel comfortable pushing back on both candidates and leaders when needed
Believe your job is to hire people who level up the entire company, not just fill roles
3+ days/week in-person

Nice To Haves

High urgency
High rejection rate / high calibration
Limited internal resources
Hybrid/in-office collaboration
Founder-level expectations and pace

Responsibilities

Build & Run a High-Level Recruiting Engine Own the full recruiting lifecycle for all roles (technical and non-technical). Establish high signal, lightweight processes that keep the company moving fast without sacrificing talent quality. Centralize recruiting workflows so hiring managers have clarity, speed, and partnership, not chaos. Develop and maintain a predictable hiring rhythm that allows leaders to plan and deliver.
Be the Company’s Bar-Raiser Evaluate all candidates through the lens of talent density, leverage, and Laurel’s cultural trade-offs. Partner with leaders to define what “stunning talent” looks like in their function, then hold the line. Push hiring managers to sharpen their thinking, clarify priorities, and make decisions faster with better data. Data is the guide for decision making. This role will determine which metrics will move the needle and how we will gather and report to improve company performance. Ensure every hire meaningfully improves the team.
Talent Strategy & Business Partnership Build strong relationships with Engineering, Product, GTM, and G&A leaders; understand their domains deeply. Translate business strategy into hiring plans, staffing models, org design and recruiting allocation. Forecast and proactively plan rather than operate reactively. Bring market intelligence: compensation ranges, role design, competitive talent behavior, and candidate expectations.
Elevate Laurel’s Employment Brand & Candidate Pitch Refine and continuously evolve how we tell our story—why Laurel exists, how we work, and the trade-offs required. Deliver a crisp, compelling pitch that differentiates us from every other startup. Ensure every candidate interaction—human or automated—reflects clarity, rigor, and the seriousness of our mission.
Assess and Potentially Rebuild the Recruiting Function Build the business case if it strengthens speed, quality, and leverage. Define the future version of our recruiting tech stack, systems, workflows, and reporting. Operate with MVP mindset: simple, fast experiments → validated systems → scalable foundations.
Drive Performance, Prioritization & Accountability in Hiring Create processes that clarify: what roles we’re hiring, why now, and how we will measure success. Coach leaders through trade-offs, urgency, and sequencing. Ensure consistent calibration, feedback, and iteration across all hiring teams. Make in-office expectations (3+ days/week) explicit and non-negotiable throughout the funnel.