Head of Talent

Orbital•New York City, NY

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

Orbital is seeking a Head of Talent to own and scale the company's hiring function across the UK and US. This is a strategic role focused on precision hiring, ensuring every new hire raises the bar for the company. The Head of Talent will take the existing talent acquisition function, which has the building blocks in place, and elevate it to an exceptional, in-house operation. The role involves defining and executing the company-wide hiring plan in collaboration with senior leadership, coaching and developing a precision talent team, and leading search-led recruitment processes, including personally running searches for senior or high-impact roles. The company is in a significant growth phase, having recently raised $60m in Series B funding, with a focus on US expansion.

Requirements

A scale-up track record of building or materially scaling a talent function within a VC-backed technology company, ideally through a growth phase from approximately 100 to 300 people.
Proven experience in low-volume, high-calibre hiring, with the ability to identify specific hires that changed a company's trajectory and explain the recruitment process.
Deep go-to-market (GTM) experience in the US market, including personally owning GTM hiring across AE, CS, BDR, RevOps, and Marketing roles.
Strong knowledge of the New York commercial talent market, including understanding of top talent, compensation, and motivators.
Expertise in executive search craft, including designing and running end-to-end targeted headhunt processes for passive candidates.
Fluency in operating as a peer with executive leadership (CRO, CTO, COO, CEO) on commercial strategy, organizational design, and talent narrative.
Demonstrated operational rigor, including accurate forecasting, pipeline management, data accuracy, and proactive stakeholder communication.
Experience running a distributed recruiting team across US and UK time zones with a unified operating rhythm and quality bar.
A record of raising a team's level through coaching, clear expectations, feedback, and performance management.
Practical AI literacy, with experience building AI into the talent function's workflow and demonstrating its impact.
Comfort with ambiguity, change, and performance conversations.
Background screening is required.

Nice To Haves

Experience making agencies unnecessary through direct hiring.

Responsibilities

Own the talent strategy and company-wide hiring plan, developed with the CEO, COO, and CRO based on growth targets.
Define and execute the hiring plan with full autonomy over team, tools, and operations.
Build, coach, and develop a precision talent team across the US and UK, ensuring they operate with a high-impact, search-led methodology.
Personally run executive searches where seniority or business impact demands it, including market mapping, target lists, multi-touch engagement, assessment, and close.
Operate as a peer to commercial, technical, and operational leadership, contributing to commercial strategy, organizational design, and operational planning.
Ensure operational rigor, including accurate forecasting, pipeline reviews, data integrity in the ATS, and consistent stakeholder communication.
Manage a distributed recruiting team across US and UK time zones, maintaining a single operating rhythm, quality bar, and clear accountability.
Raise the level of the talent team through clear expectations, honest feedback, performance data, and coaching.
Integrate AI into the talent function's workflow to improve output and efficiency.
Ensure all team members adhere to security policies, complete awareness training, and handle sensitive data with care.
Contribute to building a diverse and inclusive team.