Talent Lead

Baton•San Francisco, CA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are looking for a Talent Lead who can build and develop a recruiting team while personally delivering great hires. You’ll lead our recruiting efforts, partner closely with hiring managers, and own a meaningful portfolio of technical and non-technical requisitions from kickoff through close. This is a hands-on people management role. You’ll source for challenging searches, build candidate relationships, and close talent yourself while coaching your team and improving how we hire. You’ll balance immediate hiring needs with the processes, tools, and partnerships that help recruiting scale. Success means delivering on your own searches, developing a high-performing team, improving the systems and habits that help us hire well, and building shared accountability for hiring across Baton.

Requirements

8-10+ years of talent acquisition experience in a startup or similarly fast-paced technology organization
3+ years leading and developing recruiting teams in a high-growth technical environment, including at least 3 full performance review cycles spanning goal-setting, calibration, and delivery
Success attracting and closing technical and non-technical talent across high-priority and niche searches, with evidence of hire quality and retention. You’ve used both ongoing pipelines and targeted searches effectively
You’ve carried a significant requisition load in recent roles—for example, spending 60% or more of your time recruiting—and want to continue owning searches while leading a team
You’ve shaped search strategies collaboratively, adapted based on feedback, and built shared accountability for hiring outcomes
You’ve set priorities, used analytics to guide decisions, and implemented recruiting technology, including AI, to improve execution. You’re comfortable operating autonomously and bringing clarity to ambiguous hiring needs

Nice To Haves

Owned broader HR and people operations scope
Scaled small innovation or tech arm within a larger company
Experience within freight, logistics, manufacturing, or another operationally complex industry
Experience configuring and migrating modern recruiting tool stack

Responsibilities

Own searches and deliver exceptional hires
Manage a significant requisition load across technical and non-technical functions, including high-priority and niche roles
Lead searches from intake and sourcing through assessment, offers, and closing, with a focus on hire quality and long-term retention
Build pipelines and targeted sourcing strategies for specialized searches
Build strong hiring manager partnerships
Align on candidate profiles, assessment criteria, and sourcing and closing strategies, refining your approach through feedback and recruiting data
Establish shared ownership of hiring, holding managers accountable for timely decisions and follow-through while maintaining strong relationships
Expand recruiting capacity by helping hiring managers source, activate their networks, and take on tasks that move searches forward
Manage and develop the recruiting team
Hire and develop recruiters, rec ops, and sourcers through clear expectations, regular coaching, and direct feedback
Own performance management from goal-setting through review calibration and delivery, addressing gaps and recognizing impact
Align team capacity with hiring priorities, modeling strong execution through your own searches and taking accountability for team results
Lead and scale recruiting
Translate business needs into recruiting priorities, creating clarity on ownership, progress, risks, and next steps
Own hiring analytics and forecasts, giving senior leadership actionable insights and resolving bottlenecks with the team
Scale hiring processes and implement technology, including AI, that improves workflows and hiring velocity