About this role
Your mission <h2>About Graswald AI</h2>Graswald AI is a Series A start up building the AI operating system for fashion brands and retailers. In the past year, we’ve signed 50+ enterprise fashion clients who use our AI to collapse creative timelines and slash production costs. We are backed by top-tier VCs and strategic investors like Lakestar and Orendt Studios.<br><br><h2>The Role</h2>This is a foundational hire. As our first Founding Talent Lead, you won't just fill roles - you'll build the engine that powers Graswald AI's growth. You'll own the full talent function from day one: defining how we hire, who we hire, and how fast we move. You'll work closely with the founding team to attract exceptional people across engineering, commercial, and operational disciplines - and you'll be as comfortable sourcing a senior ML engineer as you are closing a Head of Sales.<br>This is a hands-on, high-ownership role for someone who thrives in ambiguity, moves with urgency, and cares deeply about candidate experience and quality of hire. Your profile <h2>What You'll Do</h2><strong>Build the Talent Function</strong><br><ul><li>Design and own Graswald AI's end-to-end hiring process - from sourcing strategy to offer - across all teams</li><li>Define our employer brand and value proposition to attract world-class candidates</li><li>Select and implement the ATS, sourcing tools, and AI-powered recruitment platforms that will underpin how we hire</li><li>Establish hiring principles, scorecards, and structured interview frameworks to ensure consistent, high-quality decisions</li></ul><strong>Drive the Candidate Experience</strong><br><ul><li>Lead first-round interviews across all functions, assessing for skills, values, and potential</li><li>Design and iterate on take-home tasks and technical assessments tailored to each role</li><li>Act as a thoughtful advocate for candidates throughout the process, ensuring every interaction with Graswald AI is exceptional</li></ul><strong>Own Recruiting Across the Business</strong><br><ul><li>Partner closely with hiring managers across engineering, product, operations, and commercial teams to understand role requirements and team needs</li><li>Actively source candidates directly through LinkedIn, community networks, events, and AI-assisted tools</li><li>Manage relationships with external recruiters and headhunters, holding them to high standards while keeping agency spend lean</li><li>Write compelling, accurate job descriptions that attract the right candidates and reflect our culture</li></ul><strong>Own the End-to-End Hiring Process</strong><br><ul><li>Manage the legal and administrative hiring process from offer acceptance through to signed contracts</li><li>Draft and issue offer letters, employment contracts, and NDAs in coordination with legal counsel where required</li><li>Coordinate background checks, right-to-work verification, and any role-specific compliance requirements</li><li>Serve as the primary point of contact for candidates during the offer and pre-boarding period, keeping the process smooth and professional through to day one</li></ul><strong>Advise on Compensation & Career Progression</strong><br><ul><li>Own compensation benchmarking across all functions - maintaining a clear view of market rates for salary and equity to keep Graswald AI competitive and consistent</li><li>Partner with the founding team to design and evolve our equity and compensation philosophy as we scale</li><li>Build and maintain a levelling framework and career progression pathways across teams, giving candidates and employees clarity on how they grow at Graswald AI</li><li>Advise hiring managers on offer structuring, ensuring packages are compelling, fair, and sustainable within our comp bands</li></ul><strong>Think Strategically</strong><br><ul><li>Build and maintain talent pipelines for critical roles before they become urgent</li><li>Track and report on key hiring metrics - time to hire, source quality, pipeline health - and use data to improve</li><li>Stay ahead of the market: compensation benchmarks, talent trends, and competitor hiring signals</li></ul><h2>What We're Looking For</h2><strong>Experience</strong><br><ul><li>5+ years in talent/recruiting, with at least 2–3 years in a high-growth, venture-backed startup or scale-up</li><li>Proven track record of hiring strong technical talent - software engineers, ML/AI roles, or similar - in a competitive market</li><li>Experience building or significantly improving a hiring function, not just executing within one</li><li>Comfortable owning commercial and operational hiring in parallel with technical roles</li></ul><strong>Skills & Approach</strong><br><ul><li>Exceptional sourcing skills - you don't wait for inbound; you go and find people</li><li>Familiarity with AI-powered recruiting and sourcing tools</li><li>Strong judgment and interviewing instincts - you can assess a candidate's potential and motivations, not just their CV</li><li>Sharp written communication - your job descriptions make people want to apply</li><li>Highly organised and data-driven; you track what matters and act on it</li><li>Low ego, high ownership - you're as happy scheduling interviews as you are advising on org design</li></ul> Why us? <h2>What We Offer</h2><ul><li>Competitive compensation package including stock options</li><li>The opportunity to shape the culture and team of a company at a genuinely exciting inflection point</li><li><strong>26 Working Days of Paid Vacation + 24.12 and 31.12</strong>: You’ll have plenty of time to unwind and enjoy life outside of work.</li><li><strong>Flexible Work Options</strong>: Choose to work remotely from anywhere at the times that work best for your job. You decide what suits you best.</li><li><strong>Annual Company Offsite</strong>: Enjoy a yearly team offsite where we come together to plan, connect, and have some fun.</li><li><strong>Premium Work Equipment:</strong> Get fully set up for success with the laptop & monitor of your choice, ensuring you have everything you need to do your best work.</li><li><strong>Wellhub Subscription:</strong> Access thousands of gyms, fitness studios, and wellness apps to support your physical and mental well-being, wherever you are.</li></ul>