Head of Talent Acquisition

Job description

At Joko, our mission is to we help consumers save time and money when shopping online or in-store. Founded in Paris, Joko is a tech company and certified B Corp with over 105 talents across Paris, Barcelona, and New York (and beyond). More than 6 million users already save money every day at 10,000+ merchants with Joko. From cashback and automatic coupons to price alerts, we've kept expanding our products to make shopping smarter. Today, Joko is an AI shopping app: with Juno, our shopping assistant, users can find the right product at the best price in only a few seconds, with recommendations that get sharper the more they use it. Having reached profitability in our core market, we’re now scaling globally, with a strong focus on the US. It’s still day 1, come build the future of shopping with us! 🧲 OUR TALENT TEAM At Joko, hiring has been a founding obsession since day one. Our founders have always been convinced that markets aren't cracked with headcount — they're cracked with talent density. That bet has worked: we've grown to 6 million users and become one of France's most recognized shopping apps with just 30 people in the early years, and we've kept the same bar as we've scaled past 100. The Talent team exists because we believe talent is the single biggest asset of a company, and that identifying, attracting, and closing the best profiles is a craft worth investing in seriously. We are constantly experimenting with state-of-the-art techniques, tools, and processes to find the people who will build the future of shopping with us. Today, the Talent team sits within the broader People function, which also covers People Ops, People Business Partnering, and Workplace across France, Spain, and our growing international footprint into the US. We are a team with a big scope and rare ownership per person, and we move fast. ✨ WHY THIS ROLE IS SPECIAL Recruiting is Joko's #1 company objective — because talent unlocks everything else — which makes this one of the most strategic seats in the company. Three things make it genuinely rare: - The team is exceptionally involved in hiring. From ICs to managers to founders, recruiting is treated as a first-class responsibility, not something delegated to TA. You will work with hiring partners who actually show up, give sharp feedback, and care about the bar as much as you do. - You will have the tools, and the budget, to be on the frontier. We already work with a modern stack (Ashby, Claude, Claap, and more), and we keep investing to stay among the most performant and modern TA setups out there. You will not be fighting for basic tooling, you will be deciding what comes next. - You will live a genuinely unique scale moment. Growing from 100+ people today to 200+ within 18 months, with a real international component (France, Spain, US, and more to come) is the kind of stretch many TA leaders don’t often get to experience. You get to do it here, with a company that has already proven it can build a recognized product with a fraction of the usual headcount. To be concrete about what this looks like in practice: in year one, the job is to build the team — sourcing, hiring, and coaching the TAMs who will power Joko's growth. The AI strategy, international employer brand, and long-term function design are the horizon you are building toward. They are real, and you will own them fully. But the foundation comes first, and the foundation is the team. 🎯 WHAT YOU WILL DO As Head of Talent Acquisition, your mission is to build and lead the TA function that will take Joko from 100+ people today to 200+ within 18 months, and beyond, with the bar, craft, and intentionality that have defined Joko's talent density since day one. You will report to the VP People and be part of the People leadership team, alongside the Head of People Operations and our Lead People Business Partner. You will partner closely with founders, hiring managers, and the broader People team. - Build and own the TA team: The most important thing you will do, especially early on, is hire the recruiters who will hire everyone else. Two Talent Acquisition Managers are already in the team, and four more TAM positions are open today. You will make the case for what else the function needs over time, from sourcing specialization onward, and recruit, coach, and grow the team around you. - Define how Joko recruits: Inbound, outbound, RPO management, agency relationships, tooling (Ashby), and process are all yours. You will set the standards, not just execute against them — including upskilling hiring managers so the bar is applied consistently across every panel. - Recruit senior and critical roles yourself: You will stay close to the hardest hires. You know when to delegate and when to own the desk. - Build a global AI strategy for recruiting: The way recruiting is done is changing drastically with AI. You will define and roll out Joko's AI strategy for TA: which parts of the funnel to automate, which tools to deploy, how to keep human judgment where it matters most, and how to turn AI into a real competitive advantage in how we source, screen, and close. You will own this end to end. - Drive an international employer brand: We are not well known enough yet, and that is costing us. You will build an employer brand strategy that reflects who we actually are, starting in France, scaling very soon to Spain, and preparing for the US and other markets. 👀 WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR - Experience: You have stood up a TA function before, or rebuilt one, and you have also worked somewhere with best-in-class standards. You can operate in both 0-to-1 mode and best-in-class mode, and you know when to switch. The strongest candidate may not have done "just" Talent — a track record that spans ops, sales, consulting, or building things beyond recruiting is a real asset here. - Coaching mindset: You know how to develop the resourcefulness and drive of the people you manage. You see growing recruiters as part of the job, not a tax on it. - High-bar mindset: Joko's culture is built on talent density. Our hiring managers are involved, exacting, and not afraid to pass on a 90% candidate. You find that energizing, not frustrating. - Ops-oriented and performance-driven: You think in systems, not one-offs. You instrument the funnel, care about the numbers, and build process that holds up as the team scales. - Strong sense of craft in TA: You know the difference between a recruiter who has relied on inbound for years and one who genuinely knows how to source. You’ve done both, and you know which approach each situation calls for. - Analytical skills: You reason with data — funnel metrics, conversion rates, capacity plans — and you use it to drive decisions, not to decorate slides. - Attention to detail: You know candidates judge us on every touchpoint — an outreach message, a scorecard, an offer letter — and you hold the bar on all of them. - Entrepreneurial mindset: You thrive in fast-moving, ambiguous environments. You take ownership without being asked, you welcome feedback, and you go the extra mile by default. - Curious and experimental about AI: You don't claim to have it all figured out, the field moves too fast for that. But you have hands-on experience deploying AI tools into a TA function, you have strong opinions formed from real attempts (and real failures), and you genuinely enjoy figuring out what works. - International scope: Paris, Barcelona, New York, our footprint is growing. You are comfortable recruiting across geographies and building an Employee Value Proposition that resonates in more than one market. - Location: Based in Paris or Barcelona. - Education: No specific requirement. Track record matters more than credentials. - Languages: You are fluent in French and English (our working language). Spanish is a plus. 💎 OUR PERKS (Some of the benefits listed below are available to full-time positions only) At Joko, we believe that flexibility and trust are essential. Our work environment reflects this through: - Flexible remote : If you live in Paris, you can choose to work from our office or from home with no constraints. If you live elsewhere, we can provide access to a coworking space and a coworking budget. - Work from anywhere : Want to spend a month in Italy while working? You can work from most countries in the world for up to 3 months per year. On top of that, we offer plenty of perks: - 💸 Top-market compensation - 📈 Equity for everyone with the chance to own a piece of what you build - 🤖 Half-day each week dedicated to leveling up with AI by exploring new tools, iterating hard, and sharpening your skills - 🌴 Yearly offsite in amazing locations and budget for team-building events & monthly in-person gatherings - 💪 Contribution to your ClassPass subscription - 🍼 8-week leave paid 100% for the second parent - …and much more, check the full list here https://notion.so/joko/20f4ead2bfc54137b9d805bd9abbb758?pvs=4&v=e2baac50c1844149a219895e0d1c2912! 🤝 OUR HIRING PROCESS 1. Intro call: Quick screening with the Hiring Manager or the Talent team. 2. Step 1 – Team interview (45 min): Conversation with two Joko team members (could include the Hiring Manager, people from the team you’d join, or colleagues from other teams). 3. Step 2 – Role-specific assessments - For non-engineering roles: A take-home case study followed by a 45-min interview. We assess both your output and how you think in real time. The exercise will be relevant to your role (e.g. analysis, strategy, or process design). - For engineering roles: A 90-min live technical interview on CoderPad covering code understanding, review, system design, and product thinking (with AI serving as a collaboration tool). 4. Step 3 – Leadership interview (45 min): Conversation with a SteerCo member and a Founder. 5. References: Up to 3 calls with former colleagues or managers. ☕ You may also be invited for coffee with team members to get a feel for our culture.