Head of Talent Acquisition

Job description

ABOUT DISTYL AI Distyl is an applied AI technology company partnering with the world’s most ambitious institutions to rearchitect critical operations for the frontier of AI. Our customers include the largest companies in telecom, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, consumer goods, and global social organizations. We research and deploy technologies that power AI-native operations — both for our partners and for Distyl itself. Our work spans research into self-constructing systems, the development of the most reliable execution of AI systems, and products that transform mission-critical workflows. As a result, Distyl's technologies affect some of the world's largest operations — from hundreds of millions of consumer interactions to tens of millions of supply chain transactions and millions of patient journeys. Distyl is backed by leading investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Coatue, DST Global, and the board-members of 20+ F500s. WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR As Head of Talent Acquisition, you will build and lead the function responsible for bringing AI-native talent to Distyl during a period of rapid growth. Reporting to the Head of People, you will own the strategy, systems, and team that let Distyl scale its headcount without sacrificing hiring quality or speed. This is a hands-on leadership role based in San Francisco, CA. You will lead a team of recruiters, sourcers, and coordinators, and build the process rigor, talent brand, and systems that support the company's next stage of growth. You'll partner closely with hiring managers and executive leadership on headcount planning, and you'll be accountable for the outcomes that matter most: time to fill, quality of hire, and a recruiting engine that keeps pace with the business. You'll also help Distyl figure out what talent needs to look like as AI reshapes entire categories of work, and extend our hiring reach into new markets as the company expands internationally. The ideal candidate combines deep talent acquisition leadership experience, real fluency with AI as both a tool and a hiring signal, and the operational discipline to turn ambiguity into a repeatable system. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - Lead and Grow the Team: Own the performance, development, and growth of a team of recruiters, sourcers, and coordinators. - Build the Talent Attraction Engine: Design and run the sourcing strategy, employer brand, and candidate experience that let Distyl compete for the best AI-native talent in the market. - Ensure Fairness and Equity: Make sure our recruiting process welcomes and encourages people of all backgrounds to join Distyl. - Own the Recruiting Stack: Run our ATS (Ashby) and sourcing tooling, and evaluate and adopt AI-native recruiting tools that give the team a real edge. - Strengthen Interview Rigor: Design structured interview processes and scorecards, and run calibration so interviewer feedback is consistent and predictive. - Own Team Outcomes: Set and report on the metrics that matter time to fill, funnel conversion, quality of hire, etc. and build dashboards leadership can trust. - Partner on Headcount Strategy: Work with the Head of People and business leaders to translate growth plans into hiring capacity, sequencing, and budget. - Personally Run Specialized Searches: Lead or closely oversee senior, executive, and highly specialized searches that need more than the standard full-cycle motion. - Lead International & New-Market Hiring: Build the playbook for hiring in new geographies as Distyl expands internationally: sourcing strategy, market-specific practices, and compliant hiring from day one. - Scope Roles That Don't Exist Yet: Partner with leadership to define brand-new roles and competencies as AI reshapes the market, staying ahead of how the industry is naming and leveling emerging work. - Scale Repeatable Systems: Build hiring playbooks by function so growth doesn't mean reinventing the process every time headcount increases. - Develop the Team's Craft: Build training on process, tools, and evaluation standards for the recruiting org. WHO YOU ARE - A Builder: You've built talent functions before, not just run ones someone else designed, and you're excited to define what "good" looks like here. - Proven at High-Growth Scale: 8+ years building talent programs and leading recruiting teams, ideally at companies that grew fast enough to outgrow their own process at least once. - AI-Fluent: You use AI tools in your own workflow and can translate that fluency into how a talent program sources, evaluates, and attracts AI-native candidates. - Hands-On With the Stack: You've owned an ATS and evaluated new sourcing and AI tools yourself, not just read reports about them. - Comfortable With Senior Searches: You've personally led executive or highly specialized hiring, in addition to high-volume standard roles. - Experienced Across Borders: You've hired in multiple countries and helped a company open new markets, and you understand how hiring practices, comp, and compliance shift by geography. - A Pulse on What's Emerging: You track how new roles and titles are forming across the AI industry, and can turn a fuzzy, not-yet-defined need into a real job description and leveling framework. - A Genuine Coach: You know how to bring a growing team up to speed quickly, with patience alongside pace, and you invest in people's development as much as their output. WHAT WE OFFER - The base salary range for this role is $180,000–$220,000, depending on experience and level. In addition to base compensation, this role is eligible for meaningful equity. - 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents - Flexible time off - Retirement and financial planning benefits, including access to pre-tax HSA, FSA, and commuter accounts, 401(k), and financial coaching resources - Comprehensive wellness benefits, including physical fitness, mental well-being, and fertility and family-building benefits through Carrot - Complimentary in-office lunches and snacks provided - Access to state-of-the-art AI models, generous usage of modern AI tools, and real-world business problems - Ownership of high-impact projects across top enterprises - A mission-driven, fast-moving culture that values curiosity, pragmatism, and excellence Distyl has offices in San Francisco and New York. This role follows a hybrid collaboration model with 3+ days per week (Tuesday–Thursday) in the San Francisco office. We believe diverse perspectives make our work stronger and more impactful. We are an equal opportunity employer and evaluate all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.