Talent Acquisition Lead

Job description

WHO ARE PLAIN? Plain is redefining customer support for the next generation of B2B companies. We’re building the fastest, most powerful platform to help companies move beyond reactive support and build true customer relationships. Some of the world’s most forward-thinking companies - like Cursor, Vercel, and Granola - trust Plain to unify all customer interactions, enable faster team collaboration, and supercharge their workflows with AI. B2B customer support is undergoing a seismic shift. AI is transforming the way companies engage with customers, shifting support from a siloed function to a company-wide effort across Slack, Discord, and any other channel you talk to customers in. The old way - slow, manual, and disconnected - no longer works. We’re looking for a Talent Lead to build the teams that define this next phase of support tooling. This role is hybrid with 3 days a week in our London office. WHAT YOU’LL DO This is a builder role in talent. You're not inheriting a mature function - you're shaping one. You'll own engineering hiring end to end - pipeline, process, candidate experience, and close. You'll build the systems and tooling that make hiring scalable. And you'll work with engineering leaders to keep the bar high as we grow. We talk a lot internally about Plain being a place people graduate from. Future founders meeting their co-founders here. Leavers trying to pull their ex Plain teammates to their next company. Genuine friendships built across the team. A team so good, that every tech recruiter has Plain high on their sourcing list. That's what we're building. This role is how. THIS IS A GREAT FIT IF YOU… - Have strong opinions about what great hiring looks like and the conviction to push for it. - Have owned full-cycle recruiting across product engineering, ML/AI, infrastructure, and beyond - to an exceptional bar in tech and/or AI native companies. - Can identify engineers who move fast with AI and still think clearly without it. - Know how to build pipeline - whether that's a referral flywheel, a strong employer brand, a well-run outbound motion, or a mix of the three - Get excited about process and tooling, not just people - you build systems that make hiring scalable. - Can run multiple searches at pace without the bar or experience slipping. - Partner closely with engineering leadership - you're an extension of the team, not a service function. - Are comfortable rolling up your sleeves beyond tech hiring - Talent Ops, People Ops, GTM hiring - whatever the company needs. THIS WON’T BE THE RIGHT ROLE IF YOU… - Treat hiring as a numbers game - we'd rather wait for the right person than move fast for the wrong one - Are looking for a well-defined, mature talent function to step into - there's real infrastructure to build here and you should be excited by that - Are uncomfortable working closely with engineering - this role requires genuine partnership with technical leaders, not just coordination - Want to hand off sourcing and pipeline work to someone else - this is a hands-on role and that won't change for a while