Head of Talent

At Exa, we’re building a next-gen embeddings based search engine for AI. We’re a ~60-person team from places like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Apple, and Palantir, backed by Benchmark, Lightspeed, and NVIDIA, and we’re scaling fast.We’re looking for a Head of Talent to own and build Exa’s entire hiring engine.You’ll work directly with our founders and CoS to build our early organization structure, out-compete companies like Anthropic and OpenAI for top research talent, and build our our people organization.About the RoleThe Head of Talent at Exa is both a strategic leader and a practical operator.This role sits at the center of Exa’s growth. The people you hire will define the company (and the future of search!).What You’ll DoSet Exa’s hiring roadmap with founders and CoS, and define what “great” looks like across teamsPersonally source, assess, and close high-impact hires, including senior engineers, GTM leaders, and early execsRun the most critical searches end-to-end when the stakes are highDesign interview loops, scorecards, and hiring barBuild scalable recruiting workflows and infrastructure using Exa’s internal AI toolsHire, manage, and develop GTM and Technical RecruitersBuild a culture of speed, ownership, and high bar across the recruiting teamShape how Exa is experienced by candidates and build a reputation that attracts elite talentWhat We’re Looking For6+ years of recruiting or talent leadership experience in high-growth tech companiesExperience hiring for both technical and GTM rolesProven ability to operate as both strategist and closerStrong opinions about hiring bar, team design, and talent qualityComfort working directly with founders in a fast-moving environmentA builder mindset — you want to create systems, not just run themBonus:Experience at a top-tier startup or scale-upExperience building recruiting teams from scratchTechnical literacy (you can comfortably talk to engineers and understand what makes them great)Why This Role MattersWebscale infrastructure is not getting automated anytime soon. We are building complex systems, and solving technically difficult problems. We need the best humans to do this, all while building a culture of technical optimism, original thinking, and joy.This is an in-person opportunity in San Francisco.