Head of Talent
Hybrid (New York, NY), Hybrid (Washington, D.C.)$250k - $300k + equity + bonusFull-timePosted 1mo ago
About the role
Leader of Kaizen's recruiting function, responsible for building and running the recruiting engine, raising the hiring bar, and driving concurrent searches across GTM, operations, engineering, and design. Hybrid role based in New York or Washington DC with heavy emphasis on scaling talent to support rapid company growth, including headcount planning and employer branding in NYC/DC markets.
Responsibilities
- Build and run Kaizen's recruiting engine: process, pipeline, and reporting across every function we hire into.
- Own the hiring bar and raise it across the company. Not by saying no more often, but by convincing us we can win over the best talent, and making it happen.
- Carry concurrent searches across go-to-market, operations, engineering, and design, and personally close the senior and executive ones.
- Own the recruiting stack in Ashby, Juicebox, and LinkedIn Recruiter, give leadership a live view of pipeline health against the plan, and drive the automation of coordination work so the team spends its time on candidates.
- Manage the team of three and hire the additional recruiters already approved, set the standard for excellent recruiting here, and invest in the career growth of the people you inherit.
- Own the agency roster: evaluate the current partners, negotiate terms, and decide search by search when a firm earns its fee.
- Establish Kaizen's employer brand in the NYC and DC markets so strong candidates understand the unique product and value proposition of Kaizen.
- Partner with the COO and founding team on headcount planning and the talent strategy behind a 40-to-100 plan in the next few quarters.
Qualifications
- Scaled a talent function through significant headcount growth with measurable outcomes.
- Trusted peer to company founders; direct, accountable, and candid.
- Compelling case for why to work at Kaizen, including ability to attract candidates to federal/public sector opportunities.
- Deep relationships and understanding of the NYC engineering community.
- Managed a recruiting team (recruiters, coordinators, sourcers) with focus on career growth.
- Experience carrying concurrent searches across engineering and go-to-market from IC to Director+ for hard-to-find roles.
- Experience using AI and automation in recruiting; configured an ATS (ideally Ashby).
Skills
Required:Talent acquisition leadershipRecruiting operations and analyticsEmployer branding
Benefits
- Health & Insurance: Medical, dental, vision fully covered for employee and dependents; life insurance; FSA/Dependent Care FSA; One Medical membership; fertility and family-building support; 401(k) with 2% company match.
- Family & Time Off: 16 weeks parental leave for birthing parents, 10 weeks for non-birthing parents; unlimited PTO with minimum two weeks; federal holidays off; company winter break; offsite events.
- Office & Remote Setup: Home office stipend; commuter benefit; expensed meals; late-evening office perks; company laptop.
- Wellness: NYC gym membership fully covered; non-NYC gym/fitness reimbursement.
- Stipends: monthly utility stipend, quarterly home cleaning stipend, annual professional development, annual recreation, quarterly pet care stipend.
Last updated Oct 21, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
About Kaizen Labs
Modern, people-first software for America’s public services
Kaizen Labs helps city administrators transform resident experiences with simple digital products like websites, resident permitting, and recreation management.
softwaredigital productspublic servicesrecreationpermittingcommunitygovernment
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