Talent Acquisition Lead, Kernel AI

• 3–7 years of experience: You have a track record in a fast-paced environment (agency or in-house), ideally within high-growth tech
• Technical Fluency: You speak "Engineer." You understand the nuances between different tech stacks, can calibrate seniority effectively, and gain credibility with technical hiring managers
• Sourcing Mastery: You are expert at using modern tools (LinkedIn Recruiter, Ashby, Metaview, Juicebox) and boolean logic to find candidates who aren't looking
• Operational Mindset: You don’t just "do" recruiting; you build processes. You care about the channels, conversion rates, time-to-hire
• Ambition: You want to build a world-class talent function from scratch

Desirable

• We’re looking for our foundational Talent Acquisition Lead to help us scale from ~30 to 60+ employees
• Your north star will be driving growth by bringing exceptional talent into the business, with a specific emphasis on raising the bar for our technical teams and building a world-class people foundation
• You will be the sole owner of the recruitment lifecycle but also have the opportunity to broaden your scope
• As we scale, this role offers a clear path to owning the wider People Operations function (onboarding, culture, performance, and retention)
• Full-Cycle Recruiting: Own end-to-end recruiting for all roles, acting as a true partner to the business rather than just a resume screener
• Technical Depth: Partner deeply with Engineering leadership (AI, Product, Backend, Platform) to decode complex technical requirements and build pipelines of passive engineering talent
• Sourcing Strategy: Move beyond inbound applicants. You will hunt for high-quality candidates using creative sourcing strategies, specifically for hard-to-fill technical and GTM profiles
• Process Excellence: Build and refine a data-driven hiring machine (scorecards, interview training, pipeline velocity) that ensures a high bar for talent and a great candidate experience
• Employer Brand: Act as the face of Kernel in the market, helping us articulate our engineering culture and commercial ambition to attract top-tier talent

• Stage 1 – Intro Call with Arvin (Head of Finance and Operations). Overview of Kernel, your recruitment philosophy, and operational fit
• Stage 2 – Case-Based Interview: A deep dive into your sourcing strategy, focused on how you would tackle a specific technical role at Kernel
• Stage 3 – Calibration & Roleplay with Fara (Head of Engineering). Assessing your ability to partner with technical leadership and screen engineering profiles
• Final Stage – Founder Interview with Anders (CEO) and Marcus to assess cultural fit and values alignment
• If there is mutual fit, we move to references and offer