Head of Talent

At Exa, we’re building a next-gen embeddings based search engine for AI. We’re a ~80-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 Role

The 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 Do

• Set Exa’s hiring roadmap with founders and CoS, and define what “great” looks like across teams

• Personally source, assess, and close high-impact hires, including senior engineers, GTM leaders, and early execs

• Run the most critical searches end-to-end when the stakes are high

• Design interview loops, scorecards, and hiring bar

• Build scalable recruiting workflows and infrastructure using Exa’s internal AI tools

• Hire, manage, and develop GTM and Technical Recruiters

• Build a culture of speed, ownership, and high bar across the recruiting team

• Shape how Exa is experienced by candidates and build a reputation that attracts elite talent

What We’re Looking For

• 6+ years of recruiting or talent leadership experience in high-growth tech companies

• Experience hiring for both technical and GTM roles

• Proven ability to operate as both strategist and closer

• Strong opinions about hiring bar, team design, and talent quality

• Comfort working directly with founders in a fast-moving environment

• A builder mindset — you want to create systems, not just run them

Bonus:

• Experience at a top-tier startup or scale-up

• Experience building recruiting teams from scratch

• Technical literacy (you can comfortably talk to engineers and understand what makes them great)

Why This Role Matters

Webscale 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. In addition to premium healthcare benefits (medical, dental, vision), we also offer fertility benefits and a monthly wellness stipend to all of our employees.