Talent & People Lead

DiligenceSquared is the AI-native consulting firm. We deliver investment-grade market research and commercial due diligence, powered by AI agents and led by experienced consultants. Our founding team brings deep experience from Blackstone and BCG, and we're backed by Y Combinator and Relentless. Our clients include 6 of the 10 largest private equity firms in the world and represent more than $4T in combined AUM.

We're looking for a Talent & People Lead to help us hire exceptional people and build the foundations of our people function. You'll work directly with the founders to identify the talent we need, bring great candidates into the business and create an excellent experience from first conversation through onboarding and beyond.

Recruiting will be your primary focus. You'll personally source candidates, run hiring processes and help close hires across consulting, GTM, engineering and operations. Alongside that, you'll own the day-to-day people processes that help a growing team work well together.

This is a hands-on builder role with broad ownership. You'll need to be equally comfortable persuading a strong candidate to take a first meeting, helping a founder make a hiring decision and making sure a new teammate has everything they need on day one.

• Own recruiting from start to finish: Partner with founders and hiring managers to define roles, source candidates, run interviews, coordinate feedback and move offers through to acceptance.

• Find exceptional people: Build targeted candidate pipelines through thoughtful outreach, referrals and relationships. Develop a clear view of where to find strong talent for each function.

• Make hiring more effective: Create clear role scorecards, practical assessments and consistent interview processes that help us make better decisions quickly.

• Deliver a strong candidate experience: Keep candidates informed, prepare interviewers and ensure every interaction reflects the quality and ambition of the business.

• Help close hires: Understand what matters to candidates, communicate the opportunity clearly and partner with founders on offers and negotiations.

• Build excellent onboarding: Coordinate everything from signed offer to first weeks on the team, with clear ownership, thoughtful preparation and regular check-ins.

• Own people operations: Manage day-to-day people administration in Rippling, including employee records, payroll, benefits, onboarding and offboarding, with support from Rippling's team and our external advisers. Keep our handbook and policies current and make sure employee questions and administrative tasks are resolved promptly.

• Coordinate work authorization and immigration: Work with employees and external counsel to coordinate documentation, visa-related processes and important deadlines.

• Support performance and development: Partner with founders and managers to run practical performance reviews, support regular feedback and turn development priorities into clear actions.

• Relevant experience: You have at least five years of recruiting experience, with a strong track record of personally sourcing, assessing and closing exceptional candidates. You have owned searches from start to finish and are excited to remain hands-on as we grow.

• A strong recruiting track record: You can point to difficult hires you personally delivered, including candidates who were not actively looking. You know how to build a targeted pipeline, earn candidates' trust and close competitive offers.

• Hands-on execution: You enjoy doing the work yourself and can manage several searches without losing momentum or attention to detail.

• Good judgment about people: You ask thoughtful questions, assess evidence carefully and help hiring managers distinguish an impressive background from a strong fit for the role.

• Excellent communication: You write compelling outreach, build trust with candidates and represent DiligenceSquared credibly.

• Operational discipline: You are organized, responsive and reliable with the details that make recruiting and people processes work.

• Discretion and maturity: You handle sensitive information carefully and know when an issue requires specialist advice.

• High initiative: You identify what needs to happen, propose a practical approach and take ownership of following through.

• Fluency with AI tools: You use AI to improve research, preparation and administration while applying your own judgment to decisions about people.

• Recruiting at an early-stage or rapidly growing company

• Hiring across consulting, commercial and technical roles

• Experience building a recruiting or people function from the ground up

• Practical ownership of onboarding, benefits administration or other HR processes

• Familiarity with Ashby, Rippling or similar systems

• Build the talent and people function at a YC-backed company with real revenue and strong client traction

• Work directly with founders who bought this research at Blackstone and delivered it at BCG

• Have a direct impact on the quality of the team and the company's ability to grow

• Grow your responsibilities as the business and people function develop

• Join a small, senior team that enjoys working together, with regular offsites, team dinners and meals together at the office

• High ownership, close founder access and very little bureaucracy