Head of Talent

About Us

We're living through a fundamental shift in how people discover, evaluate, and purchase products. The next generation doesn't respond to traditional marketing -- they build relationships with brands through authentic social interactions, seek recommendations from communities they trust, and expect personalized experiences that feel human, not corporate.

At Nectar Social, we're building the AI-native social operating system that enables this new era of commerce. We believe every social interaction should deepen the relationship between brands and their communities while creating genuine value for both sides.

Founded by ex-Meta product and engineering leaders, we've raised over $30M in total capital from investors including GV and True Ventures. We work with brands like Oura Health, Caraway, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Kosas, OLIPOP, and many more. We're building the future of social commerce -- where community, conversation, and commerce converge.

The Role

As Nectar Social’s Head of Talent, you’ll own and scale our entire talent function during a pivotal growth phase, taking us from 40 to 100 people by the end of the year. This is a player-coach role: you’ll personally close critical senior hires while building the team, systems, and strategy that will sustain world-class hiring as we scale.

Reporting to the Head of Operations and partnering directly with the founders, you’ll be responsible for hiring velocity, pipeline quality, and candidate experience across every function. You’ll define what great looks like at Nectar and build the recruiting engine to find it.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Own the full recruiting lifecycle across engineering, product, design, GTM, and operations, from headcount planning through offer close.
• Personally source, engage, and close senior and leadership level hires while building a recruiting team to handle growing volume.
• Partner with the founders and hiring managers to translate business priorities into a hiring roadmap, ensuring the right roles are filled in the right sequence.
• Design and implement scalable recruiting infrastructure: structured interview loops, scorecards, pipeline analytics, and a candidate experience that reflects our brand.
• Build and lead a high performing recruiting team, hiring recruiters and coordinators as volume scales.
• Develop Nectar Social’s employer brand and talent positioning, making us a destination for top builders in AI, social commerce, and SaaS.
• Use data to drive decisions: track pipeline velocity, conversion rates, source effectiveness, and time-to-fill to continuously improve performance.
• Manage relationships with external recruiting partners and agencies where needed, while building toward a predominantly in-house function.

What We’re Looking For

• 8–12 years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with at least 3 years in a leadership or management role.
• Direct experience scaling a company through a high-growth phase (e.g., 30–50 to 100 employees), ideally at a Series A or Series B startup.
• Proven ability to personally close exceptional candidates across both technical and non-technical roles.
• Track record of building recruiting processes and teams from the ground up, balancing speed, rigor, and candidate quality.
• Sharp strategic judgment: you know how to build a hiring plan, manage competing priorities, and advise founders on talent decisions.
• Strong instincts for culture add, role fit, and long-term potential, with a high talent bar you won’t compromise.
• Fluency with modern recruiting tools (ATS platforms, sourcing tools, analytics) and a data-driven approach to optimizing the funnel.
• Energized by in-person collaboration with the team in Palo Alto.
• Startup DNA: resourceful, adaptable, low ego, and comfortable operating in ambiguity.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation and early equity
• Health, vision, and dental benefits 401(k) match
• Clear career growth opportunities as the company scales
• Free lunch in the heart of University Ave. in Palo Alto
• Deep exposure to cutting-edge AI tooling and the opportunity to shape how brands use it
• A collaborative, ambitious team defining a new category of AI-native marketing infrastructure