Head of Talent

About Tessera Labs

Tessera Labs is building enterprise AI that is practical, scalable, and ready for real business operations. The company creates multi-agent AI systems that help automate complex workflows across platforms such as SAP, Salesforce, Workday, Snowflake, MuleSoft, and others. It is backed by Foundation Capital and recently raised a $60M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

The company’s mission is to deliver genuine AI automation for enterprises with speed, accuracy, and measurable business value. Tessera Labs operates with a fast-moving, high-ownership mindset and is focused on frontier applied AI. The team is about 55 people today and is expanding quickly across its San Francisco and San Jose offices.

The Opportunity

This role is a chance to take full ownership of the talent function at a fast-growing AI company at a pivotal stage. Tessera Labs already has recruiting infrastructure in place, including an ATS, established processes, and a recruiting team, but the function needs to scale significantly as the company grows from roughly 55 employees to more than 150.

The incoming Head of Talent will be expected to strengthen what already works, rebuild what does not, and act as a strategic partner to founders and senior leaders. The recruiting engine needs to become faster, more proactive, more outbound-led, and more tightly integrated into company growth.

Work Arrangement

This position is a hybrid opportunity and requires the ability to commute to the Bay Area offices. Preference is for candidates based in or willing to work from the San Francisco or San Jose offices on a hybrid basis.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and grow a lean in-house recruiting team, including hiring additional team members as the company scales.
• Own end-to-end hiring across Engineering, GTM, Operations, and G&A, from intake through offer acceptance.
• Design and execute proactive outbound sourcing strategies rather than relying only on inbound applicants.
• Work closely with founders and hiring managers to define hiring standards, create structured interview processes, and plan workforce needs.
• Improve and manage the ATS (Ashby), including stages, feedback workflows, scorecards, and recruiting reports.
• Introduce modern sourcing approaches and AI-enabled recruiting tools to reduce manual effort and improve speed.
• Own employer branding and candidate experience, ensuring every interaction reflects the company brand.
• Monitor and communicate recruiting performance metrics such as time-to-fill, offer acceptance, pipeline conversion, and sourced-versus-inbound ratios.
• Shape offer strategy, including compensation planning, equity messaging, and closing tactics for competitive candidates.
• Advise leadership on organizational design, compensation strategy, and employee retention.

Requirements

• At least 7 years of recruiting experience, including substantial time leading talent at a high-growth startup.
• Demonstrated success building recruiting systems and functions rather than only managing existing ones.
• Strong background hiring for technical roles such as Engineering, ML, and AI, along with GTM and operations positions.
• Excellent outbound sourcing ability, including finding and converting candidates who are not actively job hunting.
• Comfort using AI tools to streamline recruiting workflows and eliminate repetitive work.
• Strong connections within the Bay Area startup and AI ecosystem.
• Proven ability to close candidates against competitive offers, including offers from frontier AI labs.
• Hands-on, low-ego approach with the willingness to do the work directly before building out the team.
• Strong communication and persuasion skills, especially when selling vision, mission, and equity upside to passive candidates.
• Preferred availability to work from the San Francisco or San Jose offices on a hybrid basis.

Nice to Have

• Experience rebuilding or simplifying an overly complex recruiting function.
• Experience with Ashby or similar modern ATS platforms, especially if implemented from scratch.
• Background hiring through Series A and later scaling stages.
• Prior partnership with a16z or other top-tier venture firms on talent strategy.

Why Tessera Labs

• High ownership and influence over how a leading AI company attracts and grows its team.
• Competitive compensation and meaningful equity participation.
• Backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Foundation Capital, with access to strong networks and resources.
• A leadership team that moves quickly, takes ownership seriously, and works at the edge of applied AI.
• Flexible hybrid setup with offices in San Francisco and San Jose.

Compensation

The stated compensation range for this position is $170,000 to $215,000.