Senior Talent Partner (Partnerships)

About CuspAI

CuspAI is an AI-first materials discovery company focused on accelerating the creation of breakthrough materials that can help advance human progress. Its founding group includes highly cited experts across AI, chemistry, and engineering. The company is tackling major global problems such as energy, clean water, next-generation computing, and carbon capture, with the goal of enabling faster discovery of materials that matter.

The team sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence and materials science, building partnerships and capabilities that support innovation, scalability, and collaboration across industries and research communities.

The Opportunity

Because the business is expanding, CuspAI is hiring an experienced and flexible Senior Talent Partner to join the Talent team. In this role, you will take ownership of end-to-end hiring for multiple pipelines, with the main emphasis on Technical Partnerships and Business Development positions. You will help create a strong experience for candidates and internal stakeholders while finding, engaging, and attracting highly specialized technical and scientific talent.

Impact of the Role

Your contribution will influence how quickly CuspAI can tackle critical challenges in areas like advanced computing, carbon capture, and clean energy. You will help grow a team of technical partnership specialists, researchers, engineers, and applied scientists, and play a key role in maintaining hiring quality and shaping the company culture.

Working closely with the broader Talent team, you will have the autonomy and backing to strengthen the talent function and support sustainable company growth. You will also work with leading researchers to understand complex technical needs and present a compelling story about the company’s mission and work.

This is an early, foundational role in a small talent function, with the chance to shape hiring approach, sourcing strategy, and organizational culture during a formative stage of growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the full recruitment cycle for high-priority Technical Partnership and Business Development roles, including positions such as Partnership Managers in established markets and Country Managers in new geographies.
• Create and execute sourcing and outreach strategies to attract highly specialized talent, including candidates with advanced degrees in relevant scientific fields, from AI labs, science-led companies, and research spin-outs.
• Represent CuspAI to candidates and guide them through the process from offer acceptance through onboarding.
• Work with hiring managers and teams to write strong job descriptions, clarify role expectations, define assessment criteria, and build efficient interview processes.
• Facilitate interviewer alignment sessions so everyone involved is calibrated on what to assess at each stage and how to improve questions and exercises.
• Provide informed talent advice using market data on compensation, talent supply, and hiring patterns in deep tech and AI for materials science.
• Deliver a personal, smooth candidate journey that reflects the company’s values and encourages every applicant to advocate for the employer brand.
• Maintain clean and accurate ATS records and share reliable dashboards that help leaders make hiring decisions.
• Set and follow service expectations for core recruiting tasks such as application reviews, screening calls, interview scheduling, feedback collection, and stakeholder communication.
• Work with Operations and HR to improve onboarding and the wider talent infrastructure.

Requirements

• Strong practical experience hiring technical talent, including research, software engineering, technical partnerships, and/or scientific business development professionals in research-driven or science-focused organizations.
• Proven ability to work in uncertain, fast-changing environments, ideally within startup or scale-up full-cycle recruitment.
• A naturally curious approach that goes beyond the job description to understand the need behind each role and build trust with hiring teams.
• Up-to-date knowledge of talent acquisition methods, tools, and candidate experience practices.
• Comfort and credibility in recruiting for complex technical or research profiles across different disciplines.
• A proactive sourcing style with a strong outbound mindset and experience using networks and referrals, not just inbound applicants.
• Solid stakeholder management skills, including keeping managers and senior leaders aligned and informed.
• Genuine enthusiasm for the overlap between AI and science, and the ability to explain the mission in a way that resonates with candidates.
• Willingness to work from the office three days per week and travel occasionally when needed.

Additional Considerations

This position may be based in Amsterdam, Berlin, Cambridge, or London. The selected candidate is expected to work onsite in the office three days each week. Occasional travel to other locations may also be required for collaboration and project-related work.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation that reflects impact and growth.
• Equity participation in CuspAI.
• Paid time off: 28 days of holiday in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, or 21 days in Japan, Singapore, and the US, plus local public holidays.
• Enhanced parental leave: 26 weeks at full pay for primary caregivers and 12 weeks at full pay for secondary caregivers.
• A professional development allowance to support continued learning and skill growth.
• The chance to work on meaningful scientific and sustainability challenges using advanced technology.
• A highly collaborative, interdisciplinary environment with researchers and engineers across AI, computational chemistry, and experimental science.

Equal Opportunity Statement

CuspAI is committed to maintaining an inclusive workplace and considers applicants without discrimination based on protected characteristics such as sex, race, religion or belief, national or ethnic origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital or partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy or related conditions, veteran status, or any other status protected by law. Candidates may request reasonable adjustments during or after the interview process.