About the Role
A fast-growing, seed-stage AI company in Munich is hiring a Founding People & Talent Lead to build the Talent and People function from the ground up. Operating in a large, underserved market, this company automates inside sales workflows — quoting, order processing, and customer inquiry handling — for distributors and manufacturers using AI.
This is a high-impact, hands-on founding role working directly with leadership. You'll own end-to-end recruiting while progressively shaping how the company onboards, develops, and retains exceptional people as it scales across the DACH region and beyond.
What You'll Do
Build and own the full hiring engine — leading recruiting end-to-end from role definition through to offer and close.
Spend the majority of your early time on Talent: sourcing and closing exceptional candidates across all functions.
Design and scale recruiting processes, analytics, workflows, and operating rhythms that enable fast, high-quality hiring.
Partner with founders and team leads to define role expectations, calibrate hiring decisions, and challenge org design.
Shape People systems over time — including onboarding, performance calibration, career progression, and compensation benchmarking.
Develop and own employer branding to attract top talent across the DACH region and beyond.
Build and nurture a pipeline network across universities, startups, and technical communities.
Leverage AI tools and experiment with new workflows to increase recruiting velocity and quality.
Champion a high hiring bar and implement standards-preserving measures as the team grows.
Contribute to company culture with a long-term retention and development mindset.
What We're Looking For
Required:
2–5 years of experience with meaningful time in Talent, People, or org development at a high-growth startup or scaleup.
Demonstrated experience leading end-to-end recruitment (role definition, sourcing, assessment, closing) in a hypergrowth context (e.g., 10→50 or 30→100 headcount).
Structured thinker who can independently design, implement, and iterate on systems and processes.
Daily user of AI tools with a genuine curiosity to experiment with new recruiting workflows.
Strong storytelling and relationship-building skills with a proven track record closing senior candidates.
Ability to build employer branding and a talent network to attract top candidates in the DACH region.
Full fluency in English.
Nice to Have:
Experience with performance calibration and compensation benchmarking as part of scaling People operations.
German language skills.
Background in enterprise software, AI, or B2B SaaS environments.
We actively encourage candidates who may grow into a broader People leadership role over time to apply.
Location
This role is on-site in Munich, Germany. Candidates must be based in or willing to relocate to Munich. Visa sponsorship is not available.
Compensation & Details
Employment type: Full-time
Stage: Seed (backed by a top-tier accelerator and institutional investors)
Team size: Early-stage (under 20 people) — you'll be a key early hire