Head of Talent Acquisition - Speak : Job Details

Our mission is to reinvent the way people learn, starting with language. We begin by teaching the next billion people English, Spanish, and French.

English is the global language of business, culture, and communication, and over 1.5 billion people around the world are actively trying to learn right now. Others dream of communicating with the half-billion native Spanish speakers across the globe. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to learn tospeaka language without constant access to a speaking partner. Grammar and vocab apps don't really help – you need to actuallyconversewith someone.

Speak is on a journey to fix this. We're creating an AI-powered experience that replicates the flow of a conversation,withoutneeding a human on the other end. The goal is to make it radically more accessible to be able to have conversations in a foreign language and eventually help hundreds of millions of people gain fluency who otherwise wouldn't be able to.

We started on this journey over five years ago and we've still got a long ways to go. We're thoughtfully adding new team members only when we think they can truly play a big role in our mission.

Speak launched first in South Korea where we have quickly grown to become the top grossing education app in the country. We have now delivered this winning product to more than 30 countries globally and are continuing to expand to more markets in the coming months. The company is well funded, raising a recent Series B backed by investors like OpenAI, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, Lachy Groom, Josh Buckley, and others. We're a team of 75 based primarily in SF, Seoul, Tokyo, and Ljubljana.

We're looking for a Head of Talent Acquisition who will lead talent acquisition for our rapidly growing company. In this role, you will play a critical part in shaping the future of Speak by developing and executing a hiring plan that ensures we have the right talent in place across technical and non-technical teams to support our global growth. You'll also be responsible for improving key aspects of our Talent function like recruitment processes, candidate experience, and employer brand. Speak's team is growing quickly - aiming to just under double in 2024 - but we are also very intentional with every team member we add. A successful Head of Talent Acquisition at Speak will need to balance hiring volume needs while helping us maintain very high talent density.

• Driving talent acquisition: develop and execute a global talent acquisition plan to meet the company's hiring goals, ensuring all roles are filled within the targeted timeframes.

• Leading recruitment: manage the full-cycle recruitment process for both technical and non-technical roles, from sourcing and interviewing to offer delivery and onboarding handoff. Proactively build a strong candidate pipeline through sourcing initiatives, employer branding, and partnerships.

• Talent process improvement: collaborate with leadership to forecast monthly and quarterly hiring needs, develop detailed hiring plans, and continuously refine recruitment processes to reduce time-to-hire.

• Building a Talent team: develop a team of recruiters, providing training and mentorship to elevate team performance and to ensure a diverse candidate pool across global markets.

• Enhancing employer branding: position us as a top destination for talent in key markets, leading to a significant increase in inbound applications and overall brand presence.

• Improving candidate experience: Create and implement best-in-class candidate experience processes, from initial outreach to onboarding.

• Must-have:

  • Proven experience (5-7+ years) in leading talent acquisition for high-growth, global startups, particularly in technical and engineering roles at Series B+ companies.

  • Strong track record in designing and executing company-wide hiring plans.

  • Expertise in building, managing, and scaling recruitment processes and teams.

  • Excellent collaboration skills with the ability to work effectively with hiring managers, external partners, and leadership.

  • Analytical skills to leverage data and metrics for informed decision-making and continuous improvement.

  • Comprehensive understanding of global hiring practices, labor markets, and compliance requirements across various regions.

  • Hands-on approach, with the ability to engage directly in sourcing, interviewing, and closing candidates, especially for leadership-level roles.

  • Proficiency with common recruitment tools and platforms.

• Nice-to-have:

  • Experience attracting talent in an office-first/hybrid environment.

  • Direct experience recruiting in key talent markets in APAC.

Speak does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.