Head of Talent

Mission TAR’s mission is to power intelligence for the world. We are building the world’s first off-grid power plant for data centers powered by renewable technologies. We firmly believe AI should be built in the US for the benefit of all people. For that, power must be fast, clean and scalable. We are singularly focused on delivering GW-scale power faster than anyone has ever done, by rethinking every layer of the stack. We vertically integrate to solve every bottleneck, from racking systems to power electronics to dispatch algorithms to on-site construction. Leave your mark on the future of civilization-scale energy infrastructure. Company TAR is both a hardware and software company, we are building out massive, critical, physical infrastructure. (TAR is working directly with one of the largest compute providers to scale and deploy 5GWs by 2028) We operate on… High ownership. High Agency. Own project end-to-end. Great people don’t need to be managed. Speed. We achieve great things on incredible timelines. We push ourselves to go faster. First principles. No ego. No hierarchy. Challenge every assumption. Passion. Solving the energy problem is one of the largest challenges that faces the world now and in the future. About the role As Head of Talent, you own recruiting across the company: pipeline strategy, outbound sourcing, and the candidate experience from first touch through signed offer. Most of our hiring is outbound and deeply technical (power systems engineers, roboticists, controls engineers, project and procurement leaders), so you partner with the founders and technical leaders to define precise profiles and then go find and close those people yourself. This is a senior builder-doer seat based in Austin: there is no team to delegate to on day one, and you build the function, its tooling, and eventually its team from zero. Responsibilities Own active and passive pipeline strategy and talent market research across every function, so open roles never bottleneck the build. Partner with founders and functional leaders to define the right candidate profiles for technical and leadership roles and align everyone on the hiring bar. Run and improve the end-to-end recruiting process in Ashby, from intake and sourcing through screens, on-sites, and offers, keeping time-to-hire low. Source and close hard-to-fill technical and executive candidates yourself through precise written outreach and founder-quality pitching. Develop and track recruiting KPIs such as time-to-hire and passthrough rates, and run pipeline reviews with hiring managers to keep every search on schedule. Own the employer brand and candidate story, and pitch TAR compellingly to passive and executive candidates. Maintain compensation and equity benchmarks to guide offer design and close candidates. Build the talent function over time (tooling, playbooks, and eventually the team) and coordinate with People and Operations on onboarding and start-date velocity. Qualifications 9+ years in talent acquisition, technical, or executive recruiting, with hands-on sourcing throughout. Proven outbound sourcing and closing of hard-to-fill technical and leadership roles. Track record of managing executive and C-suite stakeholders and holding your own in profile and bar-setting debates. Experience owning an ATS end to end, from onboarding through ongoing administration, ideally Ashby. Ability to learn new technical domains fast and translate them into precise candidate profiles and search strategies. Player-coach range: you can jump in and own a single candidate while setting strategy and, over time, building a team. Excellent written outreach and the ability to pitch a company like a founder. Nice to have Founding or first recruiter at a hard-tech, energy, defense, or deep-tech company such as Anduril, SpaceX, Tesla, or a comparable startup, building the function from scratch. Experience hiring power systems, controls, hardware, or infrastructure engineers. Experience recruiting across multiple offices of a distributed team. Experience scaling headcount through hypergrowth, for example from 50 to 500 people. Salary and Benefits Up to $15K relocation bonus Unlimited PTO Health, Dental, Vision insurance $1K monthly stipend for meals