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Kaizen Labs is a government technology company founded in 2022 that partners with local, state, and federal agencies to replace legacy systems with modern, AI-native software. The company has raised $35M from top-tier VCs (NEA, a16z, Accel) and is on track to scale from $1M to nine figures in 24 months—unprecedented in government tech. The platform already reaches 55 million Americans across 50+ agencies.
As Head of Talent, you will own Kaizen's recruiting function during its most critical growth phase. The company is scaling from 40 to 100+ employees over the next few quarters, and hiring velocity and quality are now the primary constraints to growth.
Key responsibilities include: building and running the recruiting engine (process, pipeline, reporting) across all functions; owning and raising the hiring bar by convincing leadership they can win top talent; personally carrying and closing concurrent searches in GTM, operations, engineering, and design, especially senior/executive roles; managing the recruiting stack (Ashby, Juicebox, LinkedIn Recruiter) and providing leadership with live pipeline visibility; managing a team of three recruiters and hiring additional approved headcount; evaluating and negotiating with agency partners; establishing Kaizen's employer brand in NYC and DC markets; and partnering with the COO on headcount planning and talent strategy.
Ideal candidates have scaled a talent function through significant growth, operated as a trusted peer to founders, managed recruiting teams (recruiters, coordinators, sourcers), carried concurrent searches from IC through Director+ level, and have real relationships in the NYC engineering community. You should use AI and automation in your recruiting workflow and ideally have configured Ashby. Experience in government, defense tech, or other regulated industries is a plus. You must be comfortable with hands-on sourcing and closing—this is not a strategy-only role. The company offers 100% health, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, $100k life insurance, FSA/Dependent Care FSA, and One Medical membership.
