Job Description
We are looking for a hands-on HR & Talent Acquisition Lead to build our people function from the ground up. This is a founding HR role for someone with an entrepreneurial mindset. You will be our first dedicated People hire, owning everything from sourcing and closing exceptional talent to designing the HR processes, policies, and systems that will scale with the business.
You should be equally comfortable running a demanding recruiting pipeline for technical and business roles, setting up an HRIS and payroll from scratch, drafting policy where none exists, and advising leadership on organizational design. You will operate with high autonomy, limited structure, and real ownership and build the structure yourself as we grow.
What You Will Do
Talent Acquisition and Recruiting
- Own end-to-end recruitment across all functions: technical (AI, engineering, cloud), sales, delivery, and corporate roles from intake and sourcing through offer negotiation and closing.
- Build proactive sourcing pipelines using LinkedIn Recruiter, direct search, referrals, communities, and agency partners; develop talent pools for hard-to-fill and niche technology roles.
- Design and run a structured, high-quality hiring process: job descriptions, interview frameworks, scorecards, assessments, and hiring-manager training.
- Define and track recruiting metrics (time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, pipeline conversion, quality of hire) and continuously improve the funnel.
- Build and promote the employer brand: careers page, job-board presence, candidate experience, and market positioning as an employer of choice.
Building the HR Function from Scratch
- Design and stand up core HR foundations: employment contracts, offer templates, onboarding and offboarding, probation and confirmation processes, and the employee handbook.
- Create compensation and benefits structures: salary bands, benchmarking, incentive plans, and benefits selection and administration.
- Establish policies and compliance with local labor law and regulations (e.g., UAE labor law, visas and work permits, WPS payroll, Emiratisation requirements adjusted per jurisdiction), working with PROs, legal counsel, and government portals as needed.
- Set up and own HR systems: select and implement an HRIS/ATS and payroll platform (e.g., Bayzat, Zoho People, BambooHR, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, Greenhouse, Lever or similar), automate workflows, and maintain clean, auditable employee data.
- Build people analytics and reporting: headcount, attrition, hiring plans, and budget tracking for leadership.
HR Operations and Process Management
- Run day-to-day HR operations: payroll inputs, leave management, employee records, letters and documentation, insurance, and vendor management.
- Design and manage performance management cycles: goal setting, reviews, feedback, promotions, and performance improvement.
- Own the full employee lifecycle experience: onboarding that gets people productive fast, engagement and culture initiatives, learning and development, and respectful offboarding.
- Act as trusted advisor to managers and employees: coaching, employee relations, grievance handling, and conflict resolution.
- Continuously document, standardize, and improve HR processes so they scale — playbooks, SOPs, and self-service resources.
Strategic and Entrepreneurial Contribution
- Partner with leadership on workforce planning, organizational design, and hiring roadmaps aligned to business and revenue plans.
- Operate like an owner: prioritize ruthlessly, work lean, negotiate with vendors, manage the people budget, and make pragmatic build-vs-buy decisions.
- Contribute beyond HR where a growing business needs it — office setup, administration, culture, internal communications, and supporting new market or entity setup.
- Shape and protect company culture and values as the team scales.
Requirements
Requirements
- 8–10+ years of progressive HR and talent acquisition experience, with significant time in startup, scale-up, SME, or new-business-unit environments.
- Proven full-cycle recruiting excellence: a track record of personally sourcing and closing candidates across technical and non-technical roles, including senior and hard-to-fill positions.
- Demonstrated experience building HR functions, processes, or programs from scratch, not just operating within an established framework.