Founding People & Talent Lead
About this role
Mercura is hiring a Founding People & Talent Lead to build our Talent and People function from the ground up, owning end-to-end recruiting and shaping how we onboard, develop, and retain exceptional teams as we scale. This is a hands-on, high-impact founding role working closely with the founders to solve the single largest scaling bottleneck for a high-growth AI company operating in a large, underserved market.
What youll do
- Build and own Mercura’s full hiring engine, leading recruiting end-to-end from role definition to offers.
- Focus the majority of your time on Talent early on, sourcing and closing exceptional candidates across 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 Mercura’s employer brand to attract top talent across the DACH region and beyond.
- Build and nurture a network across universities, startups, and technical communities to grow our talent pipeline.
- Use AI tools and experiment with new workflows to increase recruiting velocity and quality.
- Promote a high bar for excellence and implement measures to maintain hiring standards as the company scales.
- Contribute to company culture and hire for long-term retention and development.
What Mercura is looking for
- 2–5 years of experience with meaningful time in Talent, Performance, or org development at a high-growth startup or scaleup.
- Experience across both talent acquisition and people topics, ideally in hypergrowth contexts (e.g., growing 10→50 or 30→100).
- Demonstrated ability to run hands-on recruiting while designing scalable systems and processes.
- Strong storytelling and relationship-building skills with a track record of sourcing and closing senior candidates.
- High standards for hiring quality and structured thinking combined with rapid execution.
- Daily use of AI tools and curiosity to experiment with new workflows.
- Fluency in English; German is a plus.
- Openness to grow into a broader People leadership role as Mercura scales; we encourage candidates who may grow into the role to apply.
Company at a glance
Mercura builds AI software for essential enterprises that keep the economy running. Based in Munich, YC-backed (W25) with a round at one of the cohort’s highest valuations, it surpassed $1M ARR within a year and targets $10M ARR by 2026.
Top Benefits
- Equity/ownership opportunity for employees.
- Referral bonuses up to €10,000 for successful hires.
- Growth is emphasized; the company invests in employees’ development through mentorship and close teamwork.
What happens next
Skip the application pile. I get you in front of the people who decide.
Confirm the fit
A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.
I pitch you to the company
I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.
A meeting lands on your calendar
When the company wants to meet, I get the call on your calendar. You just show up.
Culture & values
The team culture feels like family, with care, trust, and mutual support.
Hiring is based on ability, mindset, and values.
Active commitment to diversity and gender equity.
Founders personally commit part of their income to organizations expanding opportunity.
The team is small and fully in-person, based in Munich.
Joy and collaboration are at the heart of the work.
Growth is emphasized; the company invests in employees’ development through mentorship and close teamwork.
The environment is high-growth and high-commitment, with a focus on hard work and customer value.
There is a meritocratic culture where the best ideas win.
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