Director of Talent

Relay Technologies; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A fast-growing logistics startup in Greater London is seeking a Director of Talent to enhance their talent acquisition platform and ensure scalable hiring. This leadership role involves developing a framework for recruitment analytics, collaborating closely with senior leaders, and enhancing hiring practices as the company scales. Must have experience in startup environments and strong leadership skills. Offering competitive equity, health benefits, and a supportive office environment in Shoreditch with a combination of on-site and remote work.

Benefits

Generous equity options

Comprehensive health and dental coverage

25 days of holiday

Enhanced parental leave

Flexible work set-up

Qualifications

• Proven leadership experience owning TA programs and delivering systems implementations end-to-end.
• Experience in hypergrowth startups or scale-ups.
• Structured, clear communicator with strong stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the talent acquisition platform.
• Act as the architect of the TA system with close collaboration with the Founders and People team.
• Put in place infrastructure for scalable hiring as the company grows.

Skills

Leadership experience in Talent Acquisition

Data-driven decision making

Strong stakeholder management

Experience in hypergrowth startups

Job description

Relay is fundamentally reshaping how goods move in an online era. Backed by Europe’s largest-ever logistics Series A ($35M), led by deep-tech investors Plural (whose portfolio spans fusion energy and space exploration), Relay is scaling faster than 99.98% of venture-backed startups. We're assembling the most talent-dense team the logistics industry has ever seen

Relay’s Mission to free commerce from friction. Today, high delivery costs act as a hidden tax on e-commerce, quietly shaping what can be sold online and limiting who can participate. We envision a world where more goods move more freely between more people, making the online shopping experience seamless and accessible to everyone.

THE TEAM

• ~90 people, more than half in engineering, product and data
• 45+ advanced degrees across computer science, mathematics and operations research
• Thousands of data points captured, calculated, analysed and predicted for every single parcel we handle
• An intellectually vibrant culture of first‑principles thinking, tight feedback loops and relentless experimentation

The Opportunity

Relay is hiring a Director of Talent to own and evolve our talent acquisition platform—covering the data foundation, tooling and infrastructure, assessment architecture, and operating model that enable fast, high-quality hiring at scale. Reporting to Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Nikki Mazza, you’ll act as the architect of our TA system, partnering closely with the Founders, People team, and functional leaders to translate growth plans into a scalable hiring engine. As we enter our next phase of growth, you’ll put the right infrastructure in place to support it—and keep raising the bar as we scale.

Who Will Thrive in this role?

• You’ve led TA as a system owner: built (or owned) recruiting dashboards/analytics, operational rhythms, budget, and capacity planning—not just reporting.
• You’re fluent in the TA and Talent Ops/data hybrid craft: SLAs, scorecards, funnel diagnostics, automation, and partnering with RevOps/FP&A/People Analytics to forecast and drive decisions.
• You bring product thinking grounded in hands‑on TA: you design candidate & hiring manager journeys, run experiments, and collaborate effectively with product/engineering on hiring systems.
• You can raise the hiring bar at scale: own question banks, rubrics, scorecards; design assessment architecture; and build interviewer training/certification that reduces variance.
• You’re a strong people leader who can scale the org model: coach TA Leads, decide what to productise vs centralise vs decentralise, and drive adoption through clarity and high standards.

Must-Haves

• Proven leadership experience owning TA programs and delivering systems implementations end-to-end.
• Experience in hypergrowth startups or scale-ups.
• Structured, clear communicator with strong stakeholder management skills.

Compensation, Benefits & Workplace

• Generous equity, richer than 99% of European startups, with annual top‑ups to share Relay’s success.
• Private health & dental coverage, so comprehensive you’d need to be a partner at a Magic Circle law firm to match it.
• 25 days of holidays
• Enhanced parental leave.
• Located in Shoreditch, our office set‑up enables the kind of in‑person interactions that drive impact. We work 4 days on‑site, with 1 day remote.
• Hardware of your choice.
• Extensive perks (gym subsidies, cycle‑to‑work, Friday office lunch, covered Uber home and dinner for late nights, and more).

Fast and Focused Hiring Process

1. Talent Acquisition Interview - 45 min
2. Hiring Manager Interview - 60 min
3. Case Study - 75 min
4. Decision and offer within 48 hours; our process mirrors our pace of work.

Who Thrives at Relay?

• Aim with Precision: You define problems clearly and measure your impact meticulously.
• Play to Win: You chase bold bets, tackle the hard stuff, and view constraints as fuel, not friction.
• 1% Better Every Day: You believe that small, consistent improvements lead to exponential growth. You move quickly, deliver results, and learn from every experience.
• All In, All the Time: You show up and step up. You take ownership from start to finish and do what it takes to deliver when it counts.
• People‑Powered Greatness: You invest in your teammates. You give and receive feedback with care and candour. You build trust through high standards and shared success.
• Grow the Whole Pie: You seek out win‑win solutions for merchants, couriers, and our customers, because when they thrive, so do we.

Relay is an equal‑opportunity employer committed to diversity, inclusion, and fostering a workplace where everyone thrives.