Technical Talent Partner - $2bn+ Physical AI Scale-Up

Hawkwood; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Hawkwood in London is seeking a Technical Talent Partner to help scale its technical teams across ML, Data Science, Software Engineering, Deployment Engineering and Infrastructure. You'll own searches end-to-end, proactively identify and engage technical talent who aren't looking, build strong relationships with senior leaders and help navigate what great hiring looks like.

You'll join a Talent team exploring how AI can change recruiting itself, with opportunities to experiment with automation

Qualifications

• Experience recruiting technical talent across Software Engineering, Machine Learning, Data Science, Infrastructure, DevOps or similarly complex disciplines.
• A genuine bias towards proactive sourcing and outbound search, rather than relying predominantly on inbound applications.
• Experience owning searches end-to-end and partnering directly with technical hiring managers.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to advise, challenge and guide hiring managers through the recruitment process.
• Curiosity to understand unfamiliar technologies and build enough technical fluency to recruit credibly within new areas.
• Strong judgement around candidate quality and ability to calibrate against a high technical hiring bar.
• Comfortable managing multiple searches simultaneously within a fast-scaling environment.
• An interest in AI and automation, ideally with examples of how you've experimented with tools or workflows to improve recruiting.
• A proactive, low-ego mindset and genuine enthusiasm for learning about the technical space you're operating in.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end recruitment across technical roles spanning Machine Learning, Data Science, Software Engineering, Deployment Engineering, Infrastructure and other specialist areas.
• Build and execute proactive sourcing strategies, with outbound search forming a core part of how you approach every role.
• Partner closely with technical hiring managers to understand their work, translate complex requirements into effective search strategies and continuously calibrate what great looks like.
• Act as a consultative partner to hiring managers, helping shape briefs, challenge assumptions and build effective interview processes.
• Manage multiple searches simultaneously while maintaining pace, quality and an excellent candidate experience.
• Develop deep knowledge of the technical markets you hire into, building talent maps and communities rather than approaching each search in isolation.
• Experiment with AI and automation across sourcing, research and recruitment workflows, helping the wider Talent team become increasingly AI-native.
• Contribute to broader Talent projects as the company continues to scale internationally.

Skills

Proactive sourcing

Outbound search

Stakeholder management

Technical fluency

Hiring in fast-scaling environment

Job description

Location: London, hybrid (2-3 days per week in the office)

Contract Type: Permanent

Compensation: £75,000-£90,000 + up to 20% bonus + equity

One of London's most ambitious Physical AI scale-ups is looking for a Talent Acquisition Partner to help build the technical teams behind a new generation of AI-powered engineering.

Founded by an exceptionally credible team at the intersection of elite engineering and applied AI, the company is building technology that is changing how some of the world's most complex physical products are designed and built. Its platform combines frontier AI research with real-world engineering, helping organisations across aerospace, automotive, semiconductors, energy and advanced manufacturing dramatically accelerate design and development.

The business has been on an incredible growth journey, scaling more than 14x over the past three years, raising one of Europe's largest funding rounds this year and reaching a valuation of over $2bn. With ambitious expansion plans across the UK, US and Asia, the company is now entering its next phase of growth.

About the role:

As a Technical Talent Partner, you'll play a central role in helping the company scale its technical organisation, hiring across Machine Learning, Data Science, Software Engineering, Deployment Engineering, Infrastructure and other specialist engineering disciplines.

This is a hands-on role for someone who genuinely enjoys being in the market. You'll own searches end-to-end, proactively identify and engage technical talent who aren't looking, build strong relationships with senior leaders and help them navigate what good hiring looks like.

You'll also join a Talent team actively exploring how AI can change recruiting itself, with the opportunity to experiment with automation, agents and new workflows across sourcing and delivery.

Areas of impact:

• Own end-to-end recruitment across technical roles spanning Machine Learning, Data Science, Software Engineering, Deployment Engineering, Infrastructure and other specialist areas
• Build and execute proactive sourcing strategies, with outbound search forming a core part of how you approach every role. You will reach passive, hard-to-engage talent through talent mapping, competitor mapping, events, communities, deep networks, and build named-target pipelines ahead of demand.
• Partner closely with technical hiring managers to understand their work, translate complex requirements into effective search strategies and continuously calibrate what great looks like
• Act as a consultative partner to hiring managers, helping shape briefs, challenge assumptions and build effective interview processes
• Manage multiple searches simultaneously while maintaining pace, quality and an excellent candidate experience
• Develop deep knowledge of the technical markets you hire into, building talent maps and communities rather than approaching each search in isolation
• Experiment with AI and automation across sourcing, research and recruitment workflows, helping the wider Talent team become increasingly AI-native
• Contribute to broader Talent projects as the company continues to scale internationally

What's needed:

TLDR: You've hired technical people in a market where the pool is small, and everyone is talking to the same ten companies, and you can say what actually worked.

• Experience recruiting technical talent across areas such as Software Engineering, Machine Learning, Data Science, Infrastructure, DevOps or similarly complex technical disciplines
• A genuine bias towards proactive sourcing and outbound search, rather than relying predominantly on inbound applications
• Experience owning searches end-to-end and partnering directly with technical hiring managers
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to advise, challenge and guide hiring managers through the recruitment process
• The curiosity to understand unfamiliar technologies and build enough technical fluency to recruit credibly within new areas
• Strong judgement around candidate quality and an ability to quickly calibrate against a high technical hiring bar
• Comfortable managing multiple searches simultaneously within a fast-scaling environment
• An interest in AI and automation, ideally with examples of how you've experimented with tools or workflows to improve the way you recruit
• A proactive, low-ego mindset and genuine enthusiasm for learning about the technical space you're operating in