VP, Talent

Halter; Auckland; On-site; NZD 230,000 - 360,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Delicious snacks and drinks

Southern Cross Health Insurance

6 months parental leave

Annual $1000 self-development budget

Wellness leave and unlimited annual le

Employee stock ownership plan

Job summary

Halter is seeking a visionary VP Talent to shape Halter’s global recruiting strategy and build a scalable, high‑performing team across regions. You will own early careers through executive recruiting, leading 15+ professionals while partnering with the Exec team to align hiring with long‑term business goals.

You’ll drive a culture of excellence, leverage AI to streamline the funnel, and develop leaders to sustain fast growth.

Qualifications

• Senior leader with VP/Director/CPO experience in a high-growth environment.
• Proven track record scaling recruiting functions through hyper-growth.
• Experience leading 30+ person teams.
• Strong data literacy and ability to build/interpret dashboards.
• Passion for using AI and modern tooling to transform a function.
• Excellent executive communication with senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Create and execute Halter’s end-to-end talent strategy across the organization.
• Lead a high-performing recruiting organisation with mentorship and continuous operational improvement.
• Develop leaders to scale the function without bottlenecks.
• Architect scalable talent processes from mapping to offers and ensure a high-quality candidate experience.
• Grow speed and quality without sacrificing candidate experience.
• Partner with executive leaders to shape hiring strategy and workforce planning with data.
• Leverage AI to automate repeatable parts of the funnel and free up judgment and relationship-building time.
• Contribute to the company-wide people strategy as a core People leadership team member.

Skills

People leadership

Data fluency

Executive communication

Commercial acumen

AI mindset

People management

Recruitment process

Stakeholder management

Job description

About Halter

At Halter, we’re on a mission to enable farmers and graziers to run the most productive and sustainable operations. Our customers are using Halter to break free from the time‑intensive constraints of conventional practices. Imagine watching 500 cattle stand up and walk calmly towards their next break? No quad bikes, no dogs, no fences. Just a group of cattle walking at their own pace. People say it looks like magic. Our customers are revolutionizing grazing with Halter. It's changing lives and transforming an industry. People join Halter to do meaningful work. By joining us you’ll be solving challenging problems within a talented team and a culture built for high performance. Our team out‑think, out‑work and out‑care. We’re committed to delivering real change in the world – this isn’t easy, and in truth, we love that it’s hard.

We’re backed by Tier 1 investors including Founders Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, BOND, DCVC, Blackbird, Promus Ventures, Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck and Icehouse ventures.

About the Role

Halter is on a mission to bring the world’s farming onto a smarter, more sustainable platform – and getting there means hiring a lot of brilliant people, fast, without losing what makes Halter, Halter. That’s where this role comes in.

We’re looking for our first‑ever VP Talent: someone who can set the strategy that takes Halter to thousands of people by 2028, and stay close enough to the ground to make sure every candidate – whether they’re in Denver, Buenos Aires, Taranaki or Auckland – has an exceptional experience. You’ll own talent end to end: early careers, company‑wide hiring, and executive search, from first sourcing message through to signed offer.

You’ll be leading a large multi‑functional team (15+ and growing), so this role is as much about people leadership and execution intelligence as it is about strategy. You’ll build the culture, systems, and operational rigour that let a team that size move fast without losing quality. And you’ll do it as a genuine partner to the Executive team – shaping the hiring strategy, not just executing it.

Responsibilities

• Create and execute Halter’s end‑to‑end talent strategy – proactive and reactive, company‑wide, spanning early careers through to executive recruiting.
• Lead a high‑performing, recruiting organisation, building a culture of excellence and accountability through hands‑on mentorship, coaching, and continuous operational improvement.
• Develop the leaders beneath you so the function can keep scaling without bottlenecking through you.
• Engineer scalable talent processes from talent mapping and sourcing through offer delivery, ensuring a consistent, high‑quality candidate experience across every level and stage.
• Keep raising the bar on both speed and quality, never trading one for the other.
• Architect organisational‑wide reporting frameworks that make Halter’s hiring data genuinely useful, not just available.
• Translate complex talent metrics into narratives that help leadership make sharper calls on workforce planning and sourcing strategy.
• Partner with other leaders to architect and evolve a scalable talent ecosystem.
• Use AI as a strategic lever, automating the repeatable parts of the funnel so the team’s time shifts toward high‑impact judgement and relationship‑building.
• Act as a strategic partner to the Exec team and senior leaders, influencing talent decisions by aligning acquisition strategy with long‑term workforce planning and business objectives.
• Bring a well‑informed, independent point of view – this role is about shaping decisions, not just implementing them.
• Act as a core partner on the People leadership team, contributing to the development and execution of a comprehensive, company‑wide people strategy.

What We’re Looking For

• A seasoned high‑growth Talent or People leader – someone who’s operated as a VP or Director of Talent, People, or even CPO, and has scaled a recruiting function through a hyper‑growth stage.
• A Sales, Marketing, or GM leader with a strong bent for people – someone who has built and led high‑performing teams, is familiar with a funnel, and has a genuine passion for talent as a craft, and the commercial instincts to treat it like a growth function.
• Proven people leader with experience managing managers and building high‑performing organisations of 30+.
• Strong data fluency, comfortable building and interrogating your own reporting rather than reviewing someone else’s dashboard.
• Track record of building scalable, high‑volume processes without sacrificing candidate (or customer) experience.
• Genuine enthusiasm for using AI and modern tooling to change how a function operates, not just to tick a box.
• Excellent executive communication skills, able to distil complex data into a clear story for senior stakeholders.
• Strong commercial and business acumen – treat talent as a lever on business outcomes, not a service function in isolation.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and a high degree of autonomy, with the judgment to know when to upscale and when to make the call yourself.

Our Benefits

• Delicious snacks and drinks available daily.
• Healthy body, healthy mind – partnership with Southern Cross Health Insurance.
• 6 months fully paid parental leave for primary caregivers, 4 weeks fully paid secondary caregiver leave and many other parental benefits.
• Annual $1000 self‑development budget for personal growth.
• Wellness leave and unlimited paid annual leave.
• Inclusive and attractive remuneration package including salary, benefits and an employee stock ownership plan.

Our Office First Approach

Humans are wired for connection. Being office first is a core pillar of our culture because in‑person connections drive your growth, learning, impact, and relationships. Strong relationships make it easier to disagree, give feedback, and do meaningful work together. We’re office first, not office only. Working from the office is our default, but we flex when needed. We have a high‑trust culture where everyone is trusted to do what’s best for Halter. Our office vibe is special, the high energy and spectacular people make work enjoyable. Your growth and impact are unlimited here, coming from solving problems, innovating, and constantly learning from each other.