Head of Talent

Orbital Witness; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Orbital, the AI platform for real estate legal work, seeks a Head of Talent to build and lead a precision global TA function in the US and UK. You will own the strategy, coach the team, and execute senior-level searches that define the company’s growth trajectory.

You will partner with the CEO/COO/CRO and drive process, metrics, and AI-enabled improvements across recruitment while maintaining rigorous standards and a high-caliber culture.

Qualifications

• Proven scale-up hiring in VC-backed tech, 100–300+ hires.
• Low-volume, high-caliber hiring; can close top candidates.
• GTM hiring depth in US, especially NYC market.
• Executive search craft with end-to-end process.
• Executive-team fluency with CRO/CTO/CEO collaboration.
• Strong operational rigour: forecasts, pipeline reviews, ATS data.
• Experience leading US/UK distributed teams.

Responsibilities

• Own company-wide hiring strategy with full autonomy.
• Build and mentor a precision TA team across US/UK.
• Lead direct searches for senior roles with hands-on execution.
• Partner with executives to align talent strategy with growth.
• Embed AI into talent operations to improve output.

Skills

Scale-up hiring

Executive search

US market depth

Leadership coaching

Executive collaboration

Operational discipline

Distributed team leadership

AI in recruitment

Talent strategy

Job description

Orbital is the AI platform for real estate legal work.

Real estate shapes the world around us: our homes, our workplaces and our cultural landmarks. It’s the infrastructure that powers everyday life and is the world's largest asset class. Yet behind every single deal, real estate and legal teams work hard to navigate decades-old complexity; manually connecting documents, hidden obligations, geo-spatial context, and multiple parties into a path forward. We connect the legal and physical record, so that path is clearer than ever before. Our mission is to make real estate transactions faster, clearer, and less manual.

Here, you'll be part of changing how the deals behind the largest asset class get transacted, and will help shape the future of real estate.

A bit about us:

We’re building at the forefront of AI technology, without losing the deeply human expertise our clients depend on.

Orbital is built with former practising real estate lawyers and 250+ years of combined legal expertise. We're purpose-built for the complexity of real estate: accelerating due diligence, drafting and negotiation, and deal coordination with legal-grade precision.

We've just raised a $60m Series B, led by Brighton Park Capital, to accelerate our global expansion – $75m raised to date.

We're trusted by 5,000+ real estate professionals, spanning UK Magic Circle and US Am Law 100 firms, to household names like M&S. Leading firms like BCLP, Orrick, Goodwin, Womble Bond Dickinson and Clifford Chance rely on Orbital to remove the busywork, freeing legal and real estate teams to focus on sharp judgment, standout client service, and closing deals faster.

Working at Orbital means joining a bold, ambitious team, with the trust to take ownership and make a real impact from day one.

Orbital's next phase of growth is US-led. New York is where the go-to-market weight is moving, and hiring follows it. We are hiring a Head of Talent to own that and all hiring across the UK and US.

This is a precision function, not a volume one. Every hire is expected to raise the bar. You will be measured on the calibre of who joins, not how many.

Talent at Orbital has been built and run by a specialist embedded partner, and that engagement now hands over to a permanent in-house function. The building blocks are in place and TA is a respected function in the business: Ashby, scorecards, interview design and reporting are all live and operating. Your job is to take that function fully in-house, own it permanently, and take it from good to exceptional.

What you'll own

The strategy. The company-wide hiring plan, built with the CEO, COO and CRO from growth targets. It is your role to define how that plan gets delivered, and you will have full autonomy to do it. From team to tools to operations.

The team. A precision talent team across the US and UK. The current TA team are all experienced recruiters. Your role is to coach and develop them into a genuinely high-impact team, and to hold that standard as it grows.

The method. Orbital hires direct. Your team works search-led: they map a market, build a target list and go after named people rather than working inbound. You set that standard, and you personally run the searches where seniority or business impact demands it.

What we're looking for

A scale-up track record. You have built or materially scaled a talent function inside a VC-backed technology company through a comparable arc, roughly 100 to 300 people.

Precision over volume. Your track record is low-volume, high-calibre hiring. You can point to specific hires that changed a company's trajectory and explain exactly how you found, engaged and closed them.

GTM depth in the US market. You have personally owned go-to-market hiring across AE, CS, BDR, RevOps and Marketing, and you know the New York commercial talent market: who the strong people are, what they cost and what moves them.

Executive search craft. You have designed and run targeted headhunt processes end to end for people who were not looking: market mapping, target lists, multi-touch engagement, assessment and close. You can walk us through the process, not just the outcome.

Executive-team fluency. You hold your own on commercial strategy with a CRO, technical org design with a CTO, planning with a COO, and the talent narrative with a CEO. You operate as a peer who brings a position, not a service provider taking a brief.

Operational rigour. Forecasts hold. Pipeline reviews happen. Data in the ATS is accurate without being chased. Follow-up does not slip, and stakeholders always know where a search stands. You are detail-oriented by instinct, because precision is what wins at this level.

US and UK experience. You have run a distributed recruiting team across US and UK time zones with a single operating rhythm, one quality bar and clear accountability in both markets.

A record of raising a team's level. Not just managing one. Clear expectations, honest feedback, visible performance data, real coaching on craft.

AI literacy in practice. You already build AI into how your function works, and you can show what it changed about your team's output.

This role is probably not for you if

• You measure yourself on requisitions filled, time-to-fill and headcount delivered above all else.

• You want to manage an agency panel and a vendor budget. We hire direct, and your job is to make agencies unnecessary.

• You want to step back from the work. You will personally run the hardest searches.

• You are not comfortable being uncomfortable and dealing with change.

• Performance conversations are something you avoid or defer.

• AI is something you talk about rather than something already in your workflow.

Security is everyone’s responsibility at Orbital. We ask all team members to follow our security policies, complete regular awareness training, and handle sensitive data with care in line with ISO 27001 standards. Spot something unusual? Reporting risks or incidents quickly helps us maintain the strong culture of security and compliance we all depend on.

At Orbital, we’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We especially welcome applications from people who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. Even if you don’t meet every single requirement, or if the right role isn’t listed yet, we’d still love to hear from you.

This hiring range is a reasonable estimate of the base pay range for this position at the time of posting. Pay is based on several factors, which may include job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and business requirements.

Everyone who works with Orbital goes through background screening before they start. It's part of how we keep Orbital secure, for the people who work here and for the client information we're trusted with.