Head of Talent

Owow; Oakland (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonuses based on performance

Paid time off

Sick leave

Holidays

Medical, dental and vision coverage

Dog-friendly office

Job summary

oWOW is implementing a high-impact talent system to scale hiring across California and beyond. The Director of Talent will own end-to-end recruiting, role clarity, and workforce planning to ensure the right people enter the right roles at the right time.

The role requires hands-on leadership in fast-moving environments, building scalable processes, and partnering with leadership to raise talent quality and retention while developing a competitive compensation philosophy.

Responsibilities

• Own Hiring Execution & Outcomes: Deliver priority hires on time, meeting time-to-fill targets by role category
• Run end-to-end recruiting for critical roles (from role definition through offer acceptance)
• Maintain Role Clarity & Outcome Scorecards: Ensure each role has a clear scorecard with outcomes, competencies, success metrics
• Partner with leaders to translate business needs into well-scoped, outcome-driven roles
• Design Scalable Talent Systems: Maintain a predictable recruiting funnel with weekly qualified candidates
• Standardize and improve hiring processes, interview structures, and decision criteria
• Train interviewers and hiring managers for high-quality, unbiased hiring decisions
• Workforce Planning & Forecasting: Forecast workforce needs tied to project pipelines and growth
• Proactively staff upcoming projects rather than reacting to gaps
• Enable Retention & Performance: Improve first-year retention and performance across departments
• Identify patterns and opportunities to raise hiring quality and onboarding outcomes
• Continuously raise the bar for talent quality
• Create comp philosophy and implement it at oWOW
• Create an ATS implementation and governance

Job description

At oWOW, we’re on a mission to Accelerate Housing Abundance to Unlock Human Potential.

We design and build housing up to 65% below market cost and deliver it in months instead of years by automating design, industrializing construction, and deploying prefabricated, componentized building systems at unmatched speed.

oWOW is growing quickly to expand project delivery across the state of California and nationwide. Our goal is to start construction on 2,000 affordable housing units by the end of 2026.

The Role

The Director of Talent is responsible for building and operating a high-performance talent system that consistently delivers the right people into the right roles at the right time, enabling oWOW to scale with speed, clarity, and excellence.

This role owns hiring execution, workforce planning and comp philosophy. You will partner closely with leadership while raising the bar at oWOW.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who thrives in fast-moving environments, brings strong talent judgment, and can build systems that scale.

What You’ll Do

• Own Hiring Execution & Outcomes

  • Deliver priority hires on time, meeting agreed time-to-fill targets by role category
  • Run end-to-end recruiting for critical roles (from role definition through offer acceptance)

• Maintain Role Clarity & Outcome Scorecards

  • Ensure every role has a clear scorecard defining outcomes, competencies, and success metrics before hiring begins
  • Partner with leaders to translate business needs into well-scoped, outcome-driven roles

• Design Scalable Talent Systems

  • Maintain a predictable recruiting funnel that produces qualified candidates weekly
  • Standardize & continuously improve hiring processes, interview structures, and decision criteria across teams
  • Train interviewers and hiring managers to ensure high-quality, unbiased, and consistent hiring decisions

• Workforce Planning & Forecasting

  • Partner with department leaders to forecast workforce needs tied to project pipelines and growth plans
  • Proactively staff upcoming projects rather than reacting to urgent gaps

• Enable Retention & Performance

  • Improve first-year retention and performance outcomes for new hires across all departments.
  • Identify patterns, risks, and opportunities to improve hiring quality and onboarding outcomes
  • Continuously raise the bar for talent quality across the organization
  • Create comp philosophy and implement it at oWOW

• Create an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Core Values

• oWOW: Produce outstanding results that surprise and amaze people
• Ownership: Understand what you are accountable for & take responsibility for your results.
• Curiosity: Challenge conventional thinking & explore creative solutions.
• Teamwork: The combination of trust, communication & collaboration.

• Bonuses based on performance
• Paid time off, sick leave, and holidays
• Medical, dental and vision coverage
• Dog-friendly office

Candidates requiring visa sponsorship may be considered only if eligible for non-lottery visa categories (e.g., TN, E-3, O-1) or for transfer of an existing H-1B visa. We are unable to sponsor new H-1B visas for this role at this time.