Head of Talent

Story Co; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Story Co in San Francisco seeks a Head of Talent to unify hiring for Story and Wizard, covering creative and engineering roles. You’ll own sourcing, offers, employment terms, and equity programs while shaping pay bands aligned with markets.

Reporting to the CEO, you’ll build onboarding and recruiting metrics to accelerate productivity. You will design structured interview loops, partner with Finance on headcount budgets, and ensure timely, fair decisions across multiple teams.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in recruiting or talent, including time leading talent at a startup.
• Full-cycle hiring experience across creative and technical roles, including senior hires.
• Track record of hiring senior software engineers in a competitive market.
• Hands-on experience designing compensation bands and equity programs.
• Knowledge of California employment law and offer negotiation.

Responsibilities

• Build and run a unified hiring plan for Story and Wizard across creative and engineering.
• Source and close talent through portfolios, referrals, festivals, schools, and networks.
• Design interview loops and systems for creatives and engineers.
• Train hiring managers and interviewers to assess well and decide quickly.
• Own offers, employment contracts, and pay/equity terms with outside counsel.
• Shape compensation philosophy, levels, and pay bands for both companies.
• Partner with Finance on headcount budgets and equity programs.
• Develop onboarding and time-to-productivity plans for new hires.
• Manage ATS and recruiting metrics, reporting time-to-hire and offers.
• Shape external messaging and careers pages for Story and Wizard.

Skills

Leadership

Talent acquisition

Negotiation

Tools

ATS

HR tools

Job description

Great stories start with extraordinary people.

We’re bringing together exceptional creative talent to tell the stories of people shaping the future. Work alongside people who raise your standards, champion your ideas, and give you room to do the best work of your career.

Story inspires science. Science makes story real.

We're hiring a Head of Talent to build the teams behind both Story and Wizard, our sister company building the next generation of professional editing software. You'll own how we find, hire, pay and welcome every new teammate. That spans filmmakers, designers and strategists at Story, and C++, AI/ML, media pipeline and infrastructure engineers at Wizard. Reporting to the CEO, you'll build one talent function that serves both companies as Story grows into a full-service creative agency and Wizard heads into its beta.

Responsibilities:

• Build and run one hiring plan with leadership across Story (Blade, Client Services) and Wizard engineering.
• Source and close creative and agency talent through portfolios, referrals, festivals, schools and your own network.
• Source and close senior software engineers for Wizard across systems and C++/Qt, media pipelines, AI/ML, real-time networking, web and QA.
• Design structured interview loops for every role: portfolio reviews and paid test projects for creatives; technical screens, coding and system design interviews for engineers.
• Train hiring managers and engineering interviewers to assess well and make fast, fair decisions.
• Own offers, employment agreements and freelancer or contractor agreements for both companies, including IP and work-for-hire terms, with outside counsel.
• Design compensation philosophy, levels and pay bands for both creative and engineering roles, benchmarked to each market.
• Partner with Finance on headcount budget, Wizard's equity program and pay transparency requirements.
• Build onboarding for both companies that gets new hires productive in their first 30 days, from shoot-ready to shipping code.
• Manage our ATS, HR tools and recruiting metrics, and report on time-to-hire and offer acceptance for each company.
• Shape how Story and Wizard show up to candidates, from job posts to careers pages.

Requirements:

• 7+ years in recruiting or talent, including time leading talent at a startup.
• Full-cycle hiring experience across both creative and technical roles, including senior hires.
• A track record of hiring senior software engineers in a competitive market.
• Hands-on experience designing compensation bands and equity programs, not only applying them.
• Working knowledge of offer negotiation, employment contracts and California employment law.
• Experience building onboarding programs from scratch.
• Comfort running hiring for more than one team or entity at once, with consistent follow-through.
• Ability to work full-time, on-site in San Francisco.

Bonus:

• Experience hiring for film, video production, design or a creative agency.
• Experience hiring engineers for desktop, creative, video, graphics or AI software.
• Familiarity with managing freelance crews and production contractors.
• Experience with deep-tech, science or founder-led companies.
• An eye for creative work and enough technical fluency to earn engineers' trust.
• Confidence pushing back when a hire isn't the right fit.

Compensation:

The base salary range for this role is $175,000 – $250,000. Your final offer will depend on your experience, skills and level.

Compensation Range: $175K - $250K