Head of Talent — Creatives & Engineers

Story; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Story in San Francisco is seeking a Head of Talent to build and scale talent functions for Story and Wizard. You’ll own how we find, hire and welcome every new teammate across creative and engineering roles.

You’ll design interviewing loops, compensation bands, onboarding programs, and partnerships with Finance, shaping a unified hiring strategy while reporting to the CEO. This on-site leadership role demands 7+ years of full-cycle recruiting and a track record of hiring senior engineers.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in recruiting or talent at startups.
• Full-cycle hiring across creative and technical roles, including senior hires.
• Proven track record hiring senior software engineers in competitive markets.
• Hands-on experience designing compensation bands and equity programs.
• Knowledge of offer negotiation, contracts, and California employment law.
• Experience building onboarding programs from scratch.
• Ability to run hiring for multiple teams or entities with follow-through.
• Willingness to work full-time, on-site in San Francisco.

Responsibilities

• Build and run one hiring plan with leadership across Story (Blade, Client Services) and Wizard engineering.
• 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.

Skills

Senior talent leadership

Full-cycle hiring

Creative and tech hiring

Compensation bands design

Equity programs

Offer negotiations

Onboarding programs

Multi-team hiring

California employment law

Job description

Story in San Francisco is seeking a Head of Talent to build and scale talent functions for Story and Wizard. You’ll own how we find, hire and welcome every new teammate across creative and engineering roles.

You’ll design interviewing loops, compensation bands, onboarding programs, and partnerships with Finance, shaping a unified hiring strategy while reporting to the CEO. This on-site leadership role demands 7+ years of full-cycle recruiting and a track record of hiring senior engineers.