Talent Lead - Cooley AI

Cooley LLP; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Health savings account

Dental

Vision

Pre-tax commuter benefits

Life insurance

AD&D

Long-term care coverage

21 days PTO

Job summary

Cooley AI is seeking a Talent Lead to drive strategic hiring and scalable recruiting practices for its growth initiatives. You will partner with business leaders to translate talent needs into effective search strategies and oversee the end-to-end hiring process.

The role requires building candidate pipelines, coordinating structured hiring, and delivering a superior candidate experience while providing recruiting insights to leadership.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of recruiting experience.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent searches in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience preparing and extending offers and onboarding.
• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours.

Responsibilities

• Lead recruitment efforts and talent function across Cooley AI.
• Build and maintain candidate pipelines via sourcing platforms and referrals.
• Partner with agencies to align on search strategy and process execution.
• Collaborate with leaders to prioritize searches and drive key hires.
• Coordinate structured hiring processes including interview plans and timelines.
• Provide a high-quality candidate experience with clear communication and timely follow-ups.
• Develop offers and support onboarding transitions.

Skills

Recruiting

Talent acquisition

Candidate management

Offer negotiations

Hiring processes

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Workday

iManage

Job description

Talent Lead - Cooley AI

Cooley AI is the wholly-owned subsidiary and frontier development arm of Cooley LLP, a leading global technology law firm. Our mission is to bring best-in-class practices from the technology sector into the legal domain, helping lead our firm and the legal industry into the AI era. All Cooley AI employees are employed by Cooley LLP and seconded to Cooley AI.

Position summary

As a leading technology law firm, Cooley is committed to becoming a leader in the digital practice of law. The Talent Lead will be instrumental in supporting Cooley AI’s growth through strategic hiring, partnering with business leaders to translate evolving talent needs into effective search strategies and hiring plans. They will oversee candidate pipelines and coordinate each stage of the hiring process, from developing job descriptions and interview plans through extending offers and supporting onboarding. Working closely with hiring managers and cross-functional partners, the Talent Lead will deliver an exceptional candidate experience, provide actionable recruiting insights and strengthen the efficiency, consistency and scalability of Cooley AI’s hiring practices.

Position responsibilities

• Lead the execution of recruitment efforts and the day-to-day talent function across Cooley AI, implementing hiring strategies, building scalable recruiting practices and ensuring talent priorities support business growth.
• Build and maintain candidate pipelines by engaging top-tier talent through sourcing platforms such as LinkedIn Recruiter and network referrals.
• Partner closely with external recruiting agencies and other talent vendors to align on search strategy, candidate quality, hiring priorities and overall process execution.
• Collaborate with leadership, hiring managers and cross-functional partners to prioritize searches, align expectations and drive key hires across Cooley AI.
• Coordinate structured hiring processes, including developing interview plans, facilitating hiring decisions and managing timelines.
• Manage a consistent, responsive candidate experience through clear communication, coordinated interviews and timely follow-up.
• Prepare and extend offers of employment, support offer discussions and coordinate a seamless transition from acceptance through onboarding.
• Use talent market insights, pipeline and funnel data, and recruiting best practices to advise hiring teams and improve sourcing strategies.
• In partnership with hiring managers, draft, maintain and continuously improve clear, accurate and compelling job descriptions that reflect business needs and support consistent hiring decisions.
• Develop and provide recruiting reports and analytics for leadership, including time to hire, offer acceptance, turnover, and retention rates, to identify trends, measure outcomes and inform talent strategies.
• Own the requisition process in the applicant tracking system, Workday, ensuring requisitions are created, approved, maintained and closed accurately and in a timely manner.
• Partner with the AI enablement team to evaluate and streamline recruitment processes, improving efficiency, consistency and scalability.
• All other duties as assigned or required.

Skills and experience

Required

• After orientation at Cooley LLP, proficiency in Microsoft Office, iManage and other firm applications.
• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required.
• Ability to travel, as required.
• 4+ years of directly applicable experience in recruiting.
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent searches in a fast-paced, high-growth or rapidly changing environment.
• Experience preparing and extending offers and supporting candidates through offer acceptance and onboarding.

Preferred

• Bachelor’s degree.
• Workday experience.
• Experience improving or scaling recruiting processes and workflows.
• Experience supporting hiring in a high-growth or rapidly evolving organization.
• Experience recruiting for technology, artificial intelligence or other highly specialized roles.

Competencies

• Entrepreneurial by nature.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Exceptional interpersonal, communication, facilitation and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to organize, prioritize and coordinate multiple activities often under tight timelines.
• Ability to drive projects to completion and achieve goals.
• Strong judgment.
• Collaborative, team-oriented approach.
• Maintain strict confidentiality regarding firm information, projects and client data.
• High level of professionalism at all times.
• Proactive, analytical mindset.Effective presentation skills.

Cooley offers a competitive compensation and excellent benefits package and is committed to fair and equitable employment practices. EOE.

The expected annual pay range for this position with a full-time schedule is $125,000 - $155,000.

Benefits

• Medical
• Health savings account (with applicable medical plan)
• Dental
• Vision
• Health and/or dependent care flexible spending accounts
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• Life insurance
• AD&D
• Long-term care coverage
• Backup care for children and/or adults
• Other parental support benefits
• Firm-paid life insurance
• AD&D
• LTD
• Short term medical benefits
• 21 days of Paid Time Off (“PTO”)
• 10 paid holidays each year
• Generous parental leave
• Fertility benefits

New employees will attend a detailed benefit orientation to learn more about our many benefits and resources.