Talent Partner

At Pencil, we are driving innovation in advertising technology through our state-of-the-art SaaS product, which harnesses Generative AI to redefine content creation. Our mission is to make AI the default in advertising without replacing creative people. To achieve this, we need to make sure that our technology isn’t just in the hands of big brands - we need to try to help small businesses and creative individuals too.

We’re looking for a senior, proactive Talent Partner to join us on a freelance basis and play a hands-on role in scaling our team. You’ll own full recruitment cycles across multiple functions, build high-quality talent pipelines, and act as a trusted advisor to our hiring managers. This is a role for someone who loves pace, autonomy, and problem-solving - someone who can dive straight in, shape how we hire, and deliver exceptional results. You’ll bring expertise, energy, and commercial thinking to help us elevate our hiring standards, develop stronger processes, and ensure every candidate has an outstanding experience. Please note that this is a contract role. We ask that you only apply if you are happy to work on a contract basis.

Key responsibilities:

• Own end-to-end hiring processes: sourcing, screening, interviewing, offers, and closing.
• Partner with hiring managers to create high-quality job descriptions, competency-based interview plans, and robust scorecards.
• Proactively source and build pipelines using a range of talent tools, platforms, and techniques; manage inbound applications with pace and care.
• Deliver a consistently excellent candidate experience from first touch through to onboarding handover.
• Conduct high-quality initial interviews and assessments to determine skills, behaviours, motivations, and fit.
• Coach hiring managers on interview excellence, bias mitigation, assessment techniques, and decision-making.
• Maintain accurate data and reporting in our ATS and recruitment dashboards.
• Represent our culture and values in every interaction.

Your background:

• Experience hiring in high growth tech or startup environments; ideally having supported rapid headcount scale-ups with strong hiring standards.
• You must have a strong track record of hiring across Product and Engineering.
• Proven track record managing full recruitment lifecycles across multiple disciplines.
• Passionate about world-class hiring processes; constantly looking to improve speed, quality, and fairness.
• Strong assessment skills with a sharp eye for quality and cultural contribution.
• Data-driven mindset - you rely on metrics and insight to guide decisions and recommendations.
• Empathetic, emotionally intelligent, and skilled at building trusted relationships.
• Comfortable operating with senior stakeholders across a global, distributed business.

You’ll Thrive Here If You…

• Can hire confidently across Product and Engineering teams, but equally comfortable across Growth and Operations, as well as picking up new, emerging roles like Agent Architects.
• Act as a genuine partner to hiring managers - challenging, coaching, influencing, and guiding.
• Enjoy using creative sourcing tactics and modern tooling to uncover hidden talent pools.
• Advocate relentlessly for a standout candidate experience.
• Love using data to diagnose challenges, drive decisions, and measure outcomes.
• Naturally build DEI into every stage of the hiring process.

KPIs & Success Measures

• Time-to-hire / speed: roles filled within agreed timelines.
• Quality of hire: hiring manager satisfaction, new-hire feedback, and pass-rate through interview stages.
• Pipeline health: % of roles with strong, proactive pipeline coverage and source diversity.
• Candidate experience: positive feedback scores, drop-off rates, response times.
• Process excellence: scorecard adoption, interview plan usage, data accuracy, and workflow consistency.
• DEI impact: diverse sourcing representation and inclusive hiring practices embedded.