Recruitment & Culture Lead

This startup organization focused in international humanitarian work is seeking an experienced, highly organized and proactive professional for their Recruitment & Culture Lead position.

This role provides a special opportunity to partner closely with top leadership to own full-lifecycle talent acquisition, develop hiring strategies, build strong talent pipelines, implement effective recruitment processes and systems, to help the organization attract and retain the talent needed to achieve its mission.

If you’re looking for a hands-on opportunity to apply your talent sourcing, recruiting expertise, and operations experience at the ground level of a startup organization, this could be the role for you!

Key Responsibilities

• Lead full-cycle recruitment for senior, executive, specialized, and international roles, develop recruitment strategies, candidate profiles, sourcing plans, assessments, and hiring timelines.
• Partner with leadership to align hiring strategies, workforce planning, and talent priorities with organizational goals.
• Evaluate and recommend optimal talent models, including employees, consultants, contractors, employer-of-record arrangements, and fractional support.
• Manage recruitment from search launch through offer acceptance or consultant engagement, ensuring smooth transitions to onboarding or contracting.
• Build and maintain proactive talent pipelines and relationships with candidates, professional networks, executive search firms, and strategic recruiting partners.
• Represent the organization externally while expanding talent networks and strengthening employer brand.
• Build and optimize recruiting systems, workflows, applicant tracking technology, and standardized hiring processes.
• Monitor recruiting metrics, pipeline health, hiring progress, and compliance to improve efficiency, consistency, and candidate experience.
• Advise leadership on workforce planning, hiring priorities, talent market trends, compensation considerations, and future capability needs.
• Collaborate across HR, Finance, Operations, and other stakeholders to support organizational growth and ongoing talent initiatives.
• Why You’ll Love Working Here:
• Be a key part of a dynamic team, operating in a mission-driven, fast-paced, high-expectations environment.
• The unique opportunity to get in on the ground level, partnering closely with senior leadership to recruit and develop organizational talent, and shape the organization’s future.
• Enjoy the opportunity to work a mostly remote schedule.
• Must be east coast based and available to work east coast hours.
• What We’re Looking For:
• Experienced and sophisticated.
• You have a minimum of eight (8) years of experience in talent acquisition, HR, and or people operations.
• Experience working in a startup environment is required.
• Interpersonally adept.
• Building strong relationships and establishing trust with others is one of your top strengths.
• You are a polished professional and navigate any given situation with poise, discretion, and sound judgement.
• Google maestro.
• You are an expert in all things Google, operating on all applications of Google Suite with ease.
• Multitasking extraordinaire.
• You seamlessly navigate numerous projects and competing interests, always ensuring deadlines are met and follow-up action is taken.
• All day, every day.
• You are excited by the opportunity to work in a demanding, start-up environment, and understand that availability to work outside standard work hours is a must.
• You are a true team player and when work calls, you eagerly answer.
• The salary listed reflects the anticipated compensation range for this position.
• Actual compensation will be determined based on relevant experience, qualifications, location, business considerations, and internal equity.
• Final offer amounts are determined at the employer’s discretion.

Essential to Hawthorne Lane’s success is our ability to attract talent from a range of backgrounds. Our network reflects the diverse community around us, and we believe in a workplace where everyone feels valued and empowered to succeed.

Applicants will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital or veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.