Head of Talent Acquisition

About this role

HEAD OF TALENT ACQUISITION

ABOUT COWBOY SPACE CORPORATION

Cowboy Space Corp. is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our satellites operate in Low Earth Orbit to collect sunlight and enable a new class of capabilities—from powering on-orbit compute, to transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit compute to delivering secure, high-bandwidth optical data. By rethinking how energy and data are generated and distributed in space, we’re unlocking entirely new ways to operate both in orbit and on Earth.

Founded in 2024 by Baiju Bhatt (co-founder of Robinhood), Cowboy Space Corp. is backed by leading investors and built by a team from top aerospace and defense organizations. We’re moving quickly to solve complex technical challenges and build a new category of space infrastructure.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Head of Talent Acquisition at Cowboy Space Corporation will operationally own Talent Acquisition across the company. This is a highly hands-on player-coach leadership role responsible for driving recruiting execution, recruiting operations, executive hiring, hiring process rigor, recruiting analytics, and recruiting team/vendor management during a period of rapid organizational growth.

Reporting to the Head of People, this individual will lead day-to-day Talent Acquisition operations while directly supporting critical hiring efforts across engineering, manufacturing, operational, and business functions. The role will oversee recruiting infrastructure, external recruiting partnerships, and the continued development of internal recruiting capability as the company scales.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys building recruiting systems and operational rigor while remaining deeply engaged in high-impact and difficult-to-fill hiring efforts. This role can be located in San Carlos or Seattle.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

RECRUITING LEADERSHIP & EXECUTION

- Own full-cycle recruiting for technical, manufacturing, operational, executive, and business-critical roles

- Carry an active req load while directly supporting the company’s most critical and high-priority hiring efforts

- Lead executive and senior-level recruiting efforts across technical, operational, and business functions

- Partner closely with executives, leadership, and hiring managers to:

- Define hiring needs in ambiguous or evolving problem spaces

- Calibrate hiring requirements and interview expectations

- Prioritize hiring based on company milestones and timelines

- Improve hiring decision-making and interview rigor

- Drive accountability throughout the hiring process

- Develop targeted sourcing and outreach strategies for senior and difficult-to-fill leadership roles

- Ensure rigor, confidentiality, and exceptional candidate experience throughout executive search processes

TALENT ACQUISITION OPERATIONS & INFRASTRUCTURE

- Operationally own Talent Acquisition processes, workflows, systems, and execution across the company

- Build and operationalize recruiting infrastructure including:

- ATS workflows and hygiene

- Interview processes and interviewer calibration

- Funnel tracking and reporting

- Recruiting metrics and dashboards

- Process documentation and operational workflows

- Interview coordination mechanics and feedback loops

- Establish scalable hiring processes and operational standards that support rapid company growth

- Drive consistency in hiring processes, interviewer quality, candidate evaluation, and hiring decision-making

- Identify bottlenecks and continuously improve recruiting operations, hiring efficiency, and candidate experience

RECRUITING ANALYTICS & REPORTING

- Own recruiting analytics, funnel health reporting, and hiring performance visibility across the organization

- Develop dashboards and reporting frameworks that enable leadership visibility into hiring progress, bottlenecks, capacity planning, and operational risk

- Analyze recruiting funnel data to identify process inefficiencies, conversion challenges, and opportunities for improvement

- Establish and maintain operational recruiting metrics including pipeline health, time-to-fill, stage conversion rates, interviewer load, and hiring forecast accuracy

- Use recruiting data to drive accountability with hiring managers, interview teams, recruiters, and external recruiting partners

TEAM & VENDOR MANAGEMENT

- Manage and develop a growing team of recruiters and recruiting support resources as the function scales

- Own external agency strategy, vendor relationships, performance management, and recruiting partner accountability

- Help build stronger embedded recruiting capability internally over time

- Partner closely with the Head of People on hiring strategy, organizational scaling priorities, and recruiting capacity planning

SOURCING & TALENT STRATEGY

- Proactively source candidates using:

- LinkedIn, referrals, technical networks, and outbound sourcing strategies

- Non-traditional talent pools across aerospace, defense, manufacturing, energy, robotics, and deep-tech ecosystems

- Creative recruiting campaigns and targeted outreach

- Craft and iterate on outreach messaging to improve candidate engagement and response rates

- Conduct recruiter screens assessing:

- Technical depth (at a high level)

- Ownership mindset and problem-solving ability

- Fit for a fast-moving, high-accountability startup environment

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

- 8+ years of recruiting and Talent Acquisition experience, including significant technical recruiting experience

- Proven experience hiring for aerospace, defense, manufacturing, robotics, hardware, energy, or other deep-tech organizations

- Experience leading executive and senior-level searches in high-growth or technically complex organizations

- Strong…