Summary of the Role:

As People and Talent Specialist at Maze, you'll be the driving force behind our talent acquisition engine and the operational backbone of our people experience, building the foundation that enables our Series A growth while maintaining our high-performance culture. This is a unique opportunity to join as the first dedicated People and Talent hire at a well-funded startup building at the intersection of generative AI and cybersecurity. You'll work directly with our VP of Operations and founders to own the end-to-end recruitment process while establishing scalable people operations that support our mission to protect humans from cybercrime.

You'll spend 60-70% of your time owning talent acquisition—conducting high-quality first-round screening calls, managing our hiring pipeline, building our employer brand, and partnering with agency recruiters—while dedicating 30-40% to essential people operations like onboarding, benefits reviews, performance management support, and organizing our quarterly offsites. Your success will be measured by time-to-hire, conversion rates through the hiring funnel, and employee experience metrics. This role is perfect for someone who has thrived in a high-performing talent team at a fast-growing startup, loves the variety of wearing multiple hats, and wants to build people systems from scratch while fostering a culture of innovation and learning.

Your Contributions to Our Journey:

• Own High-Quality Talent Acquisition: Take full ownership of the recruitment process from CV screening through first-round calls, conducting exceptional screening interviews across technical and non-technical roles that consistently identify high-potential candidates and maintain high conversion rates at subsequent stages

• Drive Exceptional Candidate Experience: Manage the complete candidate journey with thoughtful touchpoints, timely communication, and personalized engagement throughout the hiring process, ensuring every candidate has a positive experience with Maze regardless of outcome

• Build and Manage Employer Brand: Own our external presence on job boards, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and other platforms, creating compelling job postings and content that establishes Maze as an employer of choice in the competitive AI and cybersecurity talent market

• Partner with Agency Recruiters: Manage relationships with external agency partners, ensuring alignment on role requirements, candidate quality standards, and hiring timelines while balancing agency and direct sourcing strategies

• Enable Seamless Onboarding: Own the complete employee lifecycle from offer acceptance through their first few weeks, coordinating laptop setup, tool access, documentation, and structured onboarding experiences that set new hires up for success

• Support People Operations Initiatives: Drive execution of key people programs including compensation reviews, benefits assessments, and performance review cycles, working closely with the VP of Operations to ensure these initiatives run smoothly and on schedule

• Create Memorable Employee Experiences: Own the social and cultural side of Maze, organizing quarterly offsites (logistics, agenda planning, activities), team socials, and thoughtful employee moments that strengthen our remote-first culture and team connection

What You Need to Be Successful:

• High-Performing Team Experience: 4-6 years of professional experience with 2-3+ years in talent acquisition or people operations roles, ideally having been part of a really successful People/Talent team where you learned from best-in-class practitioners and saw what excellence looks like

• B2B SaaS Recruiting Expertise: Proven experience conducting full-cycle recruiting in B2B SaaS environments, with demonstrated ability to screen and assess candidates across diverse functions from engineering to GTM roles

• Exceptional Screening Capabilities: Track record of conducting high-quality first-round screening calls that accurately assess candidate fit, technical capabilities, and cultural alignment, with measurable impact on downstream conversion rates

• Startup Velocity and Adaptability: Experience thriving in fast-paced, high-growth startup environments where you've worn multiple hats, built processes from scratch, and operated effectively with ambiguity and changing priorities

• Employer Branding and Sourcing: Hands-on experience building employer brand presence, creating compelling job postings, and conducting individual sourcing (not just relying on agencies) to build diverse candidate pipelines

• People Operations Breadth: Genuine interest and capability in broader people work beyond pure recruitment—comfortable supporting compensation reviews, onboarding coordination, performance management, and cultural initiatives

• Collaborative Partnership Mindset: Ability to work effectively with hiring managers across all levels and functions, translating their needs into clear hiring strategies while maintaining high standards and pushing back constructively when needed

• Systems and Process Builder: Natural inclination to create scalable, efficient processes and systems that work well at current scale while positioning for future growth, without over-engineering or creating unnecessary complexity

• Nice to Haves:

  • Cybersecurity or technical security product company recruiting experience

  • Experience managing EOR relationships (e.g., Deel) and multi-country employment

  • Proficiency with modern ATS platforms and recruitment tools

  • Background at high-growth startups that scaled from 20-100+ people

  • Event planning and company offsite organization experience

  • Experience working directly with founders and senior leadership

Why Join Us:

• Ambitious Challenge: We're using generative AI (LLMs and agents) to solve some of the most pressing challenges in cybersecurity today. You'll be building the people foundation at the cutting edge of this field, attracting breakthrough talent to protect organizations worldwide from cyber threats.

• Expert Team: We are a team of hands-on leaders with experience in Big Tech and Scale-ups. Our team has been part of the leadership teams behind multiple acquisitions and an IPO.

• Impactful Mission: Embark on an important mission to protect humans from cybercrime. Cybersecurity is a force for good—helping to stop cyber attacks ultimately helps deliver better outcomes for all of us. Your work will directly enable security teams to defend organizations globally.

• Build an AI-Native Company: We're building a new company in the AI era with the opportunity to design everything from the ground up—you'll architect our people operations and talent systems from scratch, establishing practices that will scale with our hypergrowth.

• Foster Innovation Culture: Create an environment where people can learn, reach for more, and master their craft. You'll have direct influence over our culture, employee experience, and the systems that help our team thrive in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.

• Career Growth: Clear path to Head of People, Head of Talent Acquisition, or specialized people leadership roles as we scale. Direct partnership with experienced VP of Operations and founders, significant equity upside, and the opportunity to build the people function through our next phase of growth.

Compensation Range: €60K - €85K