Founding Talent & People Lead

about us

Every 10 minutes, 18 million conversations happen between businesses and consumers around the world.

For decades, the consumer side of those conversations sucked: long queues, robotic menus, repeated explanations, and advice that is often unhelpful. Most people today still cannot simply say what their problem is in natural language when communicating with businesses.

AI changes that. For the first time, companies can have natural conversations with customers at massive scale. Every B2C company - from energy providers to telcos to insurers - will use AI agents to talk to their customers. The number of conversations businesses will handle is going to explode in the coming years.

At telli, we are solving the challenges that come with that shift. Today, leading B2C companies like Sky are already using telli to deploy thousands of voice agents to provide their customers with a new experience. But building a first voice agent is easy, getting it to drive real outcomes for customers and businesses is the hard part. telli helps companies build, deploy, and improve consumer-facing AI voice agents at scale. This will become one of the most important software categories of the next decade, and we intend to win it.

We are a small, AI-pilled team that likes to solve hard problems. Be it engineering, product, or GTM - we build, experiment, and move fast, while heavily leveraging the capabilities of AI models. All of us like to challenge ourselves and take real ownership over what we do, all while still staying humble and keeping a low-ego culture.

Check out our principles to see how we work.

About the role

This is a high-ownership venture-building role for our first dedicated People & Talent hire. You won't just fill open roles — you'll build telli's Talent & People function from second zero and own our ability to get A-players through the door across every team.

The team we've built so far is exceptional, and we hire to a very high bar. This role is about scaling the team fast without dropping the bar. Business first, then backwards: you figure out what the company actually needs, then go build it — the talent engine, the hiring process, the playbook — while filling open roles at the same time. You partner directly with the founding team and hiring managers to set the strategy and execute it.

On the People side, you won't build a classic HR shop. You'll think AI-first wherever humans aren't needed, and build real systems wherever they are. You're highly versed (or learn fast) in building agents and automating away every workflow that can be — and you're data-first, always seeing the magic behind the numbers and deriving your case from it.

Talent first: build the engine:

• Business first, then think backwards: figure out what the business actually needs, then go build it

• Stand up a real talent engine from scratch — sourcing, screening, closing

• Obsess over pulling in the best profiles on the market, nothing below the bar

• We're heading into serious growth soon — build a hiring engine that scales with it
  

People: AI-first, not a classic HR shop:

• Don't build a traditional HR function — think AI-first wherever humans aren't needed (e.g. an HR desk for standard questions)

• Wherever humans are needed, build a real system around it — not manual one-offs

• Be highly versed (or learn fast) in building agents and automating away every workflow that can be automated
  

Data first:

• Always see the magic behind the data — connect the dots and derive your case from it

• Let data drive every decision, from funnel to org health
  

What you bring:

• Experience in a fast-moving startup or scale-up

• You've built a function from zero

• A track record hiring strong candidates in competitive markets across engineering and commercial roles

• An active, warm network across the Berlin and EU startup and VC ecosystem that you can activate immediately

• Hands-on experience with a modern ATS (Ashby a plus) and AI sourcing tools

• High agency: you move fast, take ownership, and spot role gaps before anyone asks

• High craft in communication: every candidate touchpoint reads like a founder wrote it

• Data-driven: you track the funnel and use the data to fix what leaks
  

You may not make a good fit if:

• You are more excited about managing a large TA & People team than building the function from the ground up

• You prefer a remote-first environment

• You like to work on your own with minimum collaboration

• You want to work 9-5
  

Perks:

• Competitive pay & equity

• Access to any (AI) tool that makes you more productive

• Gym / urban sports subscription

• Relocation support if you don't live in Berlin

Interested? If you want to help us build the future of AI voice technology, we’d love to hear from you!