Technology Scale-up Hiring
What roles belong in a modern TA team?
The short answer
A modern TA team needs leadership, stakeholder partnership, recruitment delivery, operations and data capability, although these do not all need to be separate full-time roles. Specialist sourcing or headhunting may sit internally or be embedded. The model should cover the complete hiring system without assuming every capability must be permanently employed.
The instinct when a Talent team grows is to add more recruiters. The stronger question is what capabilities the function needs, and then how each of those capabilities is best resourced. Some belong internally, some flex, and some can be automated or embedded.
Leadership and strategy
A Head of Talent or VP Talent owns the connection between the business plan and the hiring plan, sets the standards the function operates to and holds the relationships with executives and investors. This is the least outsourceable role in the team.
Business partnership and delivery
Recruiters and Talent Partners own the day-to-day relationship with hiring managers, run the search process and coach on interviewing. Their weighting between generalist delivery and specialist search should reflect the mix of roles the business is hiring.
Operations and coordination
Coordinators, systems administrators and process owners protect candidate experience and the integrity of the data. In a lean team this can be one person; in a larger team it becomes a discrete capability. It should never be everyone's spare responsibility.
Data, technology and market capability
Someone needs to own reporting, ATS configuration, sourcing tooling and market intelligence. This is often the fastest capability to build through embedded partners, shared services or automation rather than a dedicated hire.
Specialist sourcing and headhunting
Market-first search and headhunting can sit internally as a specialist function or be embedded. Both models work. What does not work is assuming every recruiter can headhunt as a side activity, because the disciplines are different.
What this means in practice
Start from the capabilities the function needs, then decide which are internal, which are embedded and which are automated. A modern team is measured by whether the whole system is covered, not by the number of full-time recruiters on the payroll.
The Saiyō view
Saiyō typically embeds as the specialist sourcing and search capability alongside an internal Talent team. That lets internal recruiters focus on the roles they are best placed to own, while specialist market work is delivered by people who do it every day.
Explored in depth
This topic is explored in more depth within How Technology Scale-ups Should Structure Talent Acquisition.
Frequently asked questions
See this in practice
Move from the concept to the way Saiyō delivers it.
Related questions
How should TA be structured in a 250 to 1,000 employee technology company?
TA should normally have a clear internal leader, business-facing recruitment ownership, reliable operations and flexible specialist search capacity. The exact team size depends on annual hiring volume, role difficulty and geography. A core-and-flex structure is usually more resilient than building permanent headcount for every possible peak.
Read the answerAnswerShould sourcing and recruitment operations be separate?
Sourcing and recruitment operations solve different problems and should have clear ownership, even if one person performs both in a small team. Sourcing builds market access, while operations protects process, data and candidate experience. As volume grows, separating the capabilities often improves focus and accountability.
Read the answerAnswerHow should TA capacity be planned?
TA capacity should be planned from expected hires weighted by complexity, geography and process workload rather than by vacancy count alone. Senior and specialist roles consume more research, engagement and stakeholder time than accessible repeat hiring. Scenario planning should include hiring peaks and slowdowns.
Read the answer