Director of Talent Acquisition

About FirstPrinciples:
FirstPrinciples is a non-profit organization building an autonomous AI Physicist to understand the nature of reality: the underlying structure, governing principles, and fundamental laws of our universe. We're developing an intelligent system that can explore theoretical frameworks, reason across disciplines, and generate novel insights to tackle the deepest unsolved problems in physics. By combining AI, symbolic reasoning, and autonomous research capabilities, we're developing a platform that goes beyond analyzing existing knowledge to actively contribute to physics research. Our goal is to accelerate progress on the questions that have captivated humanity for centuries.

Job Description:
We are looking for a Director of Talent Acquisition to own and scale hiring at FirstPrinciples. Reporting to the Founder, this role is fully focused on building a world-class recruiting function that attracts mission-driven researchers, engineers, data scientists and collaborators. You will be responsible for workforce planning, full-cycle recruiting, interview design, and onboarding in close partnership with hiring managers and the executive team. The ideal candidate will be comfortable working on a team of one to scale FirstPrinciples' talent acquisition efforts in a hands-on capacity. The ideal candidate has built recruiting functions from the ground up, is comfortable hiring highly technical talent, and knows how to balance long-term talent strategy with fast, high-quality execution.

Key Responsibilities:

Talent & Hiring Strategy:

• Partner with the Founder and executive team to develop multi-year headcount plans across key functions, including AI research, engineering, data science, operations, admin and fundraising.
• Translate long term hiring plans into a clear quarterly hiring roadmaps, with details around role priorities, timelines, skill requirements, and budget impact.
• Work closely with the Director of Finance to align hiring plans with compensation bands, budgets, and workforce planning assumptions.
• Develop and maintain up to date compensation bands that consider FirstPrinciples’ nonprofit status, competitive market salaries and cost-of-living dynamics in hiring jurisdictions.

Full-Cycle Recruiting Execution:

• Own the entire recruitment process from preliminary screening calls through offer acceptance and onboarding, in coordination with hiring managers.
• Scope and implement creative and diverse candidate sourcing channels including LinkedIn outreach, in-person attendance of community meetups/conferences, monitoring & participation in online communities, and targeted outreach to world-class talent.
• Design structured interview processes with clear evaluation metrics to ensure comparability and elimination of interviewer biases.
• Optimize toward time-to-hire by tracking funnel data, flagging bottlenecks, and deploying quick fixes and process tweaks.

Onboarding Partnership:

• Design role-specific onboarding plans in partnership with hiring managers.
• Coordinate closely with the executive team to ensure smooth handoff into HR onboarding, benefits, and people operations.
• Gather feedback from new hires to improve the recruiting and early onboarding experience.
• Ensure new hires enter teams with clear role expectations, success metrics, and early goals.

Employer Brand & Talent Network:

• Build and maintain a long-term pipeline of high-quality candidates for future roles.
• Represent FirstPrinciples at conferences, meetups, and academic or research communities.
• Partner with marketing and leadership to shape how FirstPrinciples presents itself to candidates.
• Develop outreach strategies tailored to researchers, engineers, and mission-driven talent.

Qualifications:

• Educational Background: Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field.
• Experience: 5+ years in recruiting or talent acquisition roles with specific focus on hiring engineers, researchers and other technical talent. 
• Technical Skills: Familiarity with tech platforms including Rippling HRIS, Greenhouse ATS, etc., Canadian labour laws, and data driven practices.
• Collaboration & Communication:
  • Strong ability to run structured, data-driven recruiting processes and present findings to hiring managers.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills.
  • Comfortable working in a startup-style, cross-functional, remote team.
• Bonus Skills:
  • Experience hiring in nonprofit, research, or mission-driven organizations.
  • Familiarity with physics, fundamental science, or academic research environments.
  • Experience building remote-first or globally distributed teams.

Application Process:

• Interested candidates are invited to submit their resume, a cover letter detailing their qualifications and vision for the role, and references. Please include "Director of Talent Acquisition" in the cover letter.

Join us at FirstPrinciples and be a part of a transformative journey where science drives progress and unlocks the potential of humanity.