Head of Talent and People

Sardine is the leading agentic risk platform for fighting financial crime. Our integrated solution unifies data across risk teams to help organizations stop fraud in real time, prevent AI‑driven attacks, and automate fraud and AML operations. Sardine’s platform is strengthened by one of the fastest‑growing fraud consortiums in the market, spanning more than 6 billion profiled devices, 800 million consumers, and 3 million businesses worldwide. Leading companies including FIS, GoDaddy, Intuit, Edward Jones, ZoomInfo, and Checkout.com rely on Sardine to secure and grow trust in their products. We have hubs in the Bay Area, NYC, Austin, Toronto, and São Paulo, but maintain a remote‑first work culture. We hire talented, self‑motivated individuals with extreme ownership and high growth orientation, valuing performance over hours worked and supporting flexibility for family, school, friends, and health commitments.

About the role

Sardine is looking for a Head of Talent & People to lead and grow our global team. This is a hands‑on, player‑coach role: you will set direction and manage a full team of practitioners while staying close enough to the work to source hard‑to‑fill candidates, sit in on tough employee‑relations conversations, or dig into compensation bands directly. You will own Talent, People Ops, and HR Business Partnering end‑to‑end, building pragmatic systems that scale with a fast‑growing startup.

Responsibilities

• Team Leadership – Lead and manage a team of Recruiters, People Ops/HR professionals (including any team leads); set goals, priorities, and capacity plans across Recruitment and People Ops/HR; coach, develop, and performance‑manage the team; build a bench of future team leads; own headcount planning across the organization; create the operating rhythm (stand‑ups, pipeline reviews, OKRs, hiring sprints) without over‑processizing a still‑scrappy function; model the player‑coach standard by jumping into the work alongside the team.
• Talent Acquisition (largest part of the job) – Build and continuously improve the hiring process (interview loops, scorecards, calibration, candidate experience); partner directly with the CEO and Exec team on leadership hires; own full‑cycle recruiting for key leadership roles (sourcing, screening, closing); build scalable sourcing channels and employer branding to compete for top talent without over‑relying on agencies; track and report on hiring metrics (pipeline health, time‑to‑fill, offer acceptance) and adjust strategy accordingly.
• People Operations – Oversee the People Ops Lead and team who own the employee lifecycle (onboarding, offboarding, HRIS administration, benefits administration, compliance); ensure the function runs smoothly and scales with the company; manage and scale the existing performance review, compensation banding, leveling, and promotion‑cycle infrastructure; ensure compliance with employment law across jurisdictions where Sardine has employees, in partnership with the People Ops team; provide oversight and escalation support on vendor relationships (benefits brokers, payroll providers) managed day‑to‑day by the People Ops Lead.
• HR Business Partnering – Act as a trusted advisor to managers and the leadership team on org design, team structure, performance management, and employee relations; partner with leaders as an internal leadership coach; handle employee‑relations issues with sound judgment, discretion, and fairness.

Requirements

• 12+ years in talent/recruiting and people roles, with real depth in talent.
• Experience running the people function at fast‑paced, high‑growth tech startups.
• Proven experience managing a strong Talent and People team, ideally spanning both Recruitment and People Ops/HR – you know how to set direction, hold people accountable, and develop managers.
• Generalist range: equally credible talking about an offer negotiation, a comp band, a difficult employee‑relations issue, or performance management.
• Player‑coach mindset – you want to do the work, not just direct it.
• Excellent judgment and discretion; you build trust quickly with founders, execs, and employees at every level.
• Strong operating instincts: you build lightweight, scalable systems rather than heavy process.
• Based in the Bay Area, with the ability to work from our Berkeley office at least 2 days every week.

Benefits

• Generous compensation in cash and equity.
• Early exercise for all options, including pre‑vested.
• Work from anywhere: Remote‑first culture.
• Flexible paid time off and year‑end break.
• Health insurance, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents – US and Canada specific.
• 4% matching in 401k / RRSP – US and Canada specific.
• MacBook Pro delivered to your door.
• One‑time stipend to set up a home office — desk, chair, screen, etc.
• Monthly meal stipend.
• Monthly social meet‑up stipend.
• Annual health and wellness stipend.
• Annual learning stipend.

Join a fast‑growing company with world‑class professionals from around the world. If you are seeking a meaningful career, you found the right place, and we would love to hear from you.