TLDR: Find the people who will build Planlab, across engineering, delivery and sales, then make sure they succeed once they’re here. We’re looking for our first talent hire: someone who has hired both engineers and non-engineers, sources rather than posts, and wants to own onboarding, reviews and comp as the team grows, working directly with the founders. London, £75–100k + 0.2–0.4% equity grant, visa sponsorship available.
Referrals: get £500 by getting somebody else a job
If this job isn't the one for you, but you know someone who would be a great fit then please put them in touch with us (email to jobs@planlab.ai with them on CC). If we end up hiring your referred candidate & you were the first to intro them we'll pay you £500.
About Us
We're an AI-first company, and that starts with our own work. We automate what we can and do old-school what we must, building the tools and knowledge that teams of humans and AIs need to run construction and infrastructure projects.
Our product consists of two halves: a customer-facing platform that runs both standard and bespoke project scheduling apps, supports large-scale datasets, complex integrations and large groups of users and runs an AI copilot; and an internal AI operating system that automates and supports our own work. It dials into meetings, analyses customers' screen-shares and shared datasets, builds implementation plans, orchestrates coding agents and validation systems - and pushes PRs.
We're a small team in London (8 people), growing fast, and looking for people who see a problem and run at it - figuring things out, and not stopping at “that's not my job.” Any new joiner can make a big difference. We raised our Seed round earlier this year at a ~$25m valuation, and are now aggressively scaling the business.
Our customers are large contractors, infrastructure builders and asset owners. They build railways, highways, airports, power plants, solar farms, steel mills and more. We work with them to improve the construction schedules for these assets.
The Role
Planlab is an AI project controls platform for large infrastructure and construction organisations. We're a small team and we're hiring across engineering and delivery at the same time, at a bar that is high for a company our size. The Talent Lead owns getting those people in the door and making sure they stay: hiring end to end, then onboarding, probation, performance reviews, comp bands and the small number of policies a company our size needs.
This is a hands-on role. You'll source most candidates yourself, run first conversations, coach hiring managers on their interviews and own the offer. We use AI tools for everything we can, and you'll build the hiring pipeline the same way: agents for outreach, screening, scheduling and note-taking, you for judgment and relationships. It suits someone who likes building a function from nothing and is happy that much of it is being worked out for the first time.
What We Offer
- Salary ranging £75k to £100k depending on experience
- Share options ranging from 0.2% – 0.4% (4-year vest, 1-year cliff, fully diluted)
- Nice office in London with some flexibility on hybrid
- Skilled worker visa sponsorship if needed - we’re a very international team
- Bonus of up to 15% of base, paid annually against the hiring plan (hires made, hires passing probation, hiring manager and candidate feedback); no per-hire commission
- Highly entrepreneurial environment
- All the equipment, software and tokens you need to do the best job
- Unlimited headroom to grow
Responsibilities
- Own the hiring plan with the founders: which roles, in what order, at what bar
- Write and maintain job descriptions that are honest about the work and attract the right people
- Source candidates directly across two pools: engineers who build with AI agents, and delivery generalists from technical consulting, product, forward-deployed and customer delivery backgrounds
- Run the process end to end: screening, scheduling, interview loops, work samples, references and offer
- Coach hiring managers on interviewing and keep loops consistent so decisions are comparable
- Close: negotiate offers within the bands, explain equity clearly, and handle visa sponsorship
- Build the pipeline with AI agents doing the repetitive work, and measure it: time to hire, offer acceptance, candidate feedback, source quality
- Design and run onboarding, probation reviews and the lightweight performance cycle with the founders
- Own comp bands and equity guidance, and the minimum of HR infrastructure a company of twenty needs: contracts, HRIS, policies, right-to-work, sponsorship licence compliance
What We're Looking For
- Has hired both engineers and non-engineers, and can explain how the two searches differ
- Sources directly and well: can show a search where the hire came from outreach, not an inbound application
- High bar and the confidence to hold it, including with the founders
- Structured and organised: many candidates in flight, none of them dropped, every one told where they stand
- Clear, warm communicator in writing and on calls; candidates should enjoy the process even when the answer is no
- Curious about AI tools and already using them in your own work
- Comfortable with ambiguity and change in an early-stage startup
- Some exposure to people operations is a plus; wanting to own it is what matters
Ideal Backgrounds
- First or second talent hire at a seed or Series A startup that grew from ten to forty
- Agency recruiters with three or more years placing engineers or consultants who want to move in-house and build something
- Talent partners at technical consultancies or product companies who have hired consulting-background generalists
- Talent or people generalists who have run hiring and people ops for a small team
Interested in this role?
Send us your CV and a short note about why you'd be a great fit.
Apply at jobs@planlab.ai
