Talent Lead People, Culture & Founder Support

The Utopia Venture Platform

About the Role

Talent Strategy & Recruitment

• Lead end-to-end recruitment across the Studio hiring world-class engineers, operators, and entrepreneurs

• Design and run recruitment processes for EIRs, venture teams, and platform hires

• Build and manage a founder talent pipeline aligned with our EIR model, Fellowship, and PODs system

• Partner with leadership to define roles, evaluate candidates, and ensure cultural fit

• Create hiring playbooks and interview frameworks that reflect our AI-native, founder-centric approach

• Leverage analytics and AI tools to improve sourcing, candidate assessment, and hiring efficiency

• Use AI tools for sourcing intelligence, talent mapping, and predictive hiring insights designing data-driven recruitment strategies that improve quality and speed.

• Prototype and pilot AI-native talent processes such as automated screening, culture-fit evaluation models, and adaptive job design to support fast-changing venture needs.

Culture & Team Development

• Embed Utopia's AI-native culture across the Studio fostering curiosity, speed, and collaboration

• Champion a one-team culture ensuring the Studio, Funds, and Platform teams work cohesively, with shared rituals and aligned values across all parts of Utopia

• Lead onboarding and internal learning programs so every team member and founder understands our mission, tools, and approach

• Organize rituals, workshops, and events that build belonging and psychological safety

• Coach team leads and founders on people leadership, feedback, and performance practices that scale

• Implement performance frameworks that balance accountability with learning

• Support leaders in designing incentive and retention models that align talent growth with venture outcomes

• Experiment with AI-enabled learning systems, internal mobility tracking, and real-time feedback tools that make performance data actionable.

• Collaborate with the Design Lead and Platform Engineers to create people dashboards that align team metrics (learning, engagement, retention) with venture KPIs.

• Pilot early experiments with AI copilots and HR assistants to enhance candidate experience, onboarding, and internal learning workflows.

Founder & Venture People Support

• Provide HR advisory and culture-building support to founders within Studio ventures

• Help early-stage companies design hiring systems, onboarding processes, and talent development plans

• Build a network of advisors, coaches, and specialists who can support founders with leadership and team-building challenges

• Develop "people playbooks" that help ventures scale while keeping strong culture

• Coach founders on organizational design for AI-native teams balancing technical depth, creative autonomy, and operational focus.

• Help early-stage teams structure roles, OKRs, and collaboration patterns for speed and clarity.

• Design simple toolkits that help founders run effective feedback and learning cycles without heavy HR infrastructure.

People Operations & Systems

• Set up and manage foundational HR systems for the Studio (payroll, contracts, policies, compliance) in collaboration with the Head of Operations & Compliance and CFO on payroll and compliance processes

• Use AI-native HR tools (PeopleGPT, Deel, Ashby, Notion AI) to automate workflows and improve decision-making

• Keep Studio and venture talent data up to date and compliant with QFC and Qatar regulations

• Track and report Studio-level talent KPIs to leadership and QDB partners

• Implement lightweight people analytics to track key indicators hiring velocity, retention risk, engagement, and learning impact across ventures.

• Use these insights to refine Studio-wide hiring, onboarding, and team development practices.

Impact & Success Metrics

• Utopia builds and retains a high-performing, values-aligned core team

• Founders and ventures consistently rate the Studio's people support as a top value-add

• EIR and venture recruitment pipelines run smoothly with high-quality placements

• Studio culture is clear, cohesive, and visible across all teams and programs

• HR systems are compliant, automated, and founder-friendly

• Performance reviews and talent development processes run on time with measurable improvements in engagement and retention