Senior Talent Acquisition Manager

<p><strong>About Focused Energy</strong></p><p>Focused Energy is a fusion energy startup with the goal of generating unlimited clean energy to responsibly meet future global demand. The founders include two highly renowned scientists and a long-time entrepreneur and founder of several successful startups. With the use and commercialization of laser-induced inertial fusion, a clean and highly efficient power generation technology is coming within reach, suitable to ensure a secure and scalable future energy supply.</p><p>We are hiring an experienced <strong>Senior Talent Acquisition Manager</strong> to build and scale our global hiring operations across Germany, the United States, and future locations. In this role, you will be fully embedded in day-to-day recruiting, leading a small, high-performing team and creating the systems, insights, and routines that make great hiring happen at scale. You will partner closely with leaders and hiring managers to strengthen decision making, ensure consistent candidate experiences, and use data to continuously improve how we attract, assess, and hire exceptional talent. This is a hands-on role that combines strategic thinking with operational excellence, building a recruiting engine that is fast, fair, and built to last.</p><p></p><p><strong>What You’ll Do</strong></p><p><strong>Team Leadership &amp; Strategy</strong></p><ul><li><p>Lead, coach, and inspire a small, high-performing recruiting team to deliver excellence and partnership at every stage of the hiring process.</p></li><li><p>Define clear goals and KPIs, establish transparent reporting, and use data and insights to guide priorities, track progress, and continuously improve outcomes.</p></li><li><p>Partner with People, Finance, and leadership to align hiring priorities with headcount planning, capability building, and long-term business strategy.</p></li><li><p>Enable and educate hiring managers and interviewers on structured, evidence-based hiring practices that improve decision quality and consistency across the organization.</p></li></ul><p><strong>Process Improvement &amp; Optimization</strong></p><ul><li><p>Continuously refine and mature recruiting processes using data to identify trends, remove bottlenecks, and balance speed with quality.</p></li><li><p>Design systems and workflows that are both scalable and candidate-centered, ensuring smooth collaboration across global teams.</p></li><li><p>Maintain data integrity across tools and dashboards to enable clear visibility into pipeline health, conversion rates, and time-to-hire.</p></li><li><p>Build structured feedback loops to turn metrics into action and insights into lasting improvements.</p></li></ul><p><strong>Full-Cycle Recruiting</strong></p><ul><li><p>Own full-cycle recruitment for high-impact, senior, or confidential roles, ensuring a strong candidate and stakeholder experience from first contact to close.</p></li><li><p>Support sourcing and engagement for critical or high-volume roles, using data to prioritize efforts and improve pipeline efficiency.</p></li><li><p>Ensure consistent quality and calibration across interview teams and regions through structured assessment and transparent feedback.</p></li></ul><p><strong>Stakeholder Partnership</strong></p><ul><li><p>Act as a trusted partner to hiring managers, advising on role design, market insights, compensation benchmarking, and data-informed hiring decisions.</p></li><li><p>Influence leaders to balance urgency with evidence, making hiring choices that strengthen both performance and culture.</p></li><li><p>Calibrate expectations, challenge assumptions with empathy, and build alignment through transparency and clarity.</p></li></ul><p><strong>Employer Branding &amp; Talent Pipeline</strong></p><ul><li><p>Bring Focused Energy’s mission and culture to life through authentic employer branding and storytelling.</p></li><li><p>Partner with Marketing to expand brand visibility across channels, events, and communities.</p></li><li><p>Ensure job postings and outreach reflect our values, ambition, and the impact of building a career in deep tech.</p></li><li><p>Build diverse, sustainable pipelines that anticipate future skills and ensure recruiting decisions are guided by both data and conviction.</p></li></ul><p></p><p><strong>Who You Are</strong></p><ul><li><p>7–10+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, including 2–3+ years managing recruiters.</p></li><li><p>Proven success hiring technical / engineering roles (hardware, deep tech, scientific environments).</p></li><li><p>Experienced in process improvement / optimization and maturing recruiting operations in a scaling environment.</p></li><li><p>Comfortable operating in ambiguity — you bring clarity where process doesn’t yet exist.</p></li><li><p>Data-driven and process-minded; you track key metrics (time-to-fill, funnel conversion, quality of hire).</p></li><li><p>Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills across cultures and levels.