Talent Hub Lead

Defence Builder is building Ukraine’s leading defence & dual-use tech ecosystem, bringing together an accelerator, venture fund, and capabilities unit.

We’re now launching the Talent Hub — a new unit designed to understand the sector’s hiring needs and connect strong specialists with the companies where they can have the greatest impact.

We’re looking for someone to build and lead it.

Ukraine’s defence-tech sector is growing fast, but finding the right people remains a bottleneck. Strong engineers, R&D leaders, commercial operators, and production specialists often don’t know where their expertise is needed most — while companies struggle to reach them.

The Talent Hub exists to close that gap.

You’ll start hands-on: owning existing hiring demand across the Defence Builder ecosystem and running searches from brief to placement.

From there, your mandate is bigger: build the network, processes, market intelligence, and business model that can turn the Talent Hub into a standalone unit.

• →Own open roles across Defence Builder’s ecosystem from brief to successful placement.
• →Source, screen, and build strong longlists and shortlists using direct sourcing, referrals, partners, and your own network.
• →Act as the main point of contact for hiring companies: clarify requirements, manage expectations, report progress, and drive decisions.
• →Coordinate technical and competency interviews with relevant domain experts across the ecosystem.
• →Provide market intelligence on compensation, talent availability, pipeline performance, and reasons behind candidate drop-off.
• →Build and maintain a trusted network of defence-tech and adjacent specialists.
• →Proactively identify new hiring needs across the sector instead of relying only on incoming requests.
• →Represent the Talent Hub at industry events, conferences, delegations, and closed-door sessions.
• →Work with PR and Portfolio teams on employer branding, open roles, portfolio hiring needs, and ecosystem initiatives.
• →Lead negotiations with companies and candidates and drive each search toward a concrete outcome.
• →Build the processes and economics required to scale the Talent Hub into a standalone service.

You’ll initially run the Talent Hub hands-on, owning the full recruitment cycle yourself.

As the model proves itself, you’ll have the opportunity to build the processes, economics, network, and eventually the team behind it — growing from an individual contributor into the leader of the unit.

• Take ownership of all existing searches and create a clear search strategy for each.
• Launch active sourcing across all priority roles.
• Close the first 2 placements.

• Build a repeatable full-cycle recruitment process.
• Reach 6+ successful placements.
• Establish an active talent network and start closing roles through referrals.
• Generate the first searches from hiring needs you identified proactively.

• Become the primary owner of hiring demand within the Defence Builder ecosystem.
• Build a consistent flow of candidates, placements, and new searches.
• Validate the Talent Hub model and develop a clear plan for scaling it into a standalone service and team.

You may come from recruiting, talent, business development, community building, or startup operations. What matters most is that you’ve built something, developed relationships, and driven measurable outcomes.

You’ll likely be a strong fit if you:

• Have experience delivering placements, deals, partnerships, or building a community/network.
• Are entrepreneurial and comfortable building processes from scratch.
• Know how to source and engage strong people rather than wait for inbound applications.
• Are a confident negotiator who can align companies and candidates.
• Enjoy researching markets, companies, compensation, and talent movements.
• Can build long-term relationships and turn them into a trusted professional network.
• Are comfortable operating with ambiguity and owning multiple priorities.
• Understand defence / dual-use, tech, or venture ecosystems — or are ready to immerse yourself in the sector quickly.
• Speak fluent Ukrainian and English.

You’re looking for a traditional recruiting role with established processes, incoming vacancies, and a predefined playbook.

We need someone who wants to build the function, create the network, generate demand, and eventually lead the unit — not only fill vacancies.