What are the responsibilities and job description for the Talent Lead position at Playground?
About Playground
Playground is working to make excellent child care accessible to all. Playground has built best-in-class software to manage all aspects of running a child care business. We believe that providers should focus on providing incredible child care — the kind of work that only people can do — and that software should manage the rest. We’re building the child care management platform that eliminates the administrative work of running a center.
Playground is at an inflection point and poised for rapid growth. We recently raised millions of dollars, secured several statewide contracts, and are working with thousands of schools across the country. Our founders were recently honored as Forbes 30 Under 30.
We are a team of owners, unafraid to dive into large, complex projects. If you’re excited about helping build Playground’s talent function and joining a collaborative, high-growth startup, we want to hear from you!
The Role
Playground is looking for a Talent Lead to own and scale our recruiting function while supporting people operations as we grow. As our first dedicated talent hire, you will work closely with our leadership team to build a world-class team. You’ll develop and execute our hiring strategy, ensuring we attract, hire, and retain top-tier talent that aligns with our high-performance, in-person culture.
This role is primarily recruiting-focused, but you will also contribute to foundational people ops initiatives, helping to create an exceptional employee experience.
What You’ll Do
If you’re a hustler who’s excited to join a mission-driven, early-stage company with ownership, craftsmanship, and empathy at the center of what we do, apply now.
The Playground Team is fully in-office in Soho, NYC. Please make sure you are open to a fully in-person role before applying.
📍 Check out: https://www.tryplayground.com/about to learn more about our journey and co-founders Dan, Josh, and Sasha.
If you want to learn more about what life at Playground HQ is like, check out this post about one of our past recruiting happy hours our Polaroid wall (our favorite office tradition)!
Playground is working to make excellent child care accessible to all. Playground has built best-in-class software to manage all aspects of running a child care business. We believe that providers should focus on providing incredible child care — the kind of work that only people can do — and that software should manage the rest. We’re building the child care management platform that eliminates the administrative work of running a center.
Playground is at an inflection point and poised for rapid growth. We recently raised millions of dollars, secured several statewide contracts, and are working with thousands of schools across the country. Our founders were recently honored as Forbes 30 Under 30.
We are a team of owners, unafraid to dive into large, complex projects. If you’re excited about helping build Playground’s talent function and joining a collaborative, high-growth startup, we want to hear from you!
The Role
Playground is looking for a Talent Lead to own and scale our recruiting function while supporting people operations as we grow. As our first dedicated talent hire, you will work closely with our leadership team to build a world-class team. You’ll develop and execute our hiring strategy, ensuring we attract, hire, and retain top-tier talent that aligns with our high-performance, in-person culture.
This role is primarily recruiting-focused, but you will also contribute to foundational people ops initiatives, helping to create an exceptional employee experience.
What You’ll Do
- Own the full-cycle recruiting process, from sourcing and screening to closing top talent across sales, marketing, customer success, engineering, and operations.
- Partner closely with founders, hiring managers, and the leadership team to define hiring needs and build scalable recruiting processes.
- Develop and refine sourcing strategies to find high-caliber candidates who thrive in an in-person, high-growth startup environment.
- Manage and continuously improve our candidate experience, ensuring that every interaction reflects Playground’s culture and values.
- Build and manage a pipeline of top-tier talent, proactively identifying future hiring needs.
- Leverage data and metrics to track hiring performance, improve efficiency, and make data-driven decisions.
- Support people ops initiatives such as onboarding, employee engagement, and performance management as we scale.
- Champion our employer brand, ensuring we stand out to top candidates in competitive talent markets.
- Experiment with innovative sourcing strategies, networking, and outbound recruiting tactics to attract passive candidates.
- 2 years of recruiting experience at an agency or in-house, with a proven track record of hiring across multiple business functions.
- Experience hiring for fast-paced, high-performance environments—early-stage startup experience is a plus.
- Strong sourcing skills—you know how to find and engage top talent through outbound recruiting, referrals, and networking.
- Bonus points if you’ve done executive search and have experience hiring for leadership roles.
- Ability to move fast—you’re scrappy, resourceful, and can prioritize effectively in a fast-paced environment.
- Data-driven mindset—you leverage metrics to improve hiring efficiency and quality.
- Excellent communication and closing skills—you know how to sell a role and company vision to top candidates.
- A deep sense of ownership and accountability—you’re not just filling roles, you’re building a team.
- The annual salary range for this position is $100,000-$115,000, subject to standard withholding and applicable taxes.
- Job level and actual compensation will be decided on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. The listed range is a guideline, and the range for this role may be modified.
- Competitive salary equity
- 3 weeks of PTO
- Health, vision, and dental benefits
- $1200/year education stipend
- Free lunch daily
- New MacBook and any equipment you need
- Collaborative and supportive work culture with a high level of autonomy and room for growth
- Help accelerate our mission to make excellent child care accessible to all!
If you’re a hustler who’s excited to join a mission-driven, early-stage company with ownership, craftsmanship, and empathy at the center of what we do, apply now.
The Playground Team is fully in-office in Soho, NYC. Please make sure you are open to a fully in-person role before applying.
📍 Check out: https://www.tryplayground.com/about to learn more about our journey and co-founders Dan, Josh, and Sasha.
If you want to learn more about what life at Playground HQ is like, check out this post about one of our past recruiting happy hours our Polaroid wall (our favorite office tradition)!
Salary : $100,000 - $115,000
