Talent Lead — People, Culture & Founder Support

ABOUT THE STUDIO The Studio is an AI-native venture builder for the Global South, purpose-built to transform high-barrier problems into scalable, investable companies. Partnering with domain experts & high-agency founders from concept to Series A, it both builds new ventures and re-engineers existing ones for AI-driven growth. Powered by UTOPIA OS — a modular, adaptive stack tailored to each venture — it compresses the path from concept to Series A to under 24 months. ABOUT THE ROLE We're hiring a Talent Lead to build and nurture the people systems that power the Studio, its founders, and the ventures we build. You’ll lead culture, talent, and people systems across the Studio — helping founders attract, develop, and retain exceptional teams. You’ll support internal platform HR and performance management, working closely with the Head of Operations & Compliance to ensure consistency across Utopia’s shared functions. This is a hands-on, early-stage role for someone who thrives at the intersection of venture building, talent design, and founder support — building scalable systems for hiring, onboarding, and learning that make “talent as a service” one of Utopia’s most valuable offerings. Reports to: Studio Directors Dotted line: Managing Partner (for platform-wide HR and performance initiatives) Growth path: Head of People / Partner, Talent & Culture RESPONSIBILITIES 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 EXPERIENCE & SKILLS - 5+ years in People Operations, Talent, or HR (ideally in venture, startup, or innovation contexts) - You've designed and implemented hiring and culture systems in fast-moving environments - Familiar with early-stage company building and founder challenges - Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with an empathetic, coaching mindset - Experience working cross-culturally and building inclusive teams - Tech-savvy — comfortable using and experimenting with AI tools for HR, data analysis, and process automation - Strategic thinker who can balance structure with speed - Exposure to or experience working across the Global South — understanding regional talent dynamics, cultural contexts, and cross-market collaboration - Strong grounding in talent analytics, workforce design, or AI-driven HR processes. - Proven ability to apply AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, PeopleGPT, Ashby AI) in recruiting, onboarding, or performance management. - Experience working in lean, cross-functional teams where HR collaborates directly with product and engineering. MINDSET & VALUES - Founder-first: You measure success by how well you enable others to thrive. - System-builder: You turn chaos into clarity through process and structure that scale. - AI-native: You use automation to enhance empathy and insight — not replace them. - Empathetic operator: You mix high EQ with disciplined execution. - Global South mindset: You believe world-class talent systems can emerge from emerging markets. WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS You’ll define how a new generation of AI-native founders and teams are built — shaping both the systems and culture that enable them to scale across continents. You'll help make talent a strategic advantage for founders and ventures built in Doha, while embedding the principles of the future of work into one of the most ambitious venture studios of the decade. WHO THIS ROLE ISN’T RIGHT FOR This isn’t for someone who wants established HR infrastructure, narrow scope, or steady-state operations. You’ll be building and iterating in real time, working across strategy, recruiting, and culture — often in the same day. If ambiguity drains you or you prefer managing established processes over shaping new ones, this won’t feel like a fit. WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT - Meaningful Impact: Your work directly contributes to building the core infrastructure behind a new generation of ventures - enabling equitable, AI-native innovation across the Global South. - Collaborative Culture: We thrive on openness, curiosity, and collective intelligence. Everyone has a voice, and decisions are made transparently. - Growth Mindset: From AI learning and use budgets to mentorship, we invest in your development and help you grow beyond your comfort zone. - Competitive Rewards: Tax-free compensation, private health, travel insurance and flexible hybrid setup. - Work-Life Integration: Office lunches twice a week, great snacks, and team meetups that keep energy and connection high. - Global Exposure: Occasional travel across Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East for meaningful, on-ground collaboration with venture teams. - Inclusive by Design: We celebrate diversity and are committed to building an environment where everyone belongs. THE UTOPIA PLATFORM ADVANTAGE The Studio is part of Utopia Capital’s integrated venture platform designed to solve the biggest friction points in emerging market venture creation. Most founders face a broken journey: they struggle to build with limited resources, chase capital across disconnected investors, and lack the infrastructure to scale across regions. We've built a different system. The Studio co-builds ventures with domain experts using AI-native infrastructure, compressing the path from concept to product. The Radical Fund and A-typical Ventures provide fast, aligned capital from pre-seed through Series A, removing fundraising friction at every stage. And Utopia OS — our shared technical backbone — gives every venture access to the same tools, data systems, and regional networks that would normally take years and millions to build. This means founders can focus on solving real problems while we handle the build infrastructure, capital coordination, and cross-regional expansion. It's a compounding system: each venture we build makes the next one faster, smarter, and more capital-efficient. That’s the platform advantage you’ll help build — purpose-designed for the complexity and opportunity of the Global South. We believe innovation should be inclusive and globally distributed. Our team is built on openness, curiosity, and collaboration — with people from across the GCC, Africa, and Southeast Asia working together to build meaningful ventures. All roles are based in Doha, Qatar, with flexible hybrid options and global travel opportunities. We welcome talent from every background to join us in shaping the future of AI-native innovation.