Request for information · OC-RFI-2026-008

Fractional Head of Talent

An Australian consumer AI start-up. An Australian start-up building an AI assistant for everyday household shopping, in private beta with real households. Its name is shared with shortlisted respondents once they agree to keep it confidential.

Location

Melbourne · hybrid or remote

Engagement

1–3 days a week · Nov 2026 to Apr 2027

Budget

A$35,000–110,000 (ex GST) over six months, including expenses

Closes

2026-10-23, 5pm AEDT

Build the start-up's hiring system and run its first hires: a founding engineer and a household and partnership success lead, then the executives that follow a seed raise.

Context. The product is live in private beta with real households. Much routine work is done by supervised AI agents, so every human hire is a senior owner of a whole area. The founder wants an experienced talent partner before the first hires, to set the bar for each role.

Why it matters. The first hires set the standard for everyone after them. A wrong founding engineer or customer lead costs a year; a strong one compounds.

What we're looking for

• Has run founding-team or first-ten hires at a start-up that went on to scale
• Can write a role scorecard and a work-sample interview, and show examples
• A way to assess senior engineers, personally or with a technical partner
• Networks in Australian consumer technology, AI and customer operations
• Comfort working alongside AI agents and an AI-first way of working

Scope

• Scorecards and interview loops for the founding engineer and the household and partnership success lead
• Sourcing, screening and candidate experience, through to offers
• Employer brand and the start-up's listing on this page and other channels
• A light hiring playbook the company keeps: templates, questions, references, onboarding
• Later: executive search briefs for post-seed hires

How responses are assessed

• Founding-team hiring record (35%)
• Ability to judge calibre (including engineering) (25%)
• Approach and playbook (20%)
• Value for money (10%)
• Fit with an AI-first team (10%)

Timeline

• Responses close, 5pm AEDT: 2026-10-23
• Conversations: 2026-10-27
• Start: 2026-11-03

Responses are confidential and assessed by a panel against the published criteria.