Head Of Programs Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Location: Los Angeles (Hawthorne), CA

Employment Type: Full-time

Department: People / Talent

Travel: Occasional

Starpath develops and manufactures the technologies that will enable humans to live on the Moon and Mars. Today, we are building robotic systems that locally produce the essential commodities a lunar civilization will require at extreme scale: water, power, and oxygen. Our ultimate goal is to build and operate a self-sustaining city on Mars.

Starpath is scaling fast. We're growing the engineering team across three programs — Starlight Solar (space photovoltaics), Lunar Surface Infrastructure (Moon/Mars robotics and avionics), and the Starlight megafactory — with dozens of open roles across mechanical, chemistry, avionics, software, and manufacturing disciplines. The Head of Talent will own how we find, evaluate, and close the engineers who will build this.

You’ll set our recruiting strategy from the ground up. That means owning the ATS, defining our interviewing process, building sourcing pipelines for hard-to-find specialties, training hiring managers, calibrating comp philosophy, and eventually building and leading a talent team. In the near term you’ll also be closing candidates yourself — this is a build-from-scratch role, not a manage-a-team role. Yet.

• Own end-to-end recruiting for Starpath — sourcing, screening, hiring manager partnership, offer construction, close

• Build sourcing pipelines for specialized aerospace and hardware roles across engineering, chemistry, avionics, software, and factory operations

• Partner with engineering leadership to set intake requirements, calibrate interview loops, and drive hiring manager accountability

• Set and evolve Starpath's comp philosophy in partnership with leadership — benchmark against space industry peers, calibrate bands, and negotiate offers

• Own the ATS (Ashby) as system of record — job postings, application forms, pipeline hygiene, reporting, and integrations

• Build and refine the candidate experience — from first outreach through onboarding — to reflect Starpath's technical bar and mission

• Establish recruiting metrics (time-to-fill, pipeline health, offer acceptance, quality of hire) and use them to drive continuous improvement

• Design and eventually lead the growth of the talent team as headcount scales

• Partner with legal, finance, and operations on hiring compliance — EAR/ITAR, California pay transparency (SB 1162), equal opportunity, offer letters

• Technical recruiting experience with meaningful time spent recruiting engineers in aerospace, hardware, robotics, or comparable deep-tech environments

• Track record of owning senior IC and leadership searches end-to-end at competitive companies

• Demonstrated ability to close hard candidates against competitive offers

• Strong partnership skills with technical hiring managers, and comfort pushing back on scoping when it matters

• Experience owning an ATS as system of record (Ashby, Greenhouse, or comparable) including job postings, workflow, and reporting

• Prior experience at a hardware startup or aerospace company

• Experience building or scaling a talent function — process, tools, and pipelines — not just filling reqs

• Experience recruiting for space, defense, or ITAR/EAR-controlled environments

• Prior people-management experience or clear readiness to hire and lead a small talent team as Starpath scales

• Familiarity with California pay transparency law (SB 1162) and current comp benchmarking practices in LA aerospace

• Experience sourcing niche technical specialties via targeted outreach rather than inbound

• Ability to represent Starpath externally at industry events, universities, or targeted talent-attraction efforts

• Location: Los Angeles (Hawthorne), CA

• Competitive salary plus equity package; compensation scales with candidate experience

• PTO & health/dental/vision coverage included

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Starpath is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.