Hiring for Hypergrowth: Wesley Gilbert on Scaling Talent at On Running, Uber and Manychat

Hiring for AI Fluency: Tracy St.Dic on How Zapier Raised the Bar for Every Hire

In this episode of the Leaders in Talent podcast, Adriaan Kolff sits down with Tracy St.Dic, Global Head of Talent at Zapier, the fully remote automation company of nearly 1,000 people across 42 countries. Before Zapier she was Senior Vice President of Recruitment at Teach For America, responsible for the largest and most diverse teacher pipeline in the US. Zapier assesses every hire, for every role, against an AI fluency rubric, now on version two because the internal team upskilled past version one within a year. Tracy breaks down its four components, why she measures the slope and not the snapshot (how fast people learn hard things), and what their AI recruiter found at the top of the funnel: 70 to 80% noise in technical pipelines, hidden gems among the auto-rejected, and candidate opt-in that grew from roughly a third to 81%. Plus where to start if your team is not AI native yet: deterministic automation and protected build time. Timecodes 01:04 Welcome and Tracy's background 02:17 Zapier in context: 1,000 people, 42 countries, fully remote 04:00 The 2023 "code red" that started AI fluency at Zapier 07:25 Inside the rubric: mindset, strategy, building, accountability 10:38 Four assessment points in the hiring process 11:49 The slope, not the snapshot 15:14 The AI recruiter at the top of the funnel 18:59 What candidates actually think of AI interviews 22:03 The AI surfaces, the recruiter decides 24:15 Rebuilding the hiring process for an AI-enabled world 27:40 What happens to the recruiter role 29:40 Where TA leaders should start: automation first 32:59 Build days: how the team upskills every three weeks 36:00 Where to follow Tracy ___________________________ Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/] Get in touch with us: https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/ [https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/] ___________________________ Connect with Tracy St.Dic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-stdic/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-stdic/] Connect with Adriaan Kolff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/] ___________________________ Resources mentioned in this episode: Zapier's AI fluency rubric (v2), by Tracy: https://zapier.com/blog/raising-ai-fluency-bar-in-hiring/ [https://zapier.com/blog/raising-ai-fluency-bar-in-hiring/] ___________________________ RSS feed: https://media.rss.com/leaders-in-talent/feed.xml [https://media.rss.com/leaders-in-talent/feed.xml]

Hiring the People Behind the AI Boom: Marcus Pask on Scaling Nebius from 300 to 3,000

In this episode of the Leaders in Talent podcast, Adriaan Kolff sits down with Marcus Pask, a talent acquisition leader with 20 years in the field who is now helping AI infrastructure company Nebius scale from 300 to 3,000 people in 18 months. Marcus started on an agency desk at 18, worked with investment banks at Hays, ran go-to-market hiring at Expedia, then joined Miro at around 200 people and helped scale it to 2,500 while leading global tech recruitment. Today he is a fractional TA consultant at Nebius, the engine room behind the AI boom, building the data centers that companies like Meta and Microsoft run on. He explains why this growth is different: it is tied to contracts that are already signed, not projected revenue. He walks through the hiring problem nobody talks about, the builders, electricians and specialists who put data centers up in remote locations, who are not on LinkedIn and are now at a premium. And he shares how Nebius brings talent acquisition into the conversation early with talent maps, relocation incentives and rotating build teams. Marcus and Adriaan also get into why neither of them is worried about AI replacing recruiters any time soon, how automation is shifting coordinators toward TA operations, and how both Nebius and Matchr are adopting AI with the right guardrails and context. Timecodes 01:07 Welcome and Marcus's 20 years in talent acquisition 03:40 Leaving Miro, career coaching, and joining Nebius 07:30 Lessons from starting a podcast 13:30 MIT, robots, and exponential growth 15:43 What Nebius is: the engine room behind the AI boom 17:24 Why growth is tied to signed contracts, not projections 19:13 Hiring for data centers in the middle of nowhere 23:30 Will AI take recruiters' jobs? 29:26 From coordinators to TA operators 34:53 Using AI at Nebius and Matchr with the right context 48:21 How the Matchr and Nebius partnership came about 51:40 Where to find Marcus ___________________________ Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/] Get in touch with us: https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/ [https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/] ___________________________ Connect with Marcus Pask: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcuspask/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcuspask/] Connect with Adriaan Kolff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/] ___________________________ Resources mentioned in this episode: Talent Unplugged Across the Pond, Marcus's podcast with co-host Megan: https://www.youtube.com/@talentunpluggedacrossthepond [https://www.youtube.com/@talentunpluggedacrossthepond] Shaping Your Path, Marcus's job search and career coaching: https://shapingyourpath.com [https://shapingyourpath.com] ___________________________ RSS feed: https://media.rss.com/leaders-in-talent/feed.xml [https://media.rss.com/leaders-in-talent/feed.xml]

Hiring for Hypergrowth: Wesley Gilbert on Scaling Talent at On Running, Uber and Manychat

In this episode of the Leaders in Talent podcast, Adriaan Kolff sits down with Wesley Gilbert, Head of Talent Acquisition at Manychat. Wesley's career has been built inside some of the most talked-about scale stories in tech: Google, four years at Uber as EMEA hyperscaled from 2,000 to 20,000 people, then four years at On Running, where he led global TA as the company grew from 300 to 3,000 employees and built the retail business from zero to around a thousand. Wesley walks through how On Running's founders refused to copy the Nike and Adidas playbook and instead built a two-tier hiring strategy: high-potential talent who would grow up inside the culture, and senior leaders pulled from tech, FMCG and luxury who shared the brand's passion but brought outside-industry thinking. He explains how the team broke down the company's values into an assessment model, why interview rounds were intentionally longer, how MetaView and structured debriefs raised interview quality at scale, and where On's approach differed from Uber's competency-first, talent-density model. Wesley also talks about the move to Manychat, where AI, the creator economy and a more competency-driven culture have shaped how he is rebuilding the TA function. He shares the leadership lessons that took him longest to learn: stepping back from being the expert in the room, the 'big rocks' framework his CEO at On gave him, and how to build a leadership team you can lean on when your function scales past what one person can hold. Timecodes 00:59 Welcome and Wesley's background: Google, Uber, On Running, ManyChat 02:22 Thriving in high-intensity, build-from-scratch environments 03:54 Joining On Running at 300 people: a Swiss startup with a culture-first vision 06:18 Why On refused to copy Nike and Adidas, and the two-tier hiring strategy 08:58 The three risks of hypergrowth: quality, culture and diversity 10:08 Scaling from 300 to 3,000: how to convince talent before the brand was known 11:05 Defining what "top talent" actually means and turning values into an assessment model 18:17 Why On's process had six to seven rounds, and the experience day in Zurich 20:43 What Uber did differently: competency over culture, and country-by-country startups 23:56 Joining ManyChat and what the platform does for content creators 27:20 Standardising and professionalising the ManyChat recruitment process 30:12 Lessons in hindsight: positioning TA as a strategic function, not an executional one 32:39 Learning to delegate, build a leadership team and stop being the expert in everything 35:24 The 'big rocks' framework Wesley's CEO Martin shared with him at On 37:35 Adriaan on his own move from day-to-day operator to founder on the balcony 42:16 Where to connect with Wesley ___________________________ Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/] Get in touch with us: https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/ [https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/] ___________________________ Connect with Wesley Gilbert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wezgilbert/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/wezgilbert/] Connect with Adriaan Kolff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/] ___________________________ RSS feed: https://media.rss.com/leaders-in-talent/feed.xml [https://media.rss.com/leaders-in-talent/feed.xml]

From Leading Teams to Leading AI Agents: The CPO Playbook for the AI Era

What does AI actually change inside the people function? In this episode of The Leaders in Talent Podcast, Adriaan Kolff sits down with Shlomit Gruman-Navot, a four-time Chief People Officer and transformation executive with 25 years of experience across tech, SaaS, consumer platforms, and banking. Shlomit shares what changed when she went deep into AI, why this is not just a technology shift but a human transformation, and how leaders should rethink work, judgment, operating models, and AI fluency across the organization. Timestamps 01:23 Guest introduction: who is Shlomit Gruman-Navot 02:49 Why Shlomit went deep into AI 03:36 From leading teams to leading AI agents 06:22 How her AI journey actually started 10:11 Where AI is already making an impact in HR 12:18 How to redesign work and drive change inside organizations 15:45 Why HR is uniquely positioned to lead AI transformation 18:26 Advice for CHROs and HR leaders who are too busy to experiment 21:39 Agents vs agentic AI explained simply 24:45 Will AI eliminate junior HR and analyst roles? 29:07 How talent leaders should deal with AI overwhelm 30:48 Shlomit’s new community around making AI work at work ___________________________ Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/] Get in touch with us: https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/ [https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/] ____________ Connect with Shlomit Gruman-Navot: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shlomit-gruman-navot/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/shlomit-gruman-navot/] Connect with Adriaan Kolff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/] ___________________________ RSS feed: https://media.rss.com/leaders-in-talent/feed.xml [https://media.rss.com/leaders-in-talent/feed.xml] ___________________________ Need a Recruitment Support? Embed Matchr’s expert recruiters directly into your team. Seamless integration for immediate impact on your hiring process. Learn more: https://matchr.io [https://matchr.io]

From HR Business Partner to Future CPO: Designing a Career with Purpose

In this episode of Leaders in Talent, Elizabeth Weilburg (Senior Talent Leader at Coinbase) shares how she intentionally designs her career toward becoming a Chief People Officer. We discuss ambition, mentorship, saying hard things, career ownership, and how to align personal growth with real business impact. If you're in HR, Talent, or People leadership and thinking long term about your career, this episode is for you. Timecodes: 01:17 – Introduction: Lizzie’s move from Citadel to Coinbase 02:38 – Why openly saying “I want to become a CPO” matters 07:07 – Learning by observing great leaders early in your career 09:04 – Becoming more outspoken and intentional about ambition 10:16 – Mentorship in action: Learning to “say the hard thing” 13:37 – Taking up space and building leadership presence 15:32 – Why helping with career progression defines great managers 18:11 – Creating real career paths inside growing organizations 19:31 – Why companies should be net exporters of great talent 21:16 – How Lizzie runs career development conversations today 22:58 – Building talent expertise as part of a long-term CPO path 24:51 – Organic mentorship vs formal mentorship programs 26:43 – Networking intentionally (and why it matters more than you think) 28:17 – How to pitch your own role inside a company 30:31 – Creating opportunities by spotting unmet business needs 31:36 – Aligning ambition with business value ___________________________ Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchr/] Get in touch with us: https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/ [https://www.matchr.io/who-we-are/contact/] ____________ Connect with Elizabeth Weilburg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-weilburg-45527955/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-weilburg-45527955/] Connect with Adriaan Kolff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/] ___________________________ RSS feed: https://media.rss.com/leaders-in-talent/feed.xml [https://media.rss.com/leaders-in-talent/feed.xml] ___________________________ Scale Your Hiring with Embedded RPO Plug Matchr’s experienced recruiters directly into your team. Fully embedded. Fully accountable. Fully aligned with your business goals. We operate as part of your internal Talent team, owning delivery, stakeholder management, and hiring outcomes from day one. Learn more: https://matchr.io [https://matchr.io]