Lead Talent Acquisitions Partner - Engineering

About Dwelly

Dwelly is building the AI operating system for residential lettings. Its growing network of agencies provides its AI with real-world data, continuous feedback, and control over complete workflows, making exceptional service the standard for landlords and tenants. Today, Dwelly operates more than 15,000 properties and $470 million in GMV, making it one of the UK’s ten largest lettings operators. The company has raised $263 million.

We’re a fast-growing, product-focused company, backed by top-tier investors and led by a team with deep experience in real estate, technology, and operations.

 

The role

Engineering is Dwelly’s biggest area of growth in 2027. We’re hiring a Lead Talent Acquisition Partner to lead engineering recruitment, owning the pipeline, shaping the interview process and maintaining a high hiring bar.

Partnering closely with our CTO and engineering leadership, you’ll hire across the full engineering and data spectrum: technical leaders, founding AI engineers, Staff Engineers, ML engineers, data and infrastructure analysts across the UK and Europe. Alongside our Head of TA, you’ll define hiring priorities, design effective processes and embed AI into the way we source, assess and hire talent.

Success means attracting and hiring the top 2–3% of engineers at the pace our ambitions demand, while keeping quality at the heart of every hiring decision.

 

What you’ll own

Role design and process partnership

• Work with the CTO and engineering leaders on role design, levelling and location for every engineering role.
• Partner closely with the Head of TA on process design and hiring priorities across engineering.

Pipeline and market reach

• Lead searches for engineering leadership and founding AI roles, using executive search techniques, deep market mapping and a strong network.
• Build a steady pipeline of exceptional engineers through direct sourcing, market mapping, referrals, communities and selected agencies.
• Open and grow new talent markets across the UK and Europe, and report on what’s working by channel, role and market.
• Promote Dwelly’s engineering brand through content, events, communities and the people already on our team.

Engineering interview process and hiring bar

• Design and establish the engineering interview process end to end: stages, scorecards, technical assessments and interviewer training, applied consistently across every engineering role.
• Run structured, evidence-based interview loops with calibrated interviewers, feedback within 24 hours and a debrief before every offer.
• Grow the interviewer pool and coach hiring managers, so every stage adds new signal and decisions are made on evidence, not gut feel.

Closing and candidate experience

• Manage offer calls, closing and negotiation, including compensation and stock option conversations, so we win the candidates we want.
• Give every candidate a fast, transparent and well-run process that reflects how we work.

 

What you’ll bring

Must have

• 10+ years in Talent Acquisition, including at least 5 years hiring senior and staff-level software engineers in high-growth tech companies or scale-ups.
• A track record of owning engineering hiring end to end, including engineering leadership and founding AI or founding engineer hires, and building interview processes from an early stage.
• Enough technical understanding to screen engineers credibly and to tell apart system design depth, hands-on AI or agentic experience, and engineering leadership.
• Experience hiring engineers globally across multiple countries, including the UK and Europe, at high volume alongside senior searches, and managing third parties such as agencies and search firms when needed.
• The confidence to influence and challenge CTOs, founders and senior engineering leaders, and a data-driven, AI-native way of improving hiring results.
• Agility and comfort with ad hoc priorities, clear written and spoken English, and the judgment to make good decisions quickly with incomplete information.

Nice to have

• Experience hiring for AI, ML or LLM-focused engineering teams.
• Experience at AI startups or AI-native companies (a strong plus), big tech, FinTech or other hypergrowth tech companies.

If you meet most of the must-haves and are excited by the role, please apply. We hire for ability and trajectory, not a perfect match to a list.

 

Tools you’ll use

Greenhouse, LinkedIn Recruiter, Metaview, Claude and Claude Cowork, and other AI tools. You’ll work with AI agents every day across sourcing, screening, interview notes and reporting.

 

Compensation and benefits

• Competitive compensation, based on your skills and experience.
• Stock options: we offer stock options, so you can share in Dwelly’s long-term growth.
• Team and culture: A closely connected international team, with regular get-togethers and company-funded social events.

 

How we work

We're solving one of the most complex problems in the largest consumer industry there is: residential rentals. We work hard, set ambitious goals and give people real ownership, so that you can look back and say "I built that". Our principles guide how we make decisions:

• Customer obsession rather than competitor focus
• Passion for invention
• Operational excellence
• Long-term thinking

Read more in our Dwelly Core Principles.

 

Our hiring process

We aim to complete the process within 3 to 4 weeks and will keep you updated at every stage.

1. First interview with our Talent team (30 min)
2. Hiring manager interview with our Head of TA (45 min)
3. Team interview with engineering leaders you’d partner with every day (45 min)
4. Leadership interview with Director of People (30 min)
5. Founder interview (30 min)
6. Offer

 

A note on preparation

Our hiring process is comprehensive, because we’re still small enough that every person we hire shapes our culture and our results. Two stages need some preparation from you:

• Business case and leadership interview: a practical exercise based on a real challenge from the role, which you’ll present to our Head of TA and Director of People. It’s the best way for you to show us how you work, not just tell us, and for you to see the problems you’d be solving.
• Founder interview: a conversation with one of our founders about your motivation, judgment and how you approach problems. Come ready to talk about your thinking, not only your CV.

We’ll share clear guidance ahead of both. Candidates who prepare well tend to enjoy these stages most.

 

Equal opportunities

Dwelly is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and make hiring decisions based on skills, experience and potential. We value different perspectives and are committed to building a team where everyone feels respected and included.