Executive Talent Partner for Early-Stage AI Startups
Where roles are evolving faster than job titles
I work with early-stage and stealth AI startups that are scaling after fundraising and need to hire fast, often for roles that don’t fit standard job descriptions.
My focus is sourcing: identifying, approaching, and validating highly specific profiles in a market where talent rarely applies inbound and roles are still being defined.
Across AI startups, we consistently observe new hiring patterns...
niche roles
Roles that require very specific combinations of experience, domain knowledge, and context — where the talent pool is small and not actively applying.
hybrid roles
New roles at the intersection of technology and commercial execution: they require a deep understanding of product complexity, AI deployment, and/or engineering — while also being client-facing or revenue-driven.
...Where Classic hiring techniques do not work.
Inbound hiring fail
These roles are difficult to hire for because job ads and inbound pipelines generate volume, but very little signal. Proactive sourcing becomes essential to reach the small pool of relevant profiles.
New roles being defined
Roles are new, evolving, and rarely standardized. There is no “perfect profile” to guess upfront. Instead, a hypothesis-driven sourcing approach is needed — testing sourcing hypothesis, observing market signal, and refining criteria until a strong and realistic talent pool emerges.
Your Talent Executive Partner
A Boutique Consultancy to support your growth.
Founder-level collaboration
I work closely with founders and leadership teams, acting as an extension of the company. This means deep alignment on priorities, trade-offs, and expectations.
Hands-on senior execution & impact
I stay directly involved throughout the hiring process. With over 9 years of experience in the startup ecosystem, I understand the realities, constraints, and pace of early-stage companies.
Selective, high-impact focus
As a boutique consultancy, I work with a limited number of clients at a time. This allows me to go deep on each role, move quickly, and maintain high standards.
Flexible, fractional engagement
I support teams in a fractional setup, adapting scope and capacity as your needs evolve. This provides senior expertise and continuity without the overhead of a full-time hire.
6 core Issues Founders and their Startup face when scaling from 20 → 80+ Employees
Fragmented Systems
Your hiring and HR processes live across multiple tools — JOIN, Slack, Gmail, Notion, Asana — causing inefficiency, delays, and missing information.
C-level-Led HR & TA
Founders and C-levels are still jumping in to handle HR and recruitment tasks instead of focusing on strategy and revenue.
No ATS or Underused
You either don’t have an ATS, are unsure which one to choose or the one you tried is barely used. Pipelines are unclear and hiring feels chaotic.
No HRIS or People Infrastructure
Onboarding, documentation, vacation tracking, and employee processes are scattered across docs or spreadsheets.
Time-consuming Workflows
Scheduling interviews, gathering feedback, preparing contracts, and onboarding checklists still happen completely manually.
Hiring is Reactive, Not Strategic
You’re scaling—but hiring remains last-minute, unstructured, and difficult to track or forecast.
Hiring, onboarding, and HR processes often make or break a company growing from 20–80+ employees, long before a company hires its first full HR & TA team.
Celine Barns
Talent & HR Specialist
Over the past decade, I’ve worked inside the VC & startups ecosystem of Berlin, Germany. I led HR, Talent Acquisition, and People Operations functions to help startups scale. I’ve seen firsthand what happens when companies start growing their team without the right systems, processes, and operating structure in place — and I know how quickly it can block and break growth.
Today, I combine strategic consulting with hands-on implementation: selecting and setting up ATS and HRIS systems, designing hiring pipelines, automating workflows, implementing onboarding processes, and building scalable People Operations from the ground up.
Approach & Methodology
My core expertise lies in building modern HR and Talent Acquisition functions in the age of AI. Concretely, this means removing as much manual and repetitive work as possible through smart tooling and AI-driven processes, so that Talent teams can focus their time where humans add the most value: interviews, candidate experience, feedback, partnering closely with hiring managers, negotiation, employee retention & performance.
Structured sourcing through cohorts' hypothesis combined with fast learning loops and experienced decision-making enables startups to hire critical roles with more speed, confidence, and alignment.
- Role clarification & hiring strategy
- Sourcing design
- Proactive talent identification & outreach
- Screening and evaluation of complex profiles
- Interview process design & optimization
- Candidate experience & decision-making support
- ATS and process optimization where relevant
To get more detail on how I can support sourcing for your organization, please get in touch in the contact form below.
Talent Acquisition
– Designing structured, scalable hiring pipelines
– Creating scorecards, requirements, and interview frameworks.
– Improving candidate experience & employer brand touchpoints
– Talent Pool creation & sourcing strategies
– Hands-on recruiting support when needed (sourcing, interviewing, closing).
HR & People
– Employee onboarding flows
– Documentation, policies, compliance, and internal guidelines
– Time-off tracking, vacation and sick leave
– Employee engagement, performance reviews and career paths
– People data, reporting, and insights.
Systems: ATS & HRIS
– Needs analysis and tool benchmarking
– Choosing the right ATS & HRIS for your team size, hiring goals and roadmap
– System setup, automation, templates, workflows, and integrations
– Migration of existing processes into clean, connected systems
– Team training & documentation
Startups & VCs I have worked at
Clients as a Boutique Consultancy
Get in touch!
If you’re scaling an AI team and navigating complex and/or new roles, I’d be happy to exchange.
mail@celinebarns.com
Based in
Berlin, Germany.
Working remotely, with possibility for light hybrid collaboration in Berlin.