Hiring On All Cylinders

In this special compilation episode of Hiring on All Cylinders, we bring together the best moments from interviews with winners of the HIGHER Talent100 — the annual list recognizing the most impactful TA leaders across 200+ organisations. From building recruiting functions from zero, to aligning TA with $13.8 million in revenue, to navigating the AI hype without losing the human element — these ar...

Danielle Clark leads a team of 130 people across five countries as VP of Global Talent at eBay — covering everything from talent acquisition to learning, performance, ops, and analytics under one roof. In this episode, she sits down with Matt Staney to unpack how eBay built an innovation hub in India from scratch, scaling from zero to 1,000 hires in under a year while maintaining just 6% attrition...

The AI talent market has fundamentally shifted. It's no longer a sourcing problem — it's a differentiation problem. The talent is findable. The challenge is cutting through the noise and capturing hearts and minds. In this episode of Hiring on All Cylinders, Matt Staney sits down with Evie Rose-Deighan, VP of AI & Deep Tech at Talentful, to unpack what's changed in the six years sh...

Amanda Johnson, Senior Director of Global TA at DeepL, joins Kathryne Friend to unpack how she built a data-driven hiring engine across Salesforce, Uber and DeepL. From turning recruiter buy-in into genuine data fluency, to rethinking candidate profiles as AI reshapes how we work — Amanda shares the frameworks behind a 25% YoY productivity increase, improved NPS, and a hiring function that measure...

Hope Weatherford, VP of Talent Acquisition at Camunda, is doing what most TA leaders are still evaluating: building. In this episode, she sits down with Matt Staney to unpack how she vibe-coded her own interview question generator and JD tool with zero engineering background, why "change leadership is the job now," and how Camunda's process orchestration mindset is reshaping how her...

How do you build a high-performance hiring bar when you're expanding into a brand-new country with zero historical data, zero benchmarks, and limited local brand awareness? Ben Baillie-Lane knows the playbook inside out. Having scaled teams from 2,000 to 13,000 at Revolut before taking the reins at Mollie, Ben joins us to discuss the art of market expansion. He reveals why the biggest mistake TA l...

The days of Talent Acquisition operating as a reactive, order-taking engine are officially over. In today’s hyper-competitive tech landscape, headcount is no longer a vanity metric for success—quality of hire is everything. In this episode of Hiring on All Cylinders , we sit down with Frankie Greenwell , Early Stage Talent Lead at EQT Group (one of the world's largest private equity and ventur...

Candidates aren't clicking on your carefully curated career site anymore. Instead, they’re asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude what it’s really like to work at your company—and the answers might surprise you. In this episode of Hiring On All Cylinders, host Matt Staney sits down with Duarte Mendonça, Director of Global Talent Systems and Operational Enablement at PayPal, to unpack a massive beh...

Efficiency in recruiting isn’t just about working faster; it’s about working smarter by knowing where to let the machines take over and where to double down on human connection. In this episode, Mary Price, an enterprise talent leader with experience at LinkedIn and Apple, reveals how her teams are leveraging AI to reduce administrative burnout while driving a 32% decrease in attrition through bet...

When a company scales from 5,000 to 17,000 employees overnight, the traditional HR playbook doesn't just need an update—it needs a total transformation. Barbara Gaillard shares how she moved TA from a purely transactional function to a "People as a Product" model that balances rapid execution with deep long-term strategy.

How can corporate talent acquisition teams replicate the high-stakes, "white-glove" service of executive search for every role in an organization? Join host Matt Staney and Neil Crumpton, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at TransUnion, as they discuss transforming recruitment from a reactive function into a strategic partnership powered by human judgment and AI efficiency. In this e...

The holiday season is here, and we're taking a look back at some of our favorite podcast moments of the year. We hear from some of the TA leaders who have joined us in 2025: James Lafferty, Manjuri Sinha, James Footman, Jocelyn S. Lai, Lars Schmidt, Kobi Ampoma, Jonathan Beaney, Jamie Edwards, Tracy St. Dic, Jerome Leclerq, Tommy Hansen, Samantha Perlman, Karen Arnold and Anastasia Pshegodskay...

Hosted by Kathryne Friend, VP Community at HIGHER, this episode of  Hiring on All Cylinders  features Kathrin Holzfurtner, a 3× Regional and Global Head of Talent who has led hiring at Google, Microsoft, and Ideals. With more than 5,000 hires across 40+ countries and new-market launches on three continents, Kathrin reveals why global hiring breaks when companies treat it like copy-paste recruiting...

Join host  Matt Staney, ( VP Community, HIGHER )  on  Hiring on All Cylinders  as he sits down with  Lars Schmidt , the innovative  Head of Talent at Fruitist , to unpack one of the most creative employer brand campaigns of the year. Lars shares the origin story behind  The Quest for Fruitist —a wildly inventive, AI-generated video series starring Barry, a blueberry-obsessed Bigfoot—built on a pro...

How do you scale from 3,000 to 13,000 employees — and raise the bar on quality while doing it? In this episode of Hiring on All Cylinders, host Kathryne Friend (VP of Community, EMEA) speaks with Jonathan Beaney, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Revolut, about how the company built a high-performance hiring engine designed for hyperscale. Jonathan shares how Revolut developed its own ATS, embe...

Host Matt Staney, VP Community at HIGHER, sits down with Jennifer Anker Kaufman, VP of Talent Acquisition at Illumio, for a rich, honest conversation about how recruiting becomes a trusted business partner. Jennifer shares her unexpected start as a dolphin trainer, how she built credibility across hyper-growth tech companies, and why she believes in “talent partners,” not “order takers.” They disc...

In this episode of Hiring on All Cylinders , Matt Staney talks to James Lafferty, VP of Global Talent Acquisition and Mobility at Epicor. James shares how he’s built a global TA function that makes 1,200+ hires a year across 32 countries—while staying consistent, human, and adaptable. They discuss what it really takes to lead modern TA: building systems that scale, earning trust across cultures, a...

How do you hire fast without creating long-term problems? In this episode of Hiring on All Cylinders , Jerome Leclercq , Global Head of Talent at Wise, shares his playbook for scaling talent teams sustainably — avoiding “talent debt” while still moving at the pace the business demands. We cover: Why short-term fixes create long-term challenges in hiring How to balance speed with thoughtful, strate...

In this episode, Jamie Edwards —VP Talent & Org Development at Deliveroo and former tech founder—shares how applying product principles to Talent Acquisition can transform hiring. Hosted by Kathryne Friend, we explore Jamie’s journey from engineer and founder to TA leader, and unpack a practical roadmap for building a user-centric hiring function: one that designs with candidates in mind, rede...

In this episode of Hiring on All Cylinders, host Matt Staney is joined by Tommy Hansen , Head of Recruiting at Juniper Square , to explore how Talent Acquisition can move from a support function to a true driver of business growth. Tommy shares how his team is embedded directly into Juniper Square’s core operations — from participating in weekly revenue forecasting to earning recognition at the Pr...

In this episode of  Hiring on All Cylinders , we’re live from San Francisco with a powerhouse guest:  Manjuri Sinha , VP HR and Global Head of GTM Org Success & People Partner at  Miro . Together with host Kathryn, Manjuri unpacks what it really means to build a modern, tech-enabled talent function—from rethinking your TA operating model and integrating tools strategically, to enabling recruit...

In this episode of Hiring on All Cylinders , host Matt Staney sits down with Samantha Perlman, Head of People at OneSignal, for a powerful conversation on how Talent Acquisition can — and must — operate as a strategic business driver. From her early days scaling teams at Airbnb and Fastly to now leading both TA and People strategy at OneSignal, Samantha shares what it takes to build a strong talen...

Recorded live in  San Francisco  at the  HIGHER Altitude Summit , this special episode of  Hiring on Cylinders  brings the summit’s biggest themes to life — from tech-enabled TA and global delivery to AI fluency and what it really takes to be a  next-gen TA leader . Hosts  Kathryne Friend  (VP Community, EMEA @ HIGHER) and  Matt Staney  (VP Community, USA @ HIGHER) are joined by four world-class T...

Inclusive hiring isn’t just a buzzword — it’s the future of building high-performing teams. On this episode of Hiring on All Cylinders , Kobi Ampoma, Head of Talent Acquisition at Heineken Netherlands joins Kathryne Friend and shares how he’s rethinking talent strategies across industries — from fashion and tech to FMCG. With two decades of experience at companies like Nike, ASICS, PVH, and Getir,...

Duolingo is famous for its TikTok presence — but can it become just as iconic as an employer brand?  On this episode of  Hiring on All Cylinders , Jocelyn S. Lai, Global Head of Talent Brand at Duolingo, shares how she’s building the Talent Brand function from the ground up with bold ambition. From reporting into Marketing and leading with a lean team, to attracting top-tier tech talent in Pittsbu...