Senior People & Culture lead

You want to help protect western values? You want to protect people and critical infrastructure – ultimately saving the lives of thousands.

You want to work at the frontier of high‑performance autonomous systems.

Join us at CDDS to build CDDS into an elite organization capable of solving some of the hardest technical and operational challenges. You will build further the systems, processes, and culture that allow extraordinary people to do their best work.

We move at an extreme tempo and priorities are within EU and US. You should be comfortable operating in ambiguity, making decisions with imperfect information, and continuously evolving how we recruit, onboard, and develop talent as the company grows.

Tasks

Partnering directly with the CEO and leadership team on organizational design and hiring strategy

Building and scaling world-class recruiting processes for engineering, robotics, autonomy, operations, and commercial functions

Identifying and personally engaging exceptional candidates across US and Europe

Designing interview systems that consistently raise the talent bar

Creating onboarding experiences that enable new hires to become highly productive quickly

Developing performance management, feedback, and career development frameworks

Building leadership capabilities across the organisation

Shaping and protecting company culture during periods of rapid growth

Designing compensation, retention, and talent development strategies

Supporting managers in hiring, team building, performance, and organisational challenges

Establishing people operations that scale without creating unnecessary bureaucracy

Helping the company navigate rapid growth while maintaining speed, accountability, and excellence

Requirements

Your Profile

5+ years of experience in talent acquisition, people leadership, organisational development, executive search, or related fields

Proven track record of hiring exceptional talent in high-performance environments

Strong ability to assess talent, potential, and cultural fit

Experience partnering closely with founders, executives, or senior leadership teams

Excellent communication and relationship-building skills

High ownership and willingness to operate hands-on

Strong judgment and ability to make decisions independently

Comfortable working in a fast-moving startup environment where priorities evolve rapidly

Requirements

Nice to have

Experience scaling technical organisations from early-stage to growth-stage

Background in recruiting for software, robotics, AI, autonomy, aerospace, or defence sectors

Experience building people systems and organisational processes from scratch

Executive search or headhunting experience

Knowledge of compensation design and performance management

Experience hiring internationally

Understanding of startup scaling challenges and organisational design

Benefits

Why CDDS

Direct impact on a mission-critical technology shaping US and Europe's security landscape

Opportunity to work directly with the CEO and leadership team

High ownership and influence on the future of the company

Build and shape an organisation in hyper growth phase

Work with highly ambitious, technical, and mission-driven people

Fast-moving environment with significant personal growth opportunities

Attractive compensation

Details

Location: Hardbrucke (Zürich), on‑site

Start date: ASAP

Environment: High‑impact deep‑tech startup working on real deployments