Norrsken Launcher Head of Talent

Build Europe's strongest deep tech leadership network

About us

Norrsken Launcher is a concentrated, ultra hands-on deep tech venture capital fund investing in early-stage companies that can transform the future for people and the planet.

We partner with world-class scientists and engineers to industrialize, commercialize, and scale breakthrough technologies. Our portfolio spans next-generation diagnostics, stem cells, advanced materials, clean energy, industrial decarbonization, and other frontier technologies tackling humanity's biggest challenges.

Unlike most venture capital firms, we invest in just 1–3 companies per year and work side-by-side with founders for 6–9 months, helping build companies from the ground up.

Our team has collectively founded, funded, or helped build 16 unicorns.

We're now looking for a Head of Talent to help build what we believe will become one of the most important assets at Norrsken Launcher: Europe's strongest network of exceptional leaders, operators, scientists and company builders.

About the role

At Norrsken Launcher, we spend a lot of time thinking about a simple question:

Why do some breakthrough technologies become category-defining companies while others never leave the lab?

The answer is rarely the technology alone.

Again and again, we've seen that a handful of exceptional people determine whether a company succeeds or fails. The right CEO can accelerate a company by years. The wrong leadership hire can set it back just as much.

That's why we're building one of the most important assets in venture capital: a network of exceptional leaders, operators, scientists and company builders who can help turn breakthrough science into globally important companies.

As Head of Talent, your mission is to build and activate that network.

Part of your role will be leading executive recruitment processes for critical hires such as CEOs, CXOs, and other key leadership positions. But the larger mission is to systematically build a proprietary talent network that compounds over years and becomes a major competitive advantage for Norrsken Launcher and our founders.

You will spend your days meeting ambitious people, identifying future leaders before others do, building relationships long before there is an open role, and helping connect exceptional talent with some of Europe's most ambitious deep tech companies. In addition, you’ll develop best practices, data on comp & ben, culture and operating guidelines - in short what makes great people stay and grow within a company.

We want to become the first call founders make when they need a transformational hire, and the first call brilliant people call for a new opportunity.

And we want exceptional people across Europe to view Norrsken Launcher as one of the most valuable communities they can be part of.

Your responsibilities will include

Executive search and portfolio hiring

• Lead searches for CEOs, CXOs, board members, and other strategically important hires across the portfolio

• Partner closely with founders to understand leadership needs and organizational challenges

• Source, assess, and engage exceptional candidates across Europe

• Conduct structured interviews and candidate evaluations

• Manage recruitment processes from first outreach to successful placement

• Occasionally support strategic hiring for Norrsken Launcher itself

Building Europe's strongest deep tech talent network

• Build and continuously expand Norrsken Launcher's proprietary talent network

• Develop long-term relationships with exceptional operators, executives, founders, scientists and domain experts

• Create communities, events, and initiatives that strengthen relationships across the network

• Build and maintain a world-class talent CRM that compounds in value over time

• Map key talent ecosystems across sectors relevant to deep tech

• Identify future leaders before they become visible to the broader market

• Build vertical-specific talent communities across industries relevant to our portfolio

Systems, AI and talent intelligence

• Use AI and modern tooling to scale sourcing, research, relationship management and candidate discovery

• Build systems that make talent knowledge searchable, reusable and continuously improving

• Build systems with compensation and benefits data, enabling founders with most relevant data for hiring decisions

• Develop best practice tools and systems and processes for talent acquisition and talent management; how to attract, hire, retain and grow brilliant people

• Develop talent insights that can help founders make better hiring decisions

• Ensure Norrsken Launcher develops a long-term advantage in talent intelligence

You're the right fit if you

• Genuinely enjoy meeting exceptional people and building long-term relationships

• Have strong judgment about talent, leadership potential and organizational fit

• Are highly proactive and comfortable reaching out to people you've never met

• Are obsessed with building networks and communities

• Combine strong people skills with a highly structured way of working

• Use AI tools extensively and constantly experiment with new ways of working

• Are entrepreneurial and thrive in environments with high ownership and little bureaucracy

• Communicate exceptionally well, both verbally and in writing

• Are ambitious, intellectually curious and relentlessly resourceful

Experience from companies with hyper growth such as Lovable, Legora, Tandem, Klarna, Revolut, Stripe, Palantir, Northvolt, Stegra, Helsing or high caliber executive recruitment agency environments is highly relevant.

You likely have

• Experience from a fast-growing technology company, startup or scaleup

• Experience recruiting, hiring, talent acquisition, people operations, executive search or leadership hiring

• Experience helping organizations scale quickly

• A track record of attracting exceptional talent

• Experience working with senior leaders and executives

We care more about your ability to identify and attract exceptional people than your specific title or background.

Why this role matters

The companies we back are often built around breakthrough science.

Their success depends on finding the people capable of turning that science into globally significant businesses.

The right CXO can change the trajectory of a company.

The right leadership team can change the trajectory of an industry.

Your work will directly influence who builds the next generation of world-changing companies in Europe.

Few roles offer the opportunity to help shape multiple category-defining companies from the earliest stages.

This is one of them.

How to apply

We review applications on a rolling basis and encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

Our recruitment process includes:

• A short video presentation of yourself

• Structured interviews with members of our team

• A practical case assignment

We use AI every day and expect you to do the same – but we're hiring a human, not an AI agent. Invest time and effort in your application, be well prepared, and we'll invest in you.

Join us in building Europe's strongest network of leaders for world-changing companies.