Talent & People Lead (Part-Time)

About us - Main Sequence

It takes an unreasonable belief to achieve the impossible. This is what we invest in and create at Main Sequence. 

Main Sequence (MSV) is Australia's leading deep tech venture capital firm and aspires to address the biggest challenges the world is facing by building and investing in deep technology (deep tech) companies where novel science and engineering innovation are at their core. With over $1 billion under management across three funds, we operate at the intersection of frontier science and venture-scale ambition backing inventors who are building the industries that will define the next century. 

The role opportunity

Great deep tech companies are built by exceptional people. This role exists to make sure our team and portfolio founders have the best talent and people practices as we build the companies of the future.

As Talent & People Lead, you will work closely with and support our Head of People across both the internal Main Sequence team and our portfolio of deep tech companies. This is a generalist role that blends talent strategy, network leadership, and hands-on People & Culture partnering for founders navigating the human side of scaling. This is a part-time role (3 days per week). 

Requirements

In this role, you’ll work on:

• The Talent Network. Proactively building pipelines of exceptional operators, executives, and specialists aligned to the needs of deep-tech startups. Knowing who's exceptional before the portfolio needs them, and making the introduction before anyone has to ask.
• P&C partnering across the portfolio. Provide advice/guide to our portfolio companies across a true generalist suite of work (Hiring, onboarding, performance, compensation and more). Through your work you’ll build deep trust with companies who will want to reach out to get guidance and your perspective.
• Internal Main Sequence people operations. Helping support our team to be the best they can be.
• The Main Sequence Playbook. Turning hard-won knowledge (and maybe some battle scars) into resources that actually help founders build better teams.
• Human capital due diligence. Helping the investment team understand the people behind the pitch.

About you: 

You are a People & Culture operator who is genuinely energised by the startup and deep tech world. You know how to move quickly, build trust fast with founders, and apply your expertise in environments where the org chart is still being drawn. You are likely somebody who has a background and expertise in finding great talent and also understand the complexities of scaling high-growth startups. You know how to find exceptional candidates as well as you know how to build a compensation structure and advise on complex people situations. You’ll bring: 

• 5-8+ years of progressive People & Culture experience in high-growth startups, VC, or tech environments.
• Strong talent acquisition background, preferably in finding executive and board member talent. You’ve got a track record sourcing and placing senior leadership or hard-to-find candidates.
• Experience building talent pipelines, candidate communities, or expert networks. 
• AI fluency and an ability to use generative tools to work smarter and evolve how we measure impact.
• Working knowledge of Australian employment law and HR compliance.
• Fast trust-builder with founders. You are proactive, collaborative, and comfortable in ambiguity.

Benefits

Why join Main Sequence

• Work that will define the next century; every hire you make lands in a company working on a problem worth solving,  from decarbonising industry to feeding 10 billion people. Talk about impactful work!
• Real ownership, senior exposure - A genuine remit, trusted founder relationships, and the chance to build and be creative
• Flexible and part-time 3 days/week (Mondays and Tuesdays from our Eveleigh base)