Consulting for talent and people operations
I build the operating layer that recruiting and people ops run on.
Fixed-scope projects with a start and end date, for companies growing faster than their people systems.
I’m Brian Schneider, based in Los Angeles. I work with teams across the US and Canada.
Experience from
Who I work with
Companies where hiring is the bottleneck and the people team has no time to build what would fix it.
Typically 100 to 500 people, somewhere between Series A and Series D.
A CEO without a head of people yet
Making leveling and comp calls one offer at a time.
A finance or ops leader covering recruiting
Doing it on top of their own job, while trying to get the hiring plan, the ATS and the board deck to agree.
A VP of People carrying everything at once
A comp cycle, a hiring plan, an exec search and a new HRBP team in the same quarter. They need the infrastructure built while they run the function.
A new head of talent who inherited a team
Along with an ATS full of inconsistent data and no reporting anyone trusts.
Services
Start with the diagnostic. Then build only what’s necessary.
Start here
The diagnostic
Two to four weeks · fixed fee
I take your hiring plan and your ATS data and focus on the funnel. That means conversion by stage and source, time to offer, recruiter capacity against the plan, and where the interview hours go. When the scope includes people ops, the diagnostic also covers leveling, comp, onboarding and tooling.
Every engagement starts here. (And some stop here.)
You get
- A written assessment of what’s slow and why
- A capacity model with the assumptions written down
- A definitions page so your hiring plan, your ATS and your board deck are speaking the same language
- A scoped plan, with dates, for the projects that would fix it
The projects
Reporting and the operating layer
Four to eight weeks
Dashboards for leaders and hiring managers, a weekly pace update the exec team can read in a minute, a definitions page so every room uses the same numbers, and a standing review so the numbers get looked at on a schedule. It runs on the ATS you already have.
You keep the dashboards, the refresh steps, the definitions page and the review cadence.
A written hiring bar
Three to six weeks
Before a role opens, your team agrees in writing on what a hire has to demonstrate and how each interview gets scored. That means scorecards with clear rating criteria, a recruiter screen, a debrief format and interviewer training. A written bar is what keeps the standard from slipping once hiring speeds up.
You keep the scorecards, the screen, the debrief format and a trained panel.
Leveling, comp and performance
Four to eight weeks
The job architecture and career ladders, the comp bands and the comp cycle, and the review and calibration process. Those elements connect an offer to a level to a band to a review, so none of them gets decided on its own.
You keep the ladder, the bands, the cycle calendar and the calibration process.
Tooling and AI in the people stack
Two to six weeks
Vendor selection and implementation across the ATS, HRIS, and interview tooling, including AI tools where they fit the work, plus the automation between them. The goal is connected tools and one set of numbers, so what the recruiter sees matches the board deck.
You keep a build-or-buy recommendation, configured tools, and documented workflows.
By referral, I also take on head-of-talent and people-leader searches through my network, talent team org design, and onboarding programs.
How it works
What every engagement includes.
A written scope with dates
Every engagement gets a short scope doc up front that lists what’s included and the timeline. Anything beyond that is a new conversation before the work starts.
Your team owns the files
Everything is handed over as something your team can run without me, whether that’s the model, the dashboard, the scorecard or the refresh steps. Each one has an owner and a review date before I leave.
Reporting the exec can read
I work directly with the exec who owns hiring, and the reporting is written to be read quickly, with the funnel math and the assumptions shown.
Work I don’t take on
I don’t take full-cycle recruiting, agency-style search, fractional head-of-talent or head-of-people seats, or open-ended retainers. If what you need is someone to run the team, I’ll let you know in the first meeting and point you to people in my network.
Background
I’ve built these systems in recruiting and across the rest of the people function.
I started in recruiting at Microsoft and spent the first half of my career building recruiting teams through fast growth. The second half has been the rest of the people function, as an HRBP, in people ops, in comp and benefits, and as a chief of staff. Talent acquisition has been part of every role, and building the systems is the part I enjoy most.
Zynga
Built university recruiting from one person to eighteen. About 3,000 hires in three and a half years, through the IPO.
Change.org
Head of Talent Acquisition. A global function across 22 offices in 18 countries.
Vevo
Head of Global Talent Acquisition, then VP of People.
Credit Karma
Built the recruiting enablement and operations layer while headcount tripled past 1,800. Later Head of People Operations.
Hadrian
People Operations through the 250-to-500 scale-up.
Writing
Notes on recruiting and people operations.
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The Hiring Signals That Survive AI
Five things to look for in an interview when AI does part of the job, and how to keep interviewers consistent.
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The TA Scorecard When You’re 100 People and Doubling
A five-metric starting scorecard for a company hiring 50 to 100 people a year, and how to build it in a quarter.
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When You’re Doubling, TA Becomes the Moat
Doubling headcount on a lean recruiting team leaves no room for weak hires. What that means for how TA measures itself.
Get in touch
Start with a 30-minute consult.
Tell me what you’re working through. If you have a hiring plan or ATS data, bring it and we’ll use it. By the end of the meeting I’ll tell you whether a diagnostic makes sense and what it would cover and cost. If it doesn’t, I’ll say so and point you to someone in my network.