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Rhonda (RJ) Jakub

Hands-on People & Talent leader who builds lean, high-performance people functions that scale companies.

Partners with founders and executive teams to build the operating systems that turn people goals into business results.

Expert in org design, performance management, and talent strategy and development.

experience
Rhonda Jakub Consulting · Talent & People Advisory 2026–Present

Head of Talent

  • Advising an early-stage company on the strategy and design of its recruiting product.
  • Design and ship working AI agents for sourcing, recruiter capacity modeling, and talent market intelligence.
Demandbase · Enterprise SaaS, Private 2025–2026

VP, Talent Acquisition

Transform the TA function into a structured, data-driven hiring engine that improved quality of hire, reduced time-to-fill, and elevated candidate experience.

  • Partnered directly with executives and people managers across Engineering, GTM, and Leadership to hire 225 employees in 9 months, while leading a 10-person global team and rebuilding the underlying operating model.
  • In first 60 days, built the company's first global hiring and headcount dashboard and prioritization framework, giving leadership real-time visibility into workforce planning and establishing the credibility to drive change.
  • Shipped a structured engineering hiring initiative within 90 days, achieving an 8:1 onsite-to-offer ratio (vs. historical 11:1) and 100% offer acceptance.
  • Designed and implemented a company-wide Structured Hiring framework with standardized interview plans, leveling-aligned evaluation criteria, and a consistent bar — creating a repeatable, measurable system for quality and fairness.
  • Cut organizational complexity by consolidating 17 job req templates into 5 universal, leveling-aligned frameworks, reducing time-to-hire by 50% and freeing 90+ hours of engineering time per quarter.
  • Improved candidate experience metrics significantly: "interview experience" from -19 to +57 and "company impression" from -12 to +74.
  • Redesigned global Employee Referral Program to incentivize direct referrals, increasing participation and achieving 75%+ cost savings.
  • Modernized the people-tech stack — implementing Ashby (ATS) and CodeSignal and building Zapier headcount-approval automation and an AI Hiring Kit Builder — positioning People as a strategic, systems-driven function.
Flowcode · Enterprise SaaS, Series B 2024

Talent

  • Advised Founder & CEO Tim Armstrong on strategic leadership hiring during the company's Series B, helping shape the executive team as the organization scaled.
Vidmob · Enterprise SaaS, Series C–D 2021–2023

VP, Global Talent & Development

Built Vidmob's entire People function from scratch as the company's first People hire; promoted within 12 months to own performance management, talent development, compensation, org design, and talent acquisition as the company scaled from Series C to D. Sat on the Executive Leadership Team and partnered directly with the CEO.

  • Designed and launched first performance management framework, achieving 90% completion rates for goal-setting and reviews and increasing performance visibility company-wide.
  • Designed and implemented talent management programs that reduced unwanted attrition, increased internal mobility by 20%, and built succession bench for 100% of leadership roles.
  • Built Vidmob's compensation framework from scratch — establishing salary bands, leveling structure, and equity guidelines that achieved 100% pay equity and positioned the company at market median across all roles.
  • Led org design and restructure analysis to optimize span of control and reduce organizational depth by 15%.
  • Built people development programs from scratch, including a manager development curriculum and feedback training — equipping leaders with the skills to coach, develop, and retain their teams.
  • Developed and shipped People + Talent Roadmap with measurable KPIs and quarterly reporting cadence, resulting in 100% of deliverables completed on time.
  • Hired, developed, and coached a high-performing team; achieved the highest engagement score in the company (100% in 2023).
  • Attracted, hired, and onboarded 200+ employees globally across Leadership, GTM, Engineering, and G&A at all levels, with 95% offer acceptance rate.
  • Established TA foundation and processes to scale across regions, improving time-to-hire by 35% while introducing structured hiring practices.
Meta 2010–2021

Program Manager, Programs, Operations & Diversity · Sourcing Team Leader · Recruiter Manager

Joined as New York's 2nd recruiter and promoted multiple times into roles spanning recruiting operations, talent programs, performance, and diversity — building scalable people infrastructure across a hypergrowth organization.

  • Revamped Headcount & Bench Planning program to align workforce planning with the "hire, grow, keep" talent strategy, connecting headcount decisions to career development and retention outcomes.
  • Spearheaded portfolio of global people programs including Remote Hiring and Diversity initiatives, partnering with cross-functional leadership to drive change management strategy for adoption and execution.
  • Designed and launched Meta's first global structured interviewing program — improving hiring quality, decision accuracy, and candidate experience across 10,000+ interviews annually while reducing bias and increasing standardization.
  • Recruited and hired 400+ employees across business groups, teams, levels, and locations.
Google 2005–2010

HR Business Partner Manager, Global Sales

  • Designed and executed the first Talent Review process to assess high potentials, including career and succession planning.
  • Oversaw performance management with communications, trainings, and calibrations to ensure appropriate distributions and promotion rates.
education
Teacher's College, Columbia University · New York, NY

M.A., Leadership and Organization

University of Maryland · College Park, MD

B.A., Psychology