Emma Hollister

Talent Acquisition strategist with 10+ years of cross-industry expertise — with a proven ability to advise both candidates and hiring managers at every career stage. AI-native operator (Claude.ai, Juicebox, Loxo AI, Notion.ai) with a strong track record of building structured evaluation frameworks, advising hiring managers, and closing hard-to-fill roles. Available for fractional and contract engagements.

Founder & Talent Partner at BrightSpaces Talent (2024-11 – Present)

Boutique consultancy — technical recruiting, talent strategy, and AI evaluation for mission-driven startups and scaling companies

• Operating as fractional Talent Partner for multiple clients simultaneously, owning full-cycle recruiting and advising on hiring strategy and employer branding.
• Sourced and placed Staff Engineer at Astral (startup; now acquired by OpenAI) — closing a foundational technical role that accelerated the company's product roadmap.
• Led fractional engagement with Green Dot, filling 13 senior engineering roles in under two months — scope expanded mid-engagement due to consistent delivery and partnership quality.
• Advised CEO of construction firm on talent attraction strategy; delivered against hiring targets within 30 days — demonstrating ability to provide grounded, practical guidance across industries.
• Built credibility in niche markets (DentalXChange, fintech, deep tech) under aggressive timelines, generating repeat business and referral revenue.
• Leveraged AI-driven sourcing (Juicebox, Claude.ai) to reduce manual search effort by 10+ hours per role, scaling capacity across simultaneous client engagements.

Talent Partner, Engineering at Welty Energy (2026-02 – 2026-06)

Power distribution, substations & transmission — grid modernization infrastructure

• Owned full-cycle recruitment for hard-to-fill roles across Engineering infrastructure, enabling grid modernization by securing critical talent that drives project delivery and revenue impact.
• Closed 10 senior-level roles (engineering, project management, estimating) within 90 days — restoring execution capacity after a 2-year hiring gap.
• Lead bi-weekly executive talent strategy sessions, delivering market intelligence and directly influencing revenue-driving workforce decisions with C-suite stakeholders.
• Selected for the Business Development Committee; partner with Head of Client Partnerships to drive relationship-based sales and expand key accounts.
• Conduct niche market mapping using Claude.ai; use Notion.ai to maintain pipeline hygiene and leadership accountability throughout the hiring lifecycle.

Global Talent Business Partner at Rocket Travel by Agoda (2022-09 – 2024-10)

Luxury white-label travel platform — U.S. & Europe technical and GTM hiring

• Hired 75+ employees across 10 cross-functional departments, aligning talent acquisition with broader business goals and growth plans.
• Achieved 95% offer acceptance rate through expert negotiation and deep candidate and stakeholder advisory.
• Drove $700K+ in cost savings by optimizing recruiting operations and vendor strategy.
• Led employer branding initiatives that increased qualified applicants by 25%, strengthening market positioning.
• Founded and led the Tech Ladies Employee Resource Group, building internal community for women in technical roles and expanding the pipeline of diverse engineering and product candidates.
• Created and launched a Culture Ambassador Program, equipping employees to represent the brand authentically at every candidate touchpoint — improving candidate experience scores.

Talent Partner — First TA Hire at Paro.ai (2021-05 – 2022-09)

Series B

• Appointed as first Talent Partner; built the recruiting function from scratch and scaled technical teams from 5 to 40+ across AI, Product, Design, and Engineering — without agency support.
• Designed and launched a white-glove onboarding experience for technical teams, building structured integration programs that accelerated ramp time and improved early-tenure retention.
• Partnered directly with CTO and executive leadership to define hiring strategy; one key hire has since been promoted to CTO.
• Architected and implemented the company's first ATS (Workable) with AI-enhanced sourcing — building data-driven recruiting infrastructure and operational standards from scratch.
• Built and launched a bespoke Engineering & Data Science Internship program, creating a structured pipeline to develop early-career technical talent and reduce reliance on senior-only hiring.

Lead Recruiter at Sunrise Futures LLC (2019-01 – 2021-05)

• Promoted to lead all Technology & Quantitative Trading recruitment; specialized in PhD-level Quantitative Researchers, Engineers, and Technical Leadership.
• Built and deployed a company-wide interview training program from scratch — creating structured evaluation rubrics and frameworks that drove an 18% increase in offer acceptance rate by equipping hiring managers to assess candidates more accurately.
• Transformed campus recruiting by building strategic university partnerships, generating a 15% increase in qualified candidates.

Recruitment Coordinator at Scion (2018-01 – 2019-01)

• Coordinated full-cycle recruitment for a student housing property management organization, supporting 90 properties.

Recruitment Consultant at Huxley (2016-05 – 2017-09)

• Direct-hire consultant for C++ engineers and risk/middle-office roles in financial services.
• Broke into a major banking client; became a dedicated resource — increasing company revenue by $100K.
• Achieved record billing quarter of $300K via 7 client placements in a single month.

B.S. in Marketing – Eastern Illinois University (2012 – 2016)