Talented Hires

At Talented Hires, we partner with tech founders to help them build the world-class teams they need to achieve breakout growth, secure funding, and deliver on the promise of artificial intelligence.

Beyond recruiting, we provide strategic guidance to help you:

◦ Define your ideal tech stack and organizational structure
◦ Implement best practices for onboarding, training, and career development
◦ Foster a mission-driven culture that aligns with your values
◦ Position your startup's technical vision to attract investors and top talent

Having scaled talent solutions for Fortune 500 companies and hired over 2,000 engineers, I bring a wealth of insights and best practices to help you navigate the unique challenges of scaling a startup with AI. 

If you're looking for a strategic partner to help you build an elite team, secure funding, and achieve your world-changing vision, let's connect. 

I'm always happy to share insights, make warm intros to VCs and experts in my network, or brainstorm how we can leverage AI to create a better future.

Founder and CEO

Project People

Global technology search & placement 
Specialised focus on AI & DevOps
Over 2,000 successful appointments from CTO to Senior Software Engineers
Retained Search projects for critical niche hires
Impactful Diversity and Equality initiatives
Deep customer relationships built on partnership, trust, and continuous innovative delivery

Senior Search Director, AI & DevOps

Rethink

Search Director

Experis

Search Consultant

Tech Founder | AI Enthusiast | DevOps Expert

Fellow founder and CTO,

I understand the challenges of building an elite team to bring a vision to life and navigate the complex funding landscape. 

My journey began at age 8 when my father brought home a computer, sparking a lifelong passion for technology. 

This led me to study Computer Science in 1999, where I discovered the potential of AI.

Frustrated by recruiters' lack of technical understanding, I realized my CS degree could be a powerful asset in building world-class tech teams. 

Over the past 20 years, I've partnered with founders to:

✓ Clarify Talent Needs: Develop winning hiring strategies
✓ Foster Innovation: Create a culture that retains top talent
✓ Attract A-Players: Identify & recruit elite engineers
✓ Achieve Growth Milestones: Build the right team to secure funding and scale
✓ Navigate Fundraising: Provide warm introductions to VCs and domain experts

After scaling Fujitsu's talent solution to £500M annually, I founded Talented Hires to help startups achieve their world-changing visions. 

Here are some of our success stories:

Pienso

— Hired 2 dream engineers (DevOps & FS)
— Secured Series A funding
— Launched 2 new products and signed $XXM in customers

Mersive Technologies

— Hired 8 dream engineers (DevOps, FS, FE, BE)
— Established a new engineering division
— Signed a $XXM contract with WeWork

Spacelift

— Hired a critical DevOps Engineer after 3 interviews in 14 days
— Engineer promoted to Chief Product Officer
— Increased customer base by 400%

GSR & Lake Parime

— Made 4 business-critical hires for each company (DevOps, SRE, Go, CTO)


✅ VC APPROVED

— Approved by Insight Partners due to positive customer feedback
— One of 11 IT globally recognized recruiters


As a strategic partner, I share battle-tested insights on scaling teams, nurturing culture, and navigating the evolving AI landscape. 

Whether you're hiring your first critical engineer in 14 days or scaling your team to 50+, I'm here to support you.

Let's chat about your startup journey, swap founder stories, or brainstorm how AI can positively impact society.

Join over 1,000 tech leaders who receive my newsletter, 'Hiring Tips from 2K+ Recruits': 

Subscribe here: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7184211996072951812

Rich Roberts

▪ Advise client executive leadership teams on finance transformation strategy.

▪ Lead and support sales pursuits (e.g. RFP responses, proposal decks, implementation roadmaps, project timelines, sprint plans, staffing/resourcing/pricing plans, statements of work).

▪ Develop, oversee, and execute finance transformation strategy via technology implementations.

Solution Architect, Project Manager, and Model Builder on the following implementations:

▪ Global Bank: Designed and implemented a platform for the client’s auto finance division, consolidating over 80 Excel files to streamline forecasting. Partnered with the Head of Forecast Transformation to address data sourcing gaps, enabling readiness for a future data lake conversion.

▪ Regional Bank: Led a team of 15+ to enhance the client’s performance management framework, including workforce planning, capital expenditures, occupancy expense, intercompany eliminations, and financial statement reporting. Partnered with the SVP of Finance Transformation to stabilize a critical project, improve data model efficiency, and deliver a successful platform deployment that increased client satisfaction.

▪ Major Insurance: Served as interim Anaplan CoE Lead, and redesigned the client’s FP&A platform to integrate from SAP R/3 to SAP S/4HANA. Enabled the seamless onboarding of a new CoE lead and optimized the platform to support revenue, workforce planning, investments, and financial statements for 200+ users. Partnered with senior leadership to deliver operational efficiencies and improved platform performance.

Senior Manager

Solution Architect, Project Manager, and Model Builder on the following implementation:

▪ Global Investment Firm: Led platform implementation for consumer finance, enhancing financial reporting and stakeholder engagement. Redesigned enterprise expense allocation model, improving transparency and positioning the client for a $5M strategic modeling expansion.

▪ Major Mortgage Firm: Redesigned FP&A and workforce planning platform, integrating with a new general ledger and optimizing performance for improved forecasting and reporting.

▪ Global Bank: Implemented global workforce planning platform for 100+ users in 50+ countries, integrating with Workday to support HR and finance analytics for strategic talent management.

Manager

Akili Inc.

• Guest speaker at 2019 Anaplan CPX Partner Theater Sessions in San Francisco.

▪ Advised client executive leadership teams on finance transformation strategy.

▪ Led and supported sales pursuits (e.g. RFP responses, proposal decks, implementation roadmaps, project timelines, sprint plans, staffing/resourcing/pricing plans, statements of work).

▪ Developed, oversaw, and executed finance transformation strategy via technology implementations.

• Led on-site requirements gathering and conducted process mapping sessions with clients.

• Led 30+ sales demos and requirements scoping sessions.

Solution Architect, Project Manager, and Model Builder on the following implementation:

• Beverage Company: Led design of S&OP solution spanning Statistical Demand Planning, Production and Capacity Planning, Material Requirements Planning, Workforce Planning inclusive of Headcount, Compensation, and Non-Compensation, and FP&A inclusive of Pricing and Revenue Planning, Cost of Goods Sold, Direct and Indirect Expense, and Consolidations.

Senior Consultant

Solution Architect, Project Manager, and Model Builder on the following implementations:

• Subscription E-Commerce Company: Led design of S&OP solution spanning domestic Demand Planning and international contract manufacturing for Production and Capacity Planning.

• Major Telecommunications Company: Led design of Data Hub creation and enhancements to Month End Close processes and Revenue Forecasting.

 • Domestic Manufacturing Company: Led design of S&OP solution spanning Demand Planning, Production & Capacity Planning, Material Requirements Planning, and Inventory Management.

• Cyber Security Firm: Led design of Data Hub creation and enhancements to Headcount Planning and Selective User Access.

• Major Real Estate Investment Firm: Led design of Global Market Research report.

Consultant

Kimberly-Clark

Key customers included president, marketing directors, and finance director of the Baby & Child Care sector.

• Managed, in Anaplan, the monthly financial forecast ($3.5 billion annual gross sales) for the Baby and Child Care sector (HUGGIES®, PULL-UPS® and GOODNITES®).

• Led annual Headcount and OpEx budget ($60 million annual SG&A expense).

• Coordinated, in Anaplan, the monthly Cost of Goods Sold forecast ($1.5 billion annual expense).

• Prepared monthly and quarterly decks, and drafted commentary, for Executive S&OP meetings.

• Anaplan CoE member and Anaplan Model Builder for Sales Mix implementation and COGS enhancements.

Associate Finance Manager - FP&A

Key customers included vice president, director, and operations managers of North America Supply Chain.

• Anaplan Model Builder for creation of Distribution/Supply Chain financial forecast ($600 million annual expense among 13 warehouses and 10 regional distribution centers).

• Led annual Headcount and OpEx budget ($25 million annual SG&A expense).

• Conducted on-going lease versus buy analysis for fleet of 700 lift trucks ($15 million expense).

Senior Financial Analyst - Supply Chain

Schneider

Key customers included senior vice president, general manager, operations managers, and finance controller of the Dedicated Services sector.

• P&L accountability for dedicated fleets at Target, Costco, Family Dollar, & Coca-Cola ($200 million annual revenue).

• Led annual Headcount and OpEx budget ($30 million annual SG&A expense).

• Conducted a Cost Benefit Analysis to determine the impact of changing asset life cycle from 6 to 4 years among a fleet of 12,000+ tractors ($1.5 billion in capital). 

Note: Project required analyzing secondary market resale values and maintenance expense data to demonstrate the correlation of tractor age to increased maintenance expense over time.

Financial Analyst II

Key customers included senior vice president, general manager, operations managers, and finance controller of the Van Truckload sector.

• P&L accountability for Midwest & Southeast ($300 million annual revenue among 11 operating centers).

• Led annual Headcount and OpEx budget ($50 million annual SG&A expense).

• Redesigned sales incentive bonus program for freight brokerage team.

Financial Analyst I

Key customers included director of Shared Services.

• Sought to minimize Accounts Receivable risk by analyzing financial statements and reviewing Dun & Bradstreet reports to approve customer lines of credit and grant payment terms.

• Project member on Oracle Order-To-Cash implementation project, part of a broader $250MM multi-year Oracle Transformation. Partnered with Deloitte to execute process mapping and user acceptance testing (UAT) for Shared Financial Services (Accounts Receivable, Payable, and Credit).

Credit Analyst

Your AI Guy 🤖 Follow me for AI made simple ⬇️

Josh is a Senior Manager in the Financial Services (Banking & Insurance) Technology Consulting practice of Ernst & Young LLP with a decade of experience in finance transformation and technology implementations. 

He has a proven history of leading global teams through complex finance transformations by balancing business functional expertise with technology solutions.

Recognized as a thought leader, Josh has been a guest speaker at industry conferences, contributing to insights on leading practices, industry trends, and platform innovations. 

He is also founder and publisher of WKND AI, a weekly newsletter about Gen AI with over 5,000 subscribers and 9,000+ followers on LinkedIn. 

Nominated to EY’s AI Adoption Network, he serves as liaison between EY’s Finance and Technology practices to support the development of Gen AI offerings.

Josh consistently demonstrates a prominent level of organization, bringing a methodical and strategic approach to his firm’s operations. 

Meanwhile his skill in mentoring has significantly enhanced the professional development of his firm’s junior team members, contributing to a culture of continuous learning and growth. 

His ability to navigate and excel in unfamiliar domains is a testament to his versatile leadership and commitment to excellence.

He is a Certified Master Anaplanner who has completed numerous Anaplan projects since 2014 with accountability spanning Anaplan CoE Lead, Solution Architect, Lead Model Builder, and Project Manager.

Prior to consulting Josh was in FP&A at Kimberly-Clark (Huggies, Kleenex, and Kotex), Anaplan’s first Fortune 500 customer, where he served on their Anaplan CoE team expanding Anaplan use cases throughout the company.

His career began on the customer end of a $250MM multi-year Oracle implementation at Schneider National, the third largest US transportation and logistics carrier.

USE CASE EXPERIENCE:
Demand Planning
Cost Of Goods Sold
Expense Allocations
Workforce Planning
Contract Manufacturing 
Supply Chain, Transportation
Financial Planning & Analysis
Production & Capacity Planning
Material Requirements Planning

SPECIALTIES:
Artificial Intelligence
Banking & Insurance
Finance Transformation
Driver Based Forecasting
Coaching and Mentoring
Agile Project Management
Strategic Business Planning
Consumer Packaged Goods
Supply Chain, Transportation

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