Talent Operating Expert - Next Level Operations

About Level & NLO:

Level Equity is a private investment firm focused on rapidly growing software and technology-driven businesses. Level provides long term capital across all transaction types in support of continued growth. The firm was founded in 2009 and has raised over $4.5 billion in committed capital. 

Level’s NextLevel Operations (NLO) program is focused on driving growth in our portfolio through active partnerships with our investment team and portfolio leadership to “Level Up” operations and outcomes. The team is made up of experienced operators focused on the main 3 pillars of portfolio execution: Product & AI, Go-To-Market, and Finance & Operations.  

 

NLO Values: 

We Are One Team - We practice transparency and communicate frequently to ensure we are aligned with our investment and portfolio partners. 

This is Not Our First Rodeo - We build our team with direct, relevant operational expertise that aligns with our portfolio companies’ needs. 

We Look to Cross Pollinate - We maniacally search for best practices across our entire ecosystem and make them repeatable for the benefit of all. 

We Can Push the Mop - We can do the work! We offer hands-on kits, templates and project management to maximize the likelihood that organizational improvements take hold and translate into tangible enterprise value creation.

We Move the Needle - Organizations can go bankrupt “getting better.” We prioritize our time and yours on items that will materially impact the value of the organization. 

About the Role:   

You will be the Talent Expert responsible for building and operating Level's talent ecosystem - a firm-wide system for connecting and activating talent across our portfolio of 60+ companies. This is not a traditional recruiting role. 

This role sits at the center of two interconnected efforts. You will build and maintain a curated external talent network - a living database of executive and functional candidates sourced from former colleagues, portfolio company alumni, standout interview candidates, and inbound referrals that Level can draw from when portfolio companies need leadership. At the same time, you will nurture the community of portfolio operators already working inside Level companies, including a 400+-person Slack community, functional programming, and two annual Summits, so leaders can learn from each other and solve shared challenges together. The through-line is relationships: building them, deepening them, and activating them to strengthen every company in the portfolio. 

You are a connector at your core. You help portfolio companies build strong hiring processes, from job descriptions and scorecards to end-to-end process design and recruiter coordination. You bridge NLO's perspective on portfolio leadership with the broader talent landscape, facilitate introductions, and ensure Level maximizes the surface area of every relationship across the firm. You will report to the Finance & Operations Operating Partner and collaborate closely with NLO, Level deal teams, portfolio CEOs, and talent partners across our portfolio. 

What You'll Do 

• Build and maintain a large, living, searchable talent database, enriched with career trajectory, domain expertise, and a structured discovery stage, and cultivate warm relationships over time so the network is ready when a need emerges. 

• Mine the Level ecosystem for talent intelligence across board members, operating partners, portfolio executives, and alumni, and develop back-channeling capabilities to surface candid insights through non-traditional reference channels. 

• Own and grow the internal portfolio community: develop programming such as executive roundtables, curated content, and peer-to-peer forums; assist with organizing two annual Summits including speaker selection and content design. 

• Build the brand of working with Level companies through thought leadership and network presence, and internally by making portfolio leaders feel part of something valuable. 

• Host a recurring internal Talent Meeting to review open roles, match candidates from the database, and coordinate with external recruiters on coverage, performance, and who is in market. 

• Help portfolio companies design end-to-end hiring processes, including scorecards, structured interviews, and calibration sessions, without owning search execution. 

• Upgrade diligence-stage talent assessment to evaluate leadership earlier in the deal process; implement structured evaluation checkpoints post-close to assess leadership team performance as the business scales. 

• Create and manage the CEO 360 program - leveraging technology to automate data collection while personally helping execute reviews, interpret results, and communicate findings. 

• Support the upleveling of existing portfolio talent through development programming and cross-portfolio exposure, helping strong leaders grow into bigger roles.    

About You.  You are the Ideal Candidate If:  

• You align with our NLO Values. 

• You are willing to take risks, create new opportunities, and act as a visionary. 

• You are a natural community and network builder - you instinctively expand surface area, cultivate relationships across functions and seniority levels, and maintain warm connections over time. 

• You are a connector at your core: you see the person at one portfolio company who could help the leader at another, and you make it happen. 

• You are a systems thinker who enjoys building programs and infrastructure from scratch, community platforms, databases, cadences, programming, and iterating to drive measurable outcomes. 

• You can credibly partner with CEOs and senior leaders, whether facilitating a 360 review, giving direct feedback on a leadership team, or driving accountability on a critical hire. 

• You're forward-thinking about talent networks - always looking for what's next in how communities are built, engaged, and activated. 

• You're highly organized, analytically oriented, and motivated by measurable impact. 

• You have exposure to B2B software and/or private equity-backed environments and understand the operating context of high-growth portfolio companies. 

  

Requirements:    
 

• Meaningful experience in talent acquisition, community building, or talent leadership (in-house, retained search, or a hybrid), with demonstrated success nurturing, fostering, and connecting with senior leadership talent and filling senior leadership roles. 

• Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills; ability to influence senior leaders with clarity and tact. 

• Experience building or operating talent-related systems (community platforms, candidate databases, sourcing workflows, vendor management, reporting dashboards). 

• Strong program management skills: able to design KPIs, run cadences, and drive adoption across many companies simultaneously. 

• Comfort with talent assessment frameworks (360s, calibration, structured interviews, scorecards) or willingness to develop deep competency quickly. 

• You are in New York City or the surrounding areas to work in either the NYC or the Greenwich office on a regular basis.