TALENT
Desiree Goldey
Talent Leader & Advisor — Austin, TX

I don't just fill seats.
I build the systems that make
great hiring inevitable.

Award-winning Talent Leader. Advisor to Series B & C founders. Host of the Talentless Podcast. Replacing hiring chaos with clarity — one organization at a time.

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Talent 100 Noon AI 2025 Top 10 Trailblazing Women Leaders CIO Today 2025 Top HR Innovator 2024 CREA Global Award Talentless Podcast Host Weekly Certified Executive Coach IAP Certified Diversity Recruiter AIRS Georgetown University International Business & Marketing Talent 100 Noon AI 2025 Top 10 Trailblazing Women Leaders CIO Today 2025 Top HR Innovator 2024 CREA Global Award Talentless Podcast Host Weekly Certified Executive Coach IAP Certified Diversity Recruiter AIRS Georgetown University International Business & Marketing
0 Qualified inbound candidates
generated monthly
0 Executive hires closed
in a single 6-month sprint
0% Reduction in external
agency spend
$0K+ Annual licensing fees
eliminated
About

The talent
operator who
thinks like
a founder.

Desiree Goldey
Talent 100 — Noon AI, 2025
Top 10 Trailblazing Women — CIO Today, 2025
Top HR Innovator, 2024
CREA Global Award — Brainz Magazine

I believe a company's scale-up phase shouldn't cost it its culture. That's not idealism — that's a systems problem. And systems problems have solutions.

My career has been built at the intersection of people strategy and operational precision. From scaling a recruiting team from 1 to 10 in under 12 months, to architecting 18-month hiring roadmaps tied directly to financial runways, I work where most talent leaders don't: in the messy, high-stakes space between a founder's vision and their first 100 hires.

I've served as an embedded Head of Talent at ZRG Partners, founded Do Better Consulting to advise early-stage founders, and co-host the Talentless Podcast — where I host the unscripted conversations this industry needs but rarely has.

Series B and C founders hire me when "post and pray" has officially failed them. Boards bring me in when they need someone who can audit the chaos, build the infrastructure, and then coach the team to run it without me.

Work Experience

Career

05 Roles
Interim Head of TalentDec 2025 — Present
ZRG Embedded Recruiting & ZRG Partners — Austin, TX
Leading embedded talent at a $200M+ global talent advisory firm for organizations ranging from 5 to 1,000 employees.
  • Modernized C-Suite reporting with monthly hiring health audits tracking slate quality, diversity, and quality-of-hire signals.
  • Owned quarterly headcount planning across up to 100 roles, driving cost controls that cut external agency spend by ~40%.
  • Rationalized fragmented vendor ecosystems — sunsetting 5 underperforming platforms, saving over $100K in annual licensing.
  • Architected end-to-end talent transformation via Greenhouse, hitting 18 executive hiring milestones in 6 months.
  • Mentored a cross-functional team of 15 recruiters to deliver top 5% market performers.
Director, Talent MarketingJun 2024 — Dec 2025
ZRG Partners — Austin, TX
Built a data-driven recruitment marketing engine that scaled inbound qualified pipelines by 450 candidates monthly.
  • Built an always-on recruitment marketing engine generating 450+ inbound candidates/month.
  • Developed executive dashboards reducing wasted media spend by $50K annually.
  • Strengthened talent brand positioning with targeted B2B content strategies aimed at Series B startup founders.
Director, Talent Operations & CultureJul 2023 — Jun 2024
ZRG Embedded Recruiting — Austin, TX
Oversaw talent delivery and operational excellence across a 50-person recruiting team during rapid RPO expansion.
  • Scaled recruiting infrastructure from 1 to 10 recruiters in under one year.
  • Designed Tableau-integrated dashboards increasing team output by 10 placements/quarter.
  • Secured 18 months of hiring runway by synthesizing historical data with financial forecasts.
  • Facilitated 8 internal leadership promotions through competency-framework succession planning.
  • Improved time-to-productivity by ~15% via redesigned 30-60-90 day onboarding.
Manager, Talent Operations & DEIB LeadMay 2022 — Jun 2024
Hub Recruiting (acq. ZRG) — Boston, MA
Led operational scaling and DEIB strategy in a high-volume hiring environment.
  • Engineered a global recruitment marketing playbook generating 1,200 qualified candidates/month.
  • Reduced time-to-hire by 14 days by implementing async interviewing.
  • Authored a DEI hiring system achieving full AIRS certification for 35 recruiters.
  • Improved 1-year retention for 60 employees via automated WorkRamp onboarding journey.
On-Site Staffing ManagerJan 2018 — Dec 2020
Peak Technical Staffing — Austin, TX & Philadelphia, PA
Built technical staffing operations from scratch.
  • Scaled operations from zero to $3.5M in revenue via a pod-based delivery model.
  • Managed a 200-req anchor account through executive-level scorecard alignment.
  • Led a high-performing team to exceed 150 annual placements.

Skills

Core Competencies
Talent Strategy
Headcount PlanningWorkforce StrategyExecutive HiringEVP DevelopmentSuccession PlanningOrg Design
Operations & Systems
Greenhouse ATSTableauPerformYardWorkRampGemTech Stack AuditsWorkflow Automation
Leadership & Advisory
Executive CoachingC-Suite AdvisoryBoard ReportingChange ManagementTeam DevelopmentFounder Advising
DEIB & Culture
AIRS CertifiedBias MitigationInclusive SourcingDEI GovernanceGlobal Frameworks
Recruitment Marketing
Inbound PipelineB2B Content StrategyEmail NurturingFunnel AnalyticsBrand Positioning
Certifications
Executive Coach — IAPDiversity Recruiter — AIRSGeorgetown Intl. Business
Beyond the Role

Community & Ventures

03 Projects
Founder — Jan 2020 – Present
Do Better Consulting
Boutique talent and career advisory built on "grounded truth" coaching. Currently advising 10+ early-stage founders on talent positioning and intentional hiring systems.
Co-Host — Jan 2025 – Present
Talentless Podcast
Unscripted, candid conversations at the intersection of talent, work, and culture. Challenging industry norms weekly — building a community not afraid to say the quiet part loud.
Board Member / Impact Officer — Oct 2025 – Present
HR-4U Inc.
Strategic voice for mission-integrity and community outreach for a leading HR professional organization. Architecting brand strategies with the Marketing Committee.
Education & Credentials
Georgetown University
International Business & Marketing — Washington, D.C.
Certified Executive Coach
International Association of Professions (IAP)
Certified Diversity Recruiter
AIRS Certification
Let's Connect

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