Advisor, Talent

at  Mars Discovery District

ABOUT MARS

MaRS Discovery District (@MaRSDD) in Toronto is one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs.
MaRS supports promising high-growth companies to scale their businesses globally, while tackling key societal challenges in areas such as Health, Cleantech, Finance, Transportation, AI, and others. In addition to helping start-ups launch, grow and scale, the MaRS community is dedicated to cross-disciplinary collaboration, commercialization of discoveries, and driving ideas to impact.
MaRS is the place where you can play a meaningful role in our innovation economy.
We understand qualifications on a job posting can be daunting. If you’re passionate about the role and believe you can make a meaningful impact, we want to hear from you, even if you don’t meet every listed qualification. We’re always looking for great talent to join our team on planet MaRS.
We actively encourage all candidates, including equity-deserving communities, including those who identify as BIPOC, racialized, women, people with disabilities, and people with diverse gender identities, expressions and sexual orientations.
We want you to be comfortable being your most authentic self throughout our recruitment process. Please reach out to careers@marsdd.com if there’s anything we can do to make your experience more accessible and inclusive, including accommodations. Include ‘Accessibility Request’ in your subject line.

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

MaRS is seeking Advisors to support our highest potential companies to address critical talent needs, including hiring, organizational development, and team scaling. This role requires a strategic thinker with hands-on experience in recruitment, workforce planning, culture building, and talent retention in a start-up context. The ideal candidate will be comfortable balancing high-level strategy with tactical techniques to help startups as they scale across stages. Advisors provide strategic guidance to executive teams and provide connections to talent, customers, and experts.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Proven experience in such roles as a Head of People with early to medium-late stage startups.
• Alternatively, you are a deep technical specialist on topics like recruitment, compensation, etc and have a strong track record of helping multiple startups optimise their marketing machine.
• Experience in a Head of People role with companies at the following stages:
• preparing for and absorbing a Series A
• venture-backed company that grew rapidly from $5M to $20M revenue and beyond (or equivalent capital raised for a deeptech/health/cleantech company)
• Deep understanding of recruitment, workforce planning, and organizational design for scaling businesses.
• Strong knowledge of compensation frameworks, including equity and startup-specific benefits.
• Excellent interpersonal and coaching skills, with a track record of working effectively with CEOs and leadership teams.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with tactical execution and manage multiple priorities at once.
• Familiarity with DEI best practices and experience integrating them into talent strategies.
• Experience working with technology companies in impact areas of climate, health and applied AI is highly desirable.
• We prefer candidates who have experience as a mentor, coach or consultant
• Highly developed analytical and interpretive skills, conceptual thinker, able to solve complex problems
• Demonstrated passion for building businesses
• Personal accountability and commitment to achieving and exceeding goals and objectives
• Detailed knowledge of commercial practices for high growth businesses.
• Familiar with the “language” and terminology of industry, finance, government, and the academic community

• Through individual advisory and community events provide guidance on topics relating to growing ventures like:
• Talent Planning: Develop talent strategies aligned with business goals, including workforce planning, workforce development, and organizational structure optimization.
• Talent Acquisition: Provide expertise in sourcing strategies, job description development, and candidate evaluation frameworks. Guide startups in building hiring pipelines for key roles, particularly technical, executive, and niche positions.
• Employer Brand: Assist leadership teams in building a magnetic employer value proposition for existing and prospective employees.
• Employee Relations: Guidance on various employee relations matters, including workforce transitions, performance management, and workplace disputes, with a focus on ethical governance.
• Culture: Work with companies to define, nurture, and scale company culture as they grow. Advise on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to ensure inclusive hiring practices and workplace environments.
• Compensation: Assist in developing competitive compensation packages, including equity structuring, benchmarking, and employee benefits.
• Performance Management: Provide recommendations for retaining top talent through career development pathways, performance management frameworks, and inform on succession planning
• Leadership Coaching: Serve as a coach and advisor to CEOs and HR leaders on leadership development
• HR & Operational Guidance: Provide tools, resources, and tactical guidance on HR-related functions, including onboarding processes, employee handbooks, and compliance with labor laws
• Work with the MaRS team to support the delivery of best-in-class programs:
• Assess client needs and plan service delivery in collaboration with the MaRS team
• Provide input into company assessments and program strategy
• Make connections to your network — to talent, customers, experts, and funding
• Document your work in the MaRS CRM, and follow MaRS policies and processes to enable effective program management.