Build your next phase team with intention.
We partner with startups and hiring leaders across Australia and New Zealand to design better hiring, run focused recruitment, and build teams that scale with the business.
Hiring is part of how a company gets built. We work with startups and hiring leaders when the people decisions matter most - early hires, replacement hires, and the roles that shape culture and trajectory. Our job is to bring clarity, structure, and judgement to the process so teams can move with confidence, not pressure. We also run the Aussie Founders Club, a community of startup founders and operators across Australia, so clients get access to that network alongside the search.
Connecting ambition to the people who can build it. We work with startups and growth-driven businesses, helping founders and startup leaders shape the teams that are building the future.
We start with who you actually need. People who raise the standard of the team - who think clearly, move at pace, and back themselves when it matters.
We run hiring like a campaign: role positioning, job ad review, founder-led content - so the right people know why your opportunity is the one they need to be in on.
We assess beyond the CV. Psychometric profiling through Taly, behavioural interviews, and video CVs for customer-facing roles - real signal on how people think, communicate, and operate under pressure.
We bring the context, judgement, and standards to make the call well - and the tools to set them up once it's made.
We help you build the employer brand that brings the right people to you. Every search starts with how your company and the role are positioned: founder-led and culture video, job ad and job description review, and the story candidates hear about why they should join. That work keeps paying off after the hire, on your careers page, your LinkedIn and in every role you open next.
We recruit for startups and scaleups across every part of the business, including leadership and general management, sales and partnerships, marketing and brand, operations, finance and tax, executive assistants and chiefs of staff, clinical and health, and IT. If your startup needs the role, we can run the search.
Our fees are based on your stage. For pre-seed and early-stage startups they start from 12% of base salary plus super, and equity is never included in the calculation. We'll agree the right structure for your search on a discovery call.
Kairos is based in Melbourne and works with startups and scaleups across Australia and New Zealand, hiring candidates in both markets. We also run offshore searches in the Philippines.
Hiring now? Use our free hiring kit to rewrite your job ad, pick the interview questions for the role and score candidates in the room.
An Australian-run search for great people in the Philippines, with a one-off fee capped at A$8,000 and a 3-month replacement guarantee. Offshore hiring
Experienced leaders for a few days a week. Browse the Aussie Fractionals board or have us headhunt the right person. Fractional hiring
Kairos is a recruitment agency for Australian and New Zealand startups and scaleups. We run every search as an employer branding campaign, so the right candidates understand why your company is worth joining.
Any role a startup or scaleup needs, from first hires through to leadership. Recent searches include general managers, marketing and brand, sales and partnerships, clinical partnerships, finance and tax, executive assistants and IT.
Standard agency fees in Australia usually sit between 15% and 25% of salary. Kairos fees are based on your stage and start from 12% of base salary plus super for pre-seed and early-stage companies.
Pre-seed through to scaleup, including founder-led businesses that aren't raising.
We position your company and the role before we go to market. That includes reviewing the role and job ad, founder-led and culture video, video CVs for customer-facing roles, and behavioural profiling through Taly, so you see how candidates think and communicate beyond their CV. We can also help you build your employer brand beyond a single search, so the story of why people should join you keeps working for every role you open.
No. We're based in Melbourne and work with startups across Australia and New Zealand.
Book a discovery call and we'll talk through the role, your timeline and what good looks like.
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