Joseph de Garr Wilkinson

Head of Talent & Development | Scaling & Developing Tech Companies from Startup to Enterprise | Full Talent Portfolio Owner

Berlin Metropolitan Area

About

I build Talent, People, and Organisational Development functions for technology companies - sometimes from scratch, often in the middle of rapid transformation, and always with the business outcome in mind. My work spans the full talent lifecycle: attraction & acquisition, performance management, org design, leadership development, workforce planning and the HR infrastructure that holds it all together. Typically in environments where the playbook needs rewriting, or didn’t exist yet. Over the past decade I’ve worked in a variety of very recognisable tech companies and several high-growth startups across Europe - sometimes scaling teams by hundreds, across continents, redesigning performance models for thousands, launching talent programmes that move the needle. Right now I’m at mobile.de (Adevinta), leading the complete localisation of the Talent function as the business transitions to a standalone entity. That means in-sourcing every talent function capability, migrating systems, building new processes, and managing the change that comes with it - including close partnership with the local and external stakeholders. I’m hands-on, data-informed, and pragmatic. I care about building things that work, for business impact and for the people in it. Beyond operating roles, I advise early-stage founders on building their first talent management capabilities and I’m a regular sounding board for talent leaders navigating talent challenges across Europe. Core expertise: - Talent Acquisition: strategy, execution, and TA team design for technical hiring at scale - Organisational Design & Development: structures, role frameworks, and operating models, L&D - Performance & Reward: levelling, compensation architecture, talent reviews - Leadership Development: first-time manager programmes through to executive coaching - HR Technology & AI: systems implementation, automation, and AI-native People tooling - Workforce Planning: long-range planning, FP&A partnership, and headcount modelling If you’re building a talent function, rethinking how your organisation scales, or just want to talk shop, I’m always up for a conversation.

Experience

  • Head of Talent & Development at mobile.de
    Mar 2025 - Present · 1 yr 5 mos

    Managing the localisation and build of mobile.de's Talent team as it transitions from Adevinta’s global model to a standalone operation. This means in-sourcing every talent function capability, from acquisition and performance to L&D, engagement, and HR systems - while managing significant organisational change in close partnership with a variety of stakeholders internal and external (including co-determination topics with the German Works Council). Leading a team of 9 across Talent Acquisition & EB, Learning & Development, and Employee Experience. Also driving the AI agenda for the People & Org function as well participating in the company AI transformation group.

  • Head of Talent at Agreena
    Jan 2023 - Mar 2025 · 2 yrs 3 mos

    Owned the full Talent portfolio - Acquisition, Development, Performance Management for this AgTech climate startup through its rapid scaling phase (Series A to B) and then into a more mature, cost-efficient operating model. Built the TA and talent management functions from scratch. Delivered 200+ hires across Engineering, Product, Sales, and Sciences while launching the Agreena Learning Academy, Leadership Development and High-Performing Teams programmes. Implemented a full HR tech stack (Ashby, Sana, Bob) and acted as a partner across organisational design, engagement, and compliance.

  • External Advisor - Operating Partner at Samaipata
    Dec 2021 - Mar 2025 · 3 yrs 4 mos

    Advising Samaipata and it's venture founders on all matters Talent & Recruiting

  • Head of Talent at simpleclub
    Feb 2022 - Jan 2023 · 1 yr

    Joined this incredible EdTech startup post-Series A to build the talent function. Created the TA strategy, people playbook, and candidate experience framework for sustainably scaling in a fully remote-first environment. Ran out of runway and had to rapidly downscale and freeze hiring - loved working with this team and fantastic mission.

  • Klarna (Berlin, Germany)
    • Global Head of Talent Acquisition - Technology
      Mar 2021 - Jan 2022 · 11 mos

      Leading our global TA teams located across Europe & NA (with more site expansion underway). With over 50+ talent acquisition professionals in the group, the department is seeing record hiring numbers with a 30% YoY growth.

    • Organizational Development Manager
      Feb 2021 - Dec 2021 · 11 mos