A Conversation with Rich, Head of Talent at Anyscale

When you meet Rich, you’re not just meeting a recruiter; you’re meeting someone who has quietly shaped the hiring practices of some of the fastest-growing companies in tech. 

Over nearly two decades, his career has taken him from agency recruiting to five formative years at Google, a year at Facebook, four pivotal years at Udemy helping it go public in 2021, and now to Head of Recruiting at Anyscale.

It hasn’t been an easy journey. Rich built his philosophy in the trenches managing the pressure of scaling teams before anyone knew the company name, holding on to early builders until product-market fit arrived, and navigating leadership changes while keeping morale steady. His career shows what happens when you pair systems with empathy: you don’t just fill seats, you create a workplace where people grow and stay.

What if employee experience wasn’t a ‘perk’ but the engine that powers a company’s growth?

This question has become a thread running through everything Rich does, and it’s influencing how innovative hiring platforms CloudHire among them are rethinking recruitment worldwide.

Learning Through the Tough Years

Rich doesn’t talk in theory. He’s lived the grind that every founder, recruiter and HR leader knows:

• Hiring before your company is a household name.
  
• Retaining early builders when product-market fit is still uncertain.
  
• Linking morale directly to the health of the business.
  
• Navigating leadership recalibrations without losing belief in the product.

He’s seen firsthand how fragile an early-stage team can be and how belief in a mission can hold people together when everything else feels shaky.

Employee Experience Starts on Day One

Today, as Head of Recruiting at Anyscale, an AI and machine learning infrastructure company that has grown to nearly 200 employees in just three years, Rich is applying that hard-won playbook.

His philosophy is simple but powerful:

‘Every journey is unique. People have different drivers for career growth, learning new skills and making an impact. Benefits and perks are down the list. What matters most is knowing you can grow your career here and have future opportunities.’

That belief translates into action: seamless day one onboarding, mentorship and management support built in, and expectations set early and revisited often. Because it’s a startup, employees get breadth as well as depth.

‘At a startup, you have a wide range of responsibilities. You get to probably do 10 out of 10 things and that’s beneficial to each employee.’

It’s a philosophy that more companies and global hiring platforms like CloudHire are quietly adopting: treat employee experience as the foundation, not the afterthought.

Turning Philosophy into Systems

Rich sees two journeys in every company: the company’s and the employee’s. Aligning them takes discipline and the right infrastructure. He highlights three systems that make a difference:

• Performance management — Goals, KPIs and OKRs tracked from the first three months onward, tying achievements to raises, promotions and stock options.
• Applicant tracking — Historical data, bottlenecks, compensation trends and feedback loops for better onboarding.
• Fair compensation calibration: Ensuring equity between existing employees and new hires.
  

‘These systems motivate employees because they know their hard work will pay off long term  and it’s captured and documented,’ Rich explains.

This kind of structured thinking is also shaping how platforms like CloudHire design their processes not as hacks, but as quiet systems that make consistency possible across borders.

The Human Element Still Wins

For all the infrastructure, Rich’s favourite practice isn’t a tool. It’s a weekly all-hands meeting where leaders explain what’s coming next and why. In a 200-person company, that simple ritual builds trust and clarity that no dashboard can replicate.

He also values retreats and team outings. Remote work saves commute time and boosts productivity, but in-person moments deepen understanding and help people find common ground faster.

‘When two people have opposite opinions, before the in-person meeting you think the other person’s wrong. But when you meet in person, for some reason you find common ground a little bit better. Just basic human psychology.’

The human element might be harder to quantify than KPIs, but Rich insists it’s what makes systems work.

Looking Ahead to Smarter, Kinder Workplaces

Although Anyscale is an AI infrastructure company, Rich believes AI for employee experience is still “probably underutilized right now.” He sees an opportunity in tools that can pulse employee data and track trends more effectively, a way to combine human empathy with technology at scale.

He’s candid about the other side of the challenge too: companies must not only keep employees happy but also show the world why they’re a great place to work. “We do it with quiet dignity and need to share it with the world better,” he admits. Now with a more fortified marketing team, that’s changing.

This is exactly the kind of thinking that’s inspiring global hiring and talent platforms to rethink how they attract and support people, blending AI, data, and human touch to build workplaces where people stay and grow.

The Takeaway

Rich’s journey is proof that employee experience isn’t an afterthought; it’s a foundation. Systems, transparency, mentorship, and human connection can turn a young company into a place where people thrive.

If you’re scaling a team or looking for new ways to build a thriving culture, take a page from Rich’s playbook: ask the hard questions early, design your systems around growth, and never underestimate the human element.