Executive Spotlight: Who Is Lars Schmidt, Anthropic's Recruiting Transformation Leader?
Lars Schmidt is a talent leader at Anthropic, the AI company, where he started in April 2026. His own website lists his role as Recruiting Transformation; his LinkedIn profile lists it as Member of Talent Staff.
He founded the talent advisory firm Amplify Talent in December 2013, wrote the book Redefining HR, and spent about two decades in recruiting and HR roles at companies including Ticketmaster, Magento, NPR and Fruitist.
This page uses public professional information only.
Current role and company
Schmidt's personal site lists him as Recruiting Transformation at Anthropic, 2026 to present. His LinkedIn profile gives the title Member of Talent Staff, with a start date of April 2026, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The two sources use different titles for what appears to be the same job, and no Anthropic page we read names him, so the exact title is worth confirming with the company.
- TitleRecruiting Transformation (his website) or Member of Talent Staff (LinkedIn).
- CompanyAnthropic, an AI company that describes itself as a public benefit corporation.
- StartedApril 2026, per LinkedIn.
- MissionAnthropic states its mission as ensuring the world safely makes the transition through transformative AI.
Career path
Dates below come from his LinkedIn profile.
- Pencom Systems and Intersperse (1998 to 2003). Early technical recruiting roles.
- Ticketmaster (2003 to 2010). Senior Director of Global Talent from June 2003, then Vice President of Human Resources at Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment from December 2008 to July 2010.
- Magento (2010 to 2011). Head of Recruiting. His website notes the company grew from 30 to more than 100 people before eBay acquired it.
- NPR (2011 to 2013). Senior Director of Talent Acquisition and Innovation.
- Amplify Talent (December 2013 to March 2025). Founder and CEO of the advisory and executive search firm. His site says he advised companies including SpaceX, Plaid, Hootsuite, Vimeo, Duo Security and Guild.
- Fruitist (December 2024 to April 2026). Vice President, Talent Acquisition and Innovation.
- Anthropic (April 2026 to present). Current role, described above.
Some conference speaker pages still list him as Founder and CEO of Amplify Talent, which is out of date.
What he is known for
- Redefining HR. He wrote the book, which a Greenhouse blog post says covers diversity, equity and inclusion, scaling through hypergrowth and transformational recruiting. Katelin Holloway wrote the foreword.
- Writing and media. He was a contributing writer at Fast Company from April 2017 to January 2025, co-authored Employer Branding for Dummies, and hosted the LinkedIn Presents: Redefining Work podcast.
- Community building. A 2022 newsletter interview says he co-founded HR Open Source in 2015 and shared a widely used Coronavirus HR Comms document in early 2020.
- Teaching and speaking. His LinkedIn profile says he has taught at IESE's School of Founders and on LinkedIn Learning and has keynoted in 10 countries.
Leadership style and philosophy
His LinkedIn summary describes his approach as skipping the hype and focusing on what actually works. In the 2022 interview, as we read it, he argued that Chief People Officers have become crisis communicators and that communication skills will matter more across HR, because good policies fail when they are poorly rolled out. His site lists talent transformation, AI in hiring and leadership resilience as his speaking topics.
Key numbers
These figures describe his career, as stated on his own LinkedIn profile and website. Anthropic's company page gives no financial, user or headcount figures, so none are cited here.
- ExperienceAbout two decades in talent and recruiting (his website and LinkedIn).
- Amplify TalentFounded December 2013; role ended March 2025 (LinkedIn).
- MagentoGrew from 30 to more than 100 people before the eBay acquisition (his website).
- KeynotesKeynoted in 10 countries (LinkedIn).
- AnthropicStarted April 2026 (LinkedIn).
What to watch next
Worth tracking: whether Anthropic publishes his title and remit, and how he applies his AI-in-hiring and recruiting transformation work at the company.
Questions people ask
Who is Lars Schmidt?
He is a talent leader at Anthropic, founder of Amplify Talent and author of Redefining HR.
What is Lars Schmidt's current role?
His website lists Recruiting Transformation at Anthropic; his LinkedIn profile lists Member of Talent Staff, both starting in 2026 (April per LinkedIn).
Did he found Amplify Talent?
Yes. LinkedIn lists him as Founder and CEO from December 2013 to March 2025.
What did he do before Anthropic?
He was Vice President, Talent Acquisition and Innovation at Fruitist from December 2024 to April 2026, after running Amplify Talent.
What is Redefining HR?
His book on HR and people practices, covering diversity, equity and inclusion, scaling through hypergrowth and transformational recruiting, per Greenhouse.
Sources
- Lars Schmidt: personal website · Role, career, topics
- LinkedIn: Lars Schmidt · Title, dates, experience, about
- Transform conference speaker page · Bio and official headshot
- The Switchboard: People Leader Spotlight (Oct 24, 2022) · Interview, HR Open Source, views
- Greenhouse: Redefining HR · Book topics
- Anthropic: Company · Mission and status
Facts were read from the linked pages on October 31, 2026. Pages were read through a fetch tool that returns summaries, so confirm details on the original page. The hero photo is his headshot from a conference speaker page, centered on a card. This page covers public professional information only.
Top photo: Transform conference speaker page (register.transform.us)