Gray Scalable Spotlight: Darla Hornbjork

A little more about Darla, our first Los Angeles based Recruiting Consultant, leading Gray Scalable’s growth on the west coast...

Darla’s role at Gray Scalable:

Darla joined the Gray Scalable New York team in January of 2016, leading the growth of the sourcing team and managing recruiting engagements at NYC clients like Rocketrip and MM.Lafleur. As her family took on an intriguing, new adventure to Los Angeles, Darla used the opportunity to bring Gray Scalable’s services to the West Coast. The new location is the first outside of our Silicon Alley headquarters in NYC, and home to a growing team already in the greater LA area.

Darla began her career in HR as a Recruiting Researcher - as she recalls, “it was the first company out of college that offered me a job and rent in Brooklyn was due.” For the next decade and more, Darla has been working with tech companies to help them grow and scale. With expertise at hiring engineers, product designers, marketing and sales professionals, as well as partnering with C level suite to define talent strategy, she brings extensive experience building sourcing pipelines, developing process and internal tools, defining employer brand strategy and helping companies build their teams.

Proudest moment at Gray Scalable:

Darla fondly remembers many proud Gray Scalable moments, but two of them stand out:

“First, building the sourcing team from scratch and then handing it over to Bec, knowing that I took it as far as I could and she would do great things with the team. And also, hiring a CTO for MM.Lafleur. They were such a great client for us for so many reasons and I was happy to have introduced them to their first C-level tech leader.”

  Darla’s favorite part of working at Gray Scalable:

“The support of our team! We are a hive mind that helps each of us solve any problem on behalf of our clients. And, since the company is entirely made up of  HR or Recruiting professionals, there is a great deal of empathy for one another.”

What she’s most excited about:

As Gray Scalable’s first year on the west coast continues, Darla is looking the most forward to building the LA office! We’ve partnered with Native Instruments, the world’s leading manufacturer of software and hardware for music production and DJing - and we are working with them to help grow their the product and design team. With a strong commitment to agile development & culture, we are helping them expand their global community and we look forward to more exciting opportunities in California!

Some fun facts about Darla:

Darla is an actor, a writer and a comedian. She’s also an adrenaline junky, who’s been skydiving five times! She played basketball throughout college, and loves being an amazing mama to her Gus, and wants to continue to grow her family!  

Just last week, Darla shared her experience and advice on Diversity and Innovation at a Tech Salon put on by the teams at Bixel Exchange and General Assembly in Los Angeles. Catch up with Darla on Tuesday, March 20, in Santa Monica, where she joins another team of experts to talk about Attracting and Retaining Superstar Talent. Register for the event here.

Are you interested in joining the Native Instruments team?

Click here to find out more about the roles and apply!