AI recruiter Dex hires two former founders as COO and head of design

Dex, a London-based AI recruitment platform for senior software engineers, has hired Tom Valentine as chief operating officer and Jonny Burch as head of design. Founder and chief executive Paddy Lambros announced both appointments on LinkedIn on 8 October, five months after Dex raised a $5.3m (£4m) seed round led by Notion Capital.

Valentine co-founded travel deals site Secret Escapes in 2010 and later served as executive chairman and COO of Fyxer AI, an AI executive assistant startup, according to The Next Web. Fyxer is also one of more than 50 technology companies that hire through Dex, alongside Lovable, ElevenLabs and Synthesia, Fortune reported in April. Lambros wrote that Valentine will lead commercial execution. The Next Web reported that his remit includes growing Dex’s core marketplace.

Burch co-founded Progression, a London software company that helps employers build career and skills frameworks. Careerminds, a US outplacement and career development firm, bought it in October 2024. At Dex he will lead design and own the consumer experience, according to Lambros.

Candidates speak to the Dex agent by voice or text about their experience and goals, and the company introduces them to hiring managers when interest is mutual. When it raised its seed round, Dex told Fortune that more than 15,000 engineers had signed up and that its annualized revenue run rate was about $1.8m (£1.4m). Lambros, who previously led early-stage talent teams at Atomico and Improbable, opened his post by arguing that founders make the best hires for an early-stage company.

Valentine tied the move to his own record as an employer. “Hiring engineers has been the hardest part of my job for about 20 years,” he said, as reported by The Next Web.