Founding Technical Recruiter
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Not specified
- Employment
- Full time
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Recruiting
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Thrive in early-stage ambiguity and bias toward action.
- Have hands-on full-cycle recruiting experience across technical and creative roles.
- Balance outbound sourcing hustle with strong process ownership and discipline.
- Have built — or are excited to build — a recruiting function from scratch.
- Think in systems and first principles rather than templates and convention.
- Communicate clearly and confidently, with sound judgment and strong stakeholder presence.
- Are data-driven and fluent in funnel metrics, conversion rates, and hiring velocity.
- Are curious about AI, creative tools, and the builders shaping this space.
- Are based in San Francisco or willing to work on-site full-time.
- Are motivated by the opportunity to grow into a Head of Talent role.
Full description
Location: On-site – San Francisco, CA (5 days per week)
Salary: $150K – $250K + Competitive Equity
Visa Sponsorship: Not available (open to transfers)
About the Role
We are hiring our first in-house Technical Recruiter to build a world-class hiring engine from the ground up. This is a rare 01 opportunity to define how talent is sourced, evaluated, and hired across engineering, machine learning, design, and go-to-market teams.
You will shape recruiting systems end-to-end — sourcing strategies, interview loops, candidate experience, tooling, and hiring cadence — while partnering directly with founders and early leadership. Every hire you make will materially shape the company's culture, product quality, and long-term trajectory.
This role is ideal for someone who thrives in early-stage environments, balances execution speed with thoughtful systems design, and wants the opportunity to grow into a Head of Talent role as the organization scales.
What You'll Do
-
Own full-cycle recruiting across engineering, design, GTM, and G&A functions.
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Build and optimize the recruiting engine: interview loops, scorecards, ATS hygiene (Ashby), and funnel analytics (pass-throughs, time-to-hire, source mix).
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Partner closely with founders to forecast hiring needs, refine role scopes, and maintain a high hiring bar while moving quickly.
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Source creatively through open-source communities, GitHub, Discord, and niche technical networks.
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Close candidates by clearly communicating mission, trajectory, and long-term equity value.
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Optionally scale into a Head of Talent role by hiring and mentoring recruiters and owning company-wide talent strategy.
Qualifications
-
Thrive in early-stage ambiguity and bias toward action.
-
Have hands-on full-cycle recruiting experience across technical and creative roles.
-
Balance outbound sourcing hustle with strong process ownership and discipline.
-
Have built — or are excited to build — a recruiting function from scratch.
-
Think in systems and first principles rather than templates and convention.
-
Communicate clearly and confidently, with sound judgment and strong stakeholder presence.