Founding Recruiter

STARTUP TECHNICAL RECRUITING EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED

We’re looking for a hands-on Technical Recruiter who has successfully hired software engineers in a high-growth startup environment.

This is a first recruiting hire with ownership across outbound sourcing, technical recruiting, candidate management, stakeholder partnership, and closing. You should be someone who can build an engineering pipeline from scratch—not someone who primarily manages inbound applicants.

San Francisco, CA | 5 Days In-Office | Full-Time |

The Role

You’ll own end-to-end recruiting for software engineering talent and help build the recruiting function as the company scales.

You’ll work directly with founders and senior leaders, operate with a high degree of autonomy, and personally drive searches from sourcing through offer acceptance.

What You’ll Do

• Recruit Software Engineers and technical talent in a high-growth B2B SaaS startup environment

• Build qualified engineering pipelines through proactive outbound sourcing

• Identify, research, contact, and engage passive technical candidates

• Own the recruiting cycle from sourcing → screening → interview process → offer → close

• Partner directly with founders and senior stakeholders on hiring needs and candidate profiles

• Develop sourcing strategies for difficult-to-reach engineering talent

• Manage candidate relationships throughout the hiring process and drive strong candidate engagement

• Help establish recruiting processes, pipeline strategy, and hiring practices from the ground up

• Work with a modern ATS/recruiting environment, including Ashby

What We’re Looking For

• 4+ years of technical recruiting experience

• Proven experience recruiting Software Engineers

• High-growth startup recruiting experience is a must

• Strong outbound sourcing and passive candidate engagement experience

• Demonstrated full-cycle / end-to-end technical recruiting experience

• Experience personally closing engineering candidates

• Agency recruiting experience placing technical talent with startups

• Experience partnering directly with founders, engineering leaders, or senior executives

• Ability to operate independently in an early-stage environment

• Strong candidate communication and relationship-building skills

• US Citizen or Green Card holder

• Willingness to work 5 days per week in-office in San Francisco

The Startup Experience We Want

The strongest profiles will have recruited engineers in high-growth B2B SaaS or technology startups, particularly environments similar to companies such as Cursor, Clay, Vercel, Ramp, or Rippling.

You do not need experience at one of those companies. What matters is that you have actually operated in a startup recruiting environment where outbound sourcing, speed, autonomy, and closing technical talent were part of your day-to-day work.

This Role Is Not Primarily For

• Inbound-only recruiters

• Recruiting coordinators

• People Operations professionals

• Recruiting Operations professionals

• Generalist recruiters without strong engineering recruiting experience

• Recruiters whose experience is primarily large-company/FAANG without startup technical recruiting

• Candidates without hands-on outbound sourcing and full-cycle ownership

Why This Opportunity

• First dedicated recruiting hire

• Direct exposure to founders and senior leadership

• Build the recruiting function from the ground up

• High-growth B2B / AI / Data / Enterprise environment

• Meaningful early-stage equity

• Full benefits

• 401(k), medical, dental and vision

• Daily lunch/dinner

• Team off-sites

Interview Process

• 20-Minute Intro → 60-Minute Technical Recruiting Deep Dive → 2–4 Hour Take-Home → Full-Day On-Site → References → Offer
• The process focuses on technical recruiting craft, outbound sourcing, startup experience, stakeholder partnership, candidate management, and hands-on execution.

Role Details

• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Work Arrangement: 5 days per week in-office
• Employment: Full-Time
• Experience: 4+ years
• Primary Focus: Software Engineering / Technical Recruiting
• Company Stage: High-Growth Startup
• Industry: B2B SaaS / AI / Data / Enterprise