Founding RecruiterTT

Were looking for a Founding Recruiter to take over full-cycle hiring at a fast-growing AI hardware startup that has just passed $100M in annual recurring revenue. Youll build the ATS and hiring processes from scratch taking ownership of recruiting away from the founders so they can focus on running the business. This is a hands-on seat: youll personally source screen and close candidates across engineering research and go-to-market roles running 10 searches in parallel. Youll partner directly with founders on offer and close conversations including salary and equity and need to be comfortable explaining startup equity clearly and honestly. The company is scaling fast across the US and Europe with 25 open roles over the next two quarters so this role carries real urgency and real impact. Its a founding seat with a clear path to Head of Talent as the function grows.

Details:
Schedule: Full time
Location: San Francisco CA (Hybrid)
Start: ASAP
Duration: Long-term
English: Fluent
Type of collaboration: Internal Employment

About the project:
The company is a fast-growing AI hardware startup that recently crossed $100M in annual recurring revenue while still operating with a very small team. Backed by a well-known venture fund its scaling rapidly across the US and Europe and needs to fill more than 25 roles across engineering research and go-to-market functions over the next two quarters. Today every search is run directly by the founders which has become a real bottleneck to growth. Theres no ATS or structured hiring process in place yet so this is a genuine build-from-scratch opportunity. The role sits close to leadership with direct input into how the company scales its team and interview processes. As the company keeps growing this function is expected to expand into a full talent team.

You have:

• 4-6 years of full-cycle recruiting experience including time in-house at a fast-growing startup
• A track record of personally closing both technical roles (engineering ML/research) and business roles (marketing finance GTM ops)
• Hands-on weekly sourcing experience this is not an inbound-review or agency-management seat
• Experience running 10 live searches at once across different functions without dropping candidates
• Comfort owning offer and close conversations including salary and equity and explaining startup equity clearly and honestly to candidates
• Comfort pushing back on hiring managers or founders when a role is poorly scoped or the bar is slipping
• Based in San Francisco or clearly willing to work hybrid/onsite there
• Ideally experience as the first or early recruiter at a seed or Series A company building the function from nothing
• Ideally experience hiring ML speech or LLM researchers
• Ideally a background in consumer tech DTC e-commerce or hardware
• Ideally experience hiring internationally including EOR and contractor setups
• Ideally already comfortable using AI tools to move faster on sourcing and outreach
• Ideally has owned an ATS end-to-end (Ashby Greenhouse Lever) and can report on funnel numbers

What to do:

• Take over full-cycle recruiting from the founders across engineering research and go-to-market functions
• Build the ATS and hiring processes from scratch
• Personally source candidates every week across 10 parallel searches
• Screen candidates and manage the pipeline end-to-end through to offer
• Run offer and close conversations including salary and equity alongside the founders
• Explain startup equity clearly and honestly to candidates
• Turn vague hiring needs into scorecards and structured interview plans
• Partner directly with founders and hiring managers on hiring strategy and bar-setting
• Report on funnel metrics and hiring progress