Business Talent Acquisition Lead

AfterQuery • San Francisco, CA

2d • Onsite

About The Position

This is AfterQuery's first dedicated Business Talent Acquisition hire, working directly with the founding team. The role involves owning end-to-end hiring for business and operations functions, including Strategic Projects, Operations, GTM, and other emerging business-side roles. This position requires operating as a builder, designing the sourcing engine, interview rubrics, and closing strategies to attract elite talent. The ideal candidate will recruit at the same high caliber as the existing team, which includes backgrounds from Jane Street, Citadel Securities, Meta, Google, Palantir, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Silver Lake, MBB consulting, top PE, and top hedge funds. The role emphasizes identifying, attracting, and closing top talent in the AI space.

Requirements

• 5-10+ years of experience across agency and in-house recruiting.
• A track record of identifying, attracting, and closing elite talent.
• Intense work ethic, agency, and drive.
• Ability to operate as a builder and thrive in ambiguity.
• Competitive nature and demonstrated past success.
• Strong leadership and communication skills — ability to engage effectively with founders and high-caliber candidates.
• A genuine interest in the AfterQuery thesis regarding AI and talent.
• High agency, low ego, speedy but thoughtful approach.
• Comfortable in a 5-day in-office SF environment that prizes speed and direct feedback.

Nice To Haves

• Ex-recruiting experience at a top executive search firm (e.g., Spencer Stuart, Heidrick, Egon Zehnder, Russell Reynolds, True Search, Daversa).
• Experience at a top-tier in-house recruiting team or a high-growth tech/AI startup.
• Proven track record of scaling recruiting operations through rapid headcount growth.
• Prior experience hiring for finance, consulting, PE, or operationally rigorous business roles, with a personal network in these pools.
• Making a pivot into AI from a strong track record elsewhere (finance, consulting, search, or operating roles) with demonstrated success.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end recruiting for AfterQuery's business and operations roles — sourcing, screening, interviewing, and closing top-tier candidates across Strategic Project Operations, GTM, and other key business functions.
• Build deep, proactive talent pipelines from elite finance, consulting, PE, and tech firms, converting them into hires.
• Partner directly with the executive and founding team to define hiring profiles, prioritize searches, and design rigorous interview processes that test for agency, drive, and judgment.
• Drive recruiting infrastructure across the company as an early hire — scorecards, interview rubrics, sourcing tooling, candidate experience, and the offer-and-close motion.
• Close candidates by compellingly representing AfterQuery's mission, momentum, and opportunity.
• Treat recruiting as a measurable function — instrument the funnel, model conversion at every stage, and iterate on what's working.

Benefits

• Define the business-side hiring engine for a consequential company in the AI training-data category.
• A seat at the strategy table, with ownership of business hires that compound the company's trajectory.
• Work directly with the founding team.
• Opportunity to bring in talent that the company would be sad to lose.
• A culture that works hard to retain talent.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed