Early Career & University Recruiter

Mercor • New York, NY

2d • $120,000 - $180,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Mercor is hiring an Early Career & University Recruiter to build its university recruiting, early-career hiring, and internship programs from the ground up. The recruiter will own strategy for identifying, attracting, and hiring emerging talent across engineering, machine learning, and business functions, developing university partnerships and new sourcing channels.

This is a hands-on, high-ownership role that calls for strategic thinking, independent execution, and building scalable programs. The recruiter will work with hiring managers, functional leaders, and People to shape hiring plans and standards, create a strong intern experience, and measure program outcomes. Mercor works in person five days a week in its San Francisco, NYC, or London offices.

Requirements

• At least 6 years of recruiting experience, including meaningful ownership of university, early-career, or internship recruiting.
• Demonstrated experience building or significantly transforming an early-career recruiting program, with clear ownership and measurable results.
• Strong technical recruiting experience, particularly with engineering, computer science, or machine learning talent.
• Creative sourcing ability and skill in identifying high-potential candidates beyond traditional credentials, universities, and employer brands.
• Ability to develop a strategy and independently translate it into execution without relying on established infrastructure.
• Strong stakeholder-management skills, including the ability to influence hiring managers, challenge assumptions, and drive accountability.
• A data-driven approach to measuring recruiting effectiveness, improving processes, and making prioritization decisions.
• Willingness to travel for university partnerships, recruiting events, and other high-impact opportunities.
• Ability to move quickly, adapt to business shifts, and maintain strong outcomes.
• Operational rigor and ability to bring order to an unstructured environment.
• Strong desire to learn about AI and continue learning in a rapidly evolving industry.
• Ownership mentality and commitment to a high standard of work.
• Low-ego attitude and genuine interest in building a best-in-class talent acquisition organization.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building early-career or university recruiting programs in a high-growth startup environment.
• Experience developing nontraditional talent pipelines, technical student communities, hackathons, or fellowship programs.
• Experience designing internship recruiting programs that have delivered strong intern-to-full-time conversion.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute Mercor’s strategy for university recruiting, new-grad hiring, and internships, including target talent pools, recruiting calendars, and hiring plans.
• Identify and engage promising students and early-career professionals through creative sourcing beyond traditional campus recruiting and established university pipelines.
• Manage full-cycle recruiting for intern and new-grad roles across engineering, machine learning, and business functions, including sourcing, assessment, candidate engagement, and closing.
• Build the internship program’s recruiting framework, selection process, and return-offer strategy in partnership with hiring managers and People.
• Develop talent-pipeline initiatives such as hackathons, fellowships, student partnerships, and ambassador programs where they can improve talent attraction.
• Partner with hiring managers and functional leaders to define early-career talent needs, establish hiring standards, and align recruiting plans with business priorities.
• Establish metrics and operating processes to evaluate program effectiveness, candidate quality, offer acceptance, and intern-to-full-time conversion.

What This Job Offers

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