Founding Technical Recruiter, AI Research & Engineering

Nuance Labs•Seattle, WA

5d•$200,000 - $300,000•Onsite

About The Position

Nuance Labs is building photorealistic, real-time AI avatars with emotional intelligence. We are a Series A company backed by prominent investors and composed of individuals with extensive experience from top tech companies and academic institutions. We are focused on solving the hard problem of creating AI that can respond naturally and in real-time, requiring a significant improvement over current systems. This role is crucial for building our exceptional team to tackle these challenges in real-time multimodal AI.

Requirements

Strong full-cycle technical recruiting experience in a high-bar environment, such as an AI lab, top-tier technology company, or fast-moving technical startup
Demonstrated success hiring ML researchers, research scientists, ML engineers, infrastructure engineers, or similarly technical talent
A track record of sourcing and closing candidates directly, not just coordinating an existing process
Evidence of winning competitive candidates against larger companies, stronger brands, or higher-cash offers
An existing network in AI, ML, research, or deep technical engineering communities
Excellent candidate judgment: you can quickly understand someone’s background, identify real signal, and separate substance from surface-level credentials
Strong written and verbal communication, with the ability to represent Nuance clearly and credibly to senior technical candidates
High ownership, urgency, and follow-through — you treat hiring outcomes as your responsibility

Nice To Haves

You are warm, curious, and genuinely interested in people. Candidates remember talking to you because they felt seen, not processed.
You understand enough about modern AI systems to have informed conversations with researchers and engineers. You do not need to be a researcher, but you should be able to read a candidate’s background and ask thoughtful questions.
You have strong closing instincts. You know when to push, when to listen, when to involve a founder, and how to build conviction over time.
You are comfortable selling an early-stage opportunity: ambiguity, equity, technical ambition, and the chance to help define a company from the ground up.
You care about process, but you are not process-bound. You know when a tool helps, when a spreadsheet is enough, and when the right answer is to pick up the phone.
You are energized by building the recruiting function itself, not just filling requisitions.
Prior in-house recruiting experience at a frontier AI lab, AI startup, or highly selective engineering organization
Experience hiring PhDs, research scientists, or candidates coming out of top academic programs
Familiarity with AI research hiring cycles, including NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, lab-leaving moments, and faculty-to-industry transitions
Experience recruiting international candidates, including visa support, relocation, and compensation normalization
Experience building or scaling a recruiting function from early stage through Series B or beyond
Comfort with tools such as Greenhouse, Gem, Ashby, LinkedIn Recruiter, or similar recruiting systems

Responsibilities

Own full-cycle recruiting for AI research and engineering roles, from sourcing through close
Build deep, high-signal pipelines across AI labs, research universities, startups, and frontier engineering teams
Proactively source for hard-to-fill roles, including ML researchers, multimodal modeling specialists, ML systems engineers, infrastructure leads, and research fellows
Develop genuine relationships with candidates long before they are actively interviewing
Run fast, thoughtful, respectful interview processes that reflect the quality and seriousness of the team
Partner with founders and hiring managers to calibrate role requirements, interview loops, scorecards, and hiring bars
Drive debriefs, references, offer strategy, and close plans for high-priority candidates
Help candidates understand Nuance’s technical ambition, stage, equity story, and long-term upside
Build the recruiting operating layer over time, including ATS hygiene, sourcing systems, pipeline reporting, interview kits, and process improvements
Raise the talent bar while keeping the process warm, human, and candidate-centered