Lead Recruiter

Valence • New York, NY

7d • Hybrid

About The Position

Valence is seeking a Lead Recruiter to own and evolve the company's hiring processes during a critical growth phase. This is a high-ownership individual contributor role reporting to the VP of People & Talent. The position involves not only executing searches but also shaping hiring strategy, calibrating the talent bar, and influencing talent decisions across the company. The Lead Recruiter will act as a thought partner to hiring managers and leadership, assisting in defining role scope, prioritizing hiring needs, and ensuring the consistent hiring of high-caliber individuals. This role is central to Valence's scaling efforts, offering direct visibility into business priorities and the opportunity to build a recruiting system that is fast, rigorous, and aligned with an AI-native company's operations.

Requirements

• 8+ years of full-cycle, in-house recruiting experience in high-growth B2B SaaS or AI environments, with exposure to both GTM and technical hiring.
• A clear, well-formed point of view on what great recruiting looks like - how to assess talent, design effective processes, and hold a high hiring bar.
• Genuine AI fluency: a real grasp on how AI changes recruiting, and a bias toward building it into the process.
• A track record of operating autonomously in ambiguous, fast-moving environments, and of building or materially improving recruiting systems.
• Demonstrated success hiring high-caliber talent in competitive markets through proactive sourcing and effective closing.
• Strong sourcing instincts and an actively cultivated network, you don't wait on inbound to build pipeline.
• Data fluency - you understand your funnel, use metrics to guide decisions, and hold yourself accountable to outcomes.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders, including challenging assumptions and driving alignment.
• Experience with Ashby (or a comparable ATS), with a commitment to maintaining clean systems and using them as a source of truth.

Nice To Haves

• Hands-on with AI sourcing/screening/ops tooling in your day-to-day workflow.
• Experience hiring the "consulting / professional-services → tech" profile, or recruiting in NYC's AI/tech market.
• Founding-recruiter DNA: you've stood up recruiting as an early or first dedicated hire.
• Exposure to employer-brand or talent-marketing work.
• Experience partnering on compensation benchmarking and levelling.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting across GTM (Sales, CS, Marketing) and technical roles as needed, from role definition through close.
• Partner with hiring managers and leadership to define role scope, calibrate level, and align on success criteria tied to business outcomes.
• Contribute to headcount planning and hiring prioritization, helping the company make informed tradeoffs on where and how to invest in talent.
• Design and run structured, high-signal interview processes; drive calibration across interviewers to ensure consistent and high-quality hiring decisions.
• Build proactive, high-quality pipelines through sourcing, referrals, and network mapping, with a focus on reaching top-quartile talent.
• Help shape Valence's employer brand and deliver a high-touch, high-integrity candidate experience that reflects Valence’s standards, regardless of outcome.
• Use funnel data (conversion rates, source quality, time-to-hire) to manage hiring performance and turn insight into action.
• Bring market intelligence (talent landscape, compensation, competitor dynamics) into hiring decisions and leadership conversations.
• Partner with leaders to turn what recruiting learns [about the talent market, comp, and competitors] into insight that sharpens decisions across the company.

Benefits

• Competitive salary including base + bonuses
• Comprehensive health coverage (medical, dental, vision) from day one
• Generous PTO, company-wide R&R shutdowns, and paid parental leave
• Retirement plan support for US and global employees
• Equity: Meaningful ownership in a venture-backed company at a growth inflection point
• Financial upside that comes from scaling fast
• Top-up grants as we scale and you deliver exceptional performance — your compensation grows alongside your impact

What This Job Offers

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