Robotics and AI Recruiter

Destro AI•New York, NY

About The Position

Destro AI is seeking a Founding Recruiter to establish and manage the company's talent acquisition function. This is a critical early hire, responsible for scaling the team from its current small size to 20-30 new hires annually, with a primary focus on engineers. The role involves end-to-end recruiting, including sourcing, closing, and process development, with direct collaboration with founders. This position is not merely a service function but a strategic role with a "seat at the table," influencing hiring strategies. The majority of the time will be dedicated to recruiting and headhunting, with the remainder supporting business operations such as managing hiring tools, basic HR functions, and assisting the sales team with outreach and pipeline tracking.

Requirements

4 to 8 years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with a strong track record hiring engineers.
Direct experience recruiting robotics, hardware, or deep-tech engineering talent, or the ability to quickly become credible with that community.
Startup experience, comfortable being the only recruiter with no existing team or process.
Proven ability to source and close passive candidates independently.
Urgency and ability to act fast in a competitive talent market.
Resilience in a competitive, shifting talent market.
Analytical and data-driven approach to recruiting.
Process-minded with experience building tracking systems, templates, and pipelines.
Genuine curiosity about robotics and AI in the physical world.
Direct, organized, and comfortable moving fast with founders.
Full-cycle recruiting experience, including sourcing, screening, closing, and offer negotiation.
Hands-on experience with an ATS (Breezy, Greenhouse, Lever, or similar) and LinkedIn Recruiter or an equivalent sourcing tool.
Experience hiring technical roles at a startup or high-growth company.
Creative, structured sourcing approaches that go beyond job boards and InMail.
Strong written communication skills for outreach and candidate-facing messaging.

Nice To Haves

A headhunting or agency background is a big plus.
Experience recruiting for robotics, AI, or hardware companies.
Prior experience as a first recruiter or Head of Talent.
Experience with a CRM or outreach tool such as Apollo, HubSpot, or Salesforce.
Experience supporting sales or business operations.
Familiarity with basic HR operations, onboarding, and payroll tools.
Executive recruiting experience.
Experience hiring across multiple US states.
Experience with technical assessment design and structured interview scorecards.
Existing network in the robotics, warehouse automation, or autonomy community.

Responsibilities

Own full-cycle recruiting for engineering and technical roles, including robotics, software, systems, and field deployment engineers.
Proactively identify and engage top talent across robotics, ML, systems, and infrastructure.
Build talent heatmaps of companies, labs, and teams with strong robotics engineering talent to guide sourcing strategy.
Source and close passive candidates through LinkedIn, GitHub, research networks, university labs, and referrals.
Build long-term relationships with potential candidates.
Partner with founders and hiring managers to define role scope, tradeoffs, and urgency.
Design and implement tailored interview processes and ensure consistent candidate evaluation through structured interviewer calibration.
Act as the expert on compensation and competitive positioning, advising founders on closing strategies.
Design bespoke closing strategies and effectively communicate the Destro story to candidates.
Ensure all candidates are treated with care and respect throughout the hiring process.
Manage offers, negotiations, and closing in direct collaboration with founders.
Own and administer the hiring stack, including ATS (Breezy), sourcing tools, scheduling, and reporting.
Build repeatable recruiting systems such as job description templates, outreach sequences, interview scorecards, and pipeline dashboards.
Evaluate and adopt AI-powered recruiting tools and automation workflows.
Track and report on key hiring metrics like time-to-fill, pipeline conversion, and source effectiveness.
Support onboarding logistics and basic HR operations for new hires.