Talent Acquisition Partner

Generalist•Somerville, MA

5d•Onsite

About The Position

Generalist is building embodied foundation models, beginning with dexterity, to help robots intelligently interact with the physical world. The company combines AI and robotics and has a team of researchers, roboticists, and company builders with experience at frontier labs and technology companies. The Talent Acquisition Partner will help build and scale Generalist’s hiring engine across research science, ML infrastructure, robotics controls, hardware, data operations, and go-to-market. The role focuses on thoughtful talent strategies, proactive mapping of candidate ecosystems, and engaging talented professionals who may not be actively seeking jobs. Working closely with the Head of Talent Acquisition and technical hiring managers, the partner will bring market and candidate insights to hiring decisions, share pipeline metrics and channel insights, and help refine recruiting practices. As an early member of the talent team, this person will lead priority searches and help establish the company’s recruiting methodology. The role is based in person in San Francisco or Boston and includes support for hiring efforts at both locations, with occasional site visits and industry events.

Requirements

At least 5 years of full-cycle technical recruiting experience.
A track record of closing senior technical hires with competing offers, with specific examples to discuss.
Demonstrated passive-sourcing depth, including building named-target searches from scratch in an unfamiliar domain and hiring from those searches.
Data fluency, including building and analyzing funnels, identifying bottlenecks, using findings to influence hiring managers, and comfort with ATS reporting and self-built spreadsheets.
Current practical use of AI tools in recruiting workflows, with judgment about where they are useful and where they may fabricate information.
Exceptional written communication skills for outreach, briefs, and internal recommendations.
Genuine technical curiosity and the ability to read research abstracts and assess an author’s relevance to the company.
Strong relationship management under pressure with candidates, hiring managers, and agencies while maintaining a high hiring bar.
Must be based in San Francisco or Boston and work in person.

Nice To Haves

Experience hiring for a frontier research organization or AI lab, including research scientists, pre-training and post-training, RL, or ML infrastructure.
Experience in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or hardware.
Experience as an early or founding recruiter who built the recruiting function.
Experience with Ashby or a comparable structured-interview ATS, and a perspective on what makes an ATS effective.
Agency or search-firm training early in a career, combined with later in-house recruiting judgment.
Familiarity with both the Bay Area and Boston talent markets.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end searches, including intake, strategy, sourcing, screening, interview-loop design, closing, and handoffs to onboarding.
Proactively map target talent domains and identify prospective candidates, including in areas where the company’s network is still developing.
Source candidates through publications, conferences, repositories, and referral networks, and create personalized outreach.
Use AI tools for research, enrichment, and workflow improvement while maintaining accuracy and quality.
Track pipeline conversion, channel effectiveness, and feedback to inform decisions and improve recruiting strategy.
Partner with hiring managers on role scoping, calibration, interview loops, interviewer preparation, and debriefs.
Engage and close candidates by communicating the company’s mission, technical scope, and team.
Maintain clean ATS data, reliable scheduling, and structured interview practices in Ashby.
Collaborate with and manage external agencies as needed to supplement internal sourcing.
Support in-person hiring efforts in San Francisco and Boston, including occasional site visits and key industry events.