Technical Recruiter

Foundation•San Francisco, CA

87d•$120,000 - $165,000

About The Position

We are hiring a Technical Recruiter to own the full recruitment cycle, from kickoff to offer acceptance. This role involves drafting role profiles, sourcing, screening, managing the candidate experience, running debriefs, negotiating offers, and closing candidates. You will conduct deep technical searches, build pipelines for niche and competitive roles such as research scientists, AI engineers, electrical engineers, and hardware leads. Creative sourcing beyond LinkedIn, including platforms like arXiv, GitHub, X, conference proceedings, and lab pages, is expected. You will partner closely with hiring managers to calibrate on candidate profiles, design effective interview loops, and advocate for maintaining a high hiring bar. A key aspect of this role is to translate complex technical work into a compelling narrative that attracts senior researchers and AI engineers. Managing a high-touch candidate experience, ensuring responsiveness and honesty, is crucial. You will also be responsible for thoughtful and competitive offer negotiations, collaborating with leadership on compensation philosophy, equity, and counter-offer strategies.

Requirements

2+ years of full cycle technical recruiting experience.
Ideally, experience at a startup or fast-growth tech company.
A track record of closing senior engineering, research, or technical leadership roles.
Strong sourcing chops with a proven playbook for finding hard-to-reach candidates.
Comfort with technical depth: ability to understand technical concepts from abstracts or profiles.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
A bias for action and operational instincts to manage a busy pipeline.
Comfort with ambiguity and building process where none exists.
Prior experience recruiting for AI/ML, robotics, hardware, biotech, climate, or other deep tech verticals.
Experience recruiting in a small (<100 person) startup, ideally pre-Series B.

Responsibilities

Own the full recruitment cycle, from kickoff to offer acceptance.
Draft role profiles.
Source, screen, and manage the candidate experience.
Run debriefs and negotiate offers.
Conduct deep technical searches and build pipelines for competitive roles.
Source creatively using various platforms beyond LinkedIn.
Partner with hiring managers to calibrate on candidate profiles and design interview loops.
Translate complex technical work into a compelling story to attract candidates.
Manage a high-touch candidate experience, ensuring responsiveness and honesty.
Run thoughtful and competitive offer negotiations.
Partner with leadership on compensation philosophy, equity narratives, and counter-offer strategy.