Founders Associate - Growth

Motive Group; Greater London; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 52,000; Full time

Job summary

Motive Group is a recruitment partner helping VC- and PE-backed startups and scaleups grow by building next-generation teams. As Founder's Associate, you will work directly with Kieran to drive growth, refine candidate sourcing, and optimize how we win and deliver searches using AI-enabled workflows.

You’ll research markets, map talent, prepare client briefs, and help turn referrals into lasting partnerships while tackling cross-functional improvements across the business.

Qualifications

• Commercially minded with a track record of driving growth.
• Sharp with evidence of problem-solving or projects.
• Consultative approach asking good questions.
• Comfortable with ambiguous problems and self-starting.
• 0–3 years in consultancy, sales, operations, startup or recruitment.

Responsibilities

• Build the systems that support growth: sourcing workflows, candidate evaluation, client reporting, ATS automation.
• Drive Growth: research target companies, build outreach to engage founders, convert referrals into partnerships.
• Work on live searches: map markets, assess candidates, prepare client briefs to understand client value.
• Tackle undefined problems: scope, propose solutions, and implement improvements.
• Work with client partners to understand how early-stage CEOs hire and scale teams.

Skills

Commercial mindset

Evidence-driven

Consultative

Problem solving

Ambiguity tolerance

Early career (0-3 years)

AI tooling

Tools

AI tooling

Job description

Motive Group is a recruitment partner to VC- and PE-backed startups and scaleups. We work directly with founders and leadership teams often over several years. We hire across the whole business: engineering, go-to-market, operations and senior leadership. Because we run every search in a business, we see how one hire creates the need for the next, and we advise clients on what to hire and when. We're a team of 4, been trading since 2020, and most of our work comes through referral from founders we've already hired for.

We're now focused on growth: more clients, new services and greater impact. We're hiring a Founder's Associate to work directly with with Kieran on driving that growth and on the business itself: how we find candidates, how we run searches, how we win and keep clients, and how we use AI to deliver all of it faster. You'll own a large part of that build.

What you'll do:

• Build the systems that support growth: sourcing workflows, candidate evaluation, client reporting, ATS automation. Much of this involves AI tooling, and you'll have room to test ideas, measure them and ship what works.
• Drive Growth. Research target companies, build outreach that gets founders talking to us, and help turn referrals and introductions into long-term partnerships.
• Work on live searches. You'll research markets, map talent, assess candidates and prepare client briefs, so you understand what clients value and where the value sits.
• Take on problems nobody owns yet: pricing, a broken process, a question about how we grow the team. You'll scope it, propose an answer and see it through.
• Work alongside our client partners. You'll hear how early-stage CEOs think about hiring and see dozens of businesses from the inside. This is a super interesting role at a time of real change.

Who you are:

• Commercially minded. You want to see the numbers move: clients won, revenue grown, services launched.
• Sharp, with evidence: that could be a strong academic record, something you built, or a problem you solved that others couldn't.
• Consultative. You ask good questions before proposing answers.
• Problem solver. You've automated something, used AI tools seriously, or taught yourself a technical skill because you needed it. You don't need to code, but you're not afraid of it.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. You'd rather be handed a problem than a task list.
• Likely 0 to 3 years into your career. Consulting, sales, operations, startup or recruitment experience helps; none of it is required.

Recruitment is changing quickly, and a lot of new software is trying to automate it end to end. We think most of it will struggle, because it's built by people who haven't run searches and don't understand where hiring actually goes wrong. We've been running them for over a decade. We know which parts AI can make faster and which parts depend on judgement and trust, and that gives us a real advantage as we grow.

• A model that works. We're profitable, so your role doesn't depend on the next funding round.
• A seat at the table. You'll be involved in decisions on which clients to pursue, what to launch and how to grow the team.
• Exposure to early-stage tech. You'll work with founders across many startups and see how good companies hire.