Founding Recruiter

Pocket Worlds; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meaningful equity

Stock option plan

Competitive salary

Job summary

Pocket Worlds is seeking a senior recruiter to own full-cycle recruiting across engineering, research, marketing, ops, finance, GTM, and support. You will source, screen, and close candidates, including equity discussions, across the US, Europe and India in a hybrid SF environment.

The role targets 4–6+ years in-house startup recruiting, with a focus on building scalable processes and partnering directly with founders. This is not an HR or agency role, but a hands-on, impact-driven hire engine.

Qualifications

• 4–6+ years of full-cycle recruiting, in-house at a fast-growing startup.
• Closed both technical and business roles with demonstrable numbers.
• Source candidates weekly, not just inbound reviews.
• Ability to run 10+ searches in parallel without dropping candidates.
• Able to assess roles, push back on poorly defined roles or slipping bars.
• Able to explain startup equity clearly and honestly to candidates.

Responsibilities

• Full-cycle recruiting for every open role: intake, sourcing, screening, offer, close.
• Outbound sourcing for hard-to-fill roles across locations.
• Turn vague founder requests into clear roles, scorecards and interview plans.
• Lead offers and equity conversations with founders.
• Hire across the US, Europe, and India: full-time, contractors, interns.
• Manage ATS, funnel numbers, and employer presence to candidates.

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

Sourcing

Interviewing

Negotiation

Equity concepts

Startup experience

US/International hiring

Tools

ATS

Job description

About the role

Pocket has passed $100M ARR and 300,000+ devices sold with a very small team. We're YC W26, backed by Accel, and we've hit the point where hiring is the bottleneck.

We have 25+ roles to fill in the next two quarters across Engineering, Research, Marketing, Ops, Finance, GTM, and Support. Right now the founders run every search themselves. We want you to take that over and build how Pocket hires.

This is not an HR role and not an agency-management role. You source, you screen, you close.

Location: SF (hybrid / on-site)
Compensation: $150K–$250K (open for top people) + meaningful equity
Type: Full-time

Your first 90 days

• Day 30: You own every open search. ATS is live, every role has a scorecard and an interview plan, and the 5 highest-priority roles have active pipelines.

• Day 60: First 5+ offers signed. Founders spend time on final interviews only.

• Day 90: Hiring runs on a weekly rhythm with funnel numbers. You've told us what's broken in how we hire and fixed the worst of it.

What you'll own

• Full-cycle recruiting for every open role: intake, sourcing, screening, offer, close

• Outbound sourcing for the hard roles, from ML researchers to a Controller, not just inbound review

• Turning a founder's vague "we need someone for X" into a clear role, scorecard, and interview plan

• Offers and closing, including salary and equity conversations, together with the founders

• Hiring across the US, Europe, and India: full-time, contractors, and interns

• The ATS, the funnel numbers, and how Pocket shows up to candidates everywhere

What we're looking for

• 4–6+ years of full-cycle recruiting, at least part of it in-house at a fast-growing startup

• You've closed both technical and business roles, and you can show the numbers

• You source every week, personally, and you're good at it

• You can run 10+ searches in parallel without dropping candidates

• You can tell a strong candidate from a polished one, and you'll push back on us when a role is badly defined or the bar is slipping

• You can explain startup equity to a candidate clearly and honestly

Nice to have

• First or early recruiter at a seed or Series A company

• Experience hiring ML / speech / LLM researchers

• Consumer tech, DTC, e-commerce, or hardware background

• International hiring (Europe, India), EOR and contractor setups

• You already use AI tools to move faster on sourcing and outreach

Why this role

• You build the team of a company scaling from hundreds of thousands to millions of customers

• You work directly with the founders and every team lead, with no layers in between

• You define how Pocket hires. There is no legacy process to inherit

• A clear path to Head of Talent / People as the function grows

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity through Pocket's stock option plan

Interview process

1. Intro call (15 min): experience, motivation, comp expectations, location

2. Recruiting deep dive: your best searches, your process, your funnel numbers

3. Practical exercise on a real Pocket role: intake, sourcing strategy, sample outreach

4. Conversations with the hiring managers you'd partner with

5. Founders interview

6. References and offer

We move fast. Expect the whole process to take under two weeks.

About Pocket

Pocket is a Y Combinator W26 company building a premium hardware plus software product in the AI voice recorder space. We are obsessed with quality and speed. We are scaling fast across the US and Europe and building a device experience that can become the category leader.