Founding Recruiter

Socket.dev; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Socket.dev in San Francisco is seeking a senior recruiter to own end-to-end hiring across engineering, research, and GTM. You will work directly with the founder, sourcing and screening personally, managing 10+ live searches, and closing offers with equity discussions.

Build the ATS from scratch and optimize interview processes in a fast-growing startup. This role requires deep experience with in-house recruitment at scale, comfort with equity conversations, and the ability to operate

Qualifications

• 4-6+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience in-house at a fast-growing startup.
• Personally closed both technical and business roles with measurable results.
• Currently sourcing candidates weekly and not just managing sourcers.
• Running 10+ concurrent searches across different functions without dropping candidates.
• Comfortable owning offer and close conversations, including equity, without scripting by a founder.
• Based in San Francisco or willing to work hybrid/on-site in SF.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting for 10+ open roles simultaneously across technical and business functions.
• Source candidates personally; inbound review or agency management is not part of this seat.
• Convert a vague hiring need into a structured interview plan and scorecard.
• Run offer and close conversations directly with the founder, including equity explanations.
• Build and own the ATS end to end, including funnel reporting.
• Push back on the founder when a role is poorly scoped or the bar slips.

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

Sourcing

Interviewing/closing

Offer negotiation

ATS ownership

Tools

Ashby

Greenhouse

Lever

Job description

A YC W26 AI voice recorder company, backed by Accel, has passed $100M ARR with a very small team. Every search today is run by the founders directly. 25+ roles need to be filled across engineering, research, and go-to-market over the next two quarters. Hiring is now the bottleneck. This is an urgent hire.

The Role

Full-cycle recruiting ownership, working directly with the founder day to day. High autonomy on process and strategy, paired with hands-on execution: personal weekly sourcing, personal screening, personal closes. No handoffs to a team, no legacy process to inherit. Build the ATS and interview process from scratch while running 10+ live searches at once.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting for 10+ open roles simultaneously, across technical (engineering, ML, research) and business (marketing, finance, GTM, ops) functions.

• Source candidates personally, every week. Inbound review or agency management is not part of this seat.

• Convert a vague hiring need into a scorecard and a structured interview plan.

• Run offer and close conversations directly with the founder, including salary and equity, and explain startup equity clearly to candidates new to it.

• Build and own the ATS end to end, including funnel reporting.

• Push back on the founder when a role is poorly scoped or the bar slips.

Requirements

• 4-6+ years of full-cycle recruiting, including in-house time at a fast-growing startup.

• Personally closed both technical roles (engineers, ML, research) and business roles (marketing, finance, GTM, ops), with numbers to back it up.

• Currently sourcing personally on a weekly basis, not just managing sourcers or reviewing inbound.

• Running 10+ concurrent searches across different functions without dropping candidates.

• Comfortable owning offer and close conversations, including equity, without a founder scripting every word.

• Based in San Francisco, or clearly willing to work hybrid/on-site in SF.

Not a Fit If

• HR generalist, People Ops, or HRBP background without end-to-end recruiting ownership.

• Agency or RPO background with no in-house startup experience.

• Never owned a search through to offer (coordinator, scheduler, or sourcer-only experience).

• Currently managing agencies or vendors instead of sourcing directly.

• Unwilling to work in San Francisco on a hybrid or on-site basis.

Good to Have

• First or early recruiter at a seed or Series A company, having built the function from nothing.

• Experience hiring ML, speech, or LLM researchers.

• Consumer tech, DTC, or hardware background.

• Experience hiring across Europe or India, including EOR or contractor setups.

• Already using AI tools for sourcing and outreach.

• Owned an ATS (Ashby, Greenhouse, or Lever) end to end, including funnel reporting.