Founding Recruiter

Shortstory; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Competitive salary

Benefits package

Job summary

Short Story in San Francisco is seeking a Founding Recruiter who will shape our early talent strategy and build a high-performing team across operations, styling, product, engineering, marketing, and client experience.

You’ll work directly with the CEO and will own full-cycle recruiting, sourcing, and brand-building. This is a founder‑level role for someone who thrives in a fast-paced startup and wants to leave a lasting imprint on the company’s growth.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of recruiting experience, with at least 3 years in a startup or high-growth environment.
• Self-starter able to operate as a team of one and own end-to-end recruiting processes.
• Proven ability to write outbound messages that generate responses and find non-obvious candidates.
• Experience with sourcing across multiple channels and building pipelines for multiple functions.

Responsibilities

• Full Cycle Recruiting: Own the end-to-end recruiting for all roles.
• Talent Strategy: Set hiring goals and roadmaps with founders and hiring managers.
• Sourcing: Build and run outbound strategies to reach top talent.
• Manage Talent Infrastructure: Use Ashby, LinkedIn Recruiter, and data to inform decisions.
• Growth Strategy: Advise founders on team composition and scaling.
• Talent Operations: Coordinate candidates, improve hiring processes, and maintain systems.
• Brand Building: Develop Short Story’s employer brand and candidate experience.

Skills

Recruiting

Startup experience

Full cycle recruiting

Talent strategy

Sourcing

Brand building

Ownership mindset

Tools

Ashby

LinkedIn Recruiter

AI tools

Job description

Our Story:

Short Story is an award winning, technology powered retailer dedicated to petite women 5'4\" and under. Our mission is to create a seamless shopping experience for millions of petite women so they can dress with effortless confidence.

As a fast-growing startup, we’re revolutionizing retail with a data driven learning system that leverages customer feedback to create tailored products. We’ve been recognized by top publications like Forbes, Fortune and are backed by leading investors who share our vision of building the world’s next great consumer brand.

Our Values:

We’re building a company with intention and purpose. Our culture thrives on data insights, exceptional commitment to fit, and the urgency to move quickly on what matters.

• Transform Lives. We’re customer-first. Everything we create exists to give her confidence.

• Demand Excellence. We deliver only our best work, in Fit and Finish. We obsess about details others overlook.

• Embrace Challenges. We see obstacles as opportunities to invent better solutions.

• Think Differently. We get a thrill from finding better solutions others haven’t seen.

The Role

Startups win by having great people. We’re looking for a Founding Recruiter who’ll lead all things recruiting. Not someone who just fills positions, but someone who thinks about what kind of team we need, and how to build it.

• You’ll work directly with the CEO to find the best people to join us across Operations, Styling, Product, Engineering, Marketing, Client Experience, and more.

• The best talent people don’t just follow a process—they invent it. You’ll decide what "good" means, how we find those people, and how we close them.

• This is the kind of role where you’ll look back years from now and see your fingerprints on the entire company. This is an opportunity to be the architect behind a high‑performing, mission‑driven team at one of the fastest‑growing ecommerce startups.

This role is full-time and onsite in our SF office.

Qualifications

• You can operate as team of one—rolling up your sleeves to source, coordinate, and close. You’ll work closely with the CEO and HR Manager, but you’ll be the one figuring out what needs to be done and doing it.

• You think like a founder: high judgment, bias for action, and ownership mentality.

• You write outbound messages that actually get responses and know how to search for the right people in non‑obvious places.

• You’re smart with tools – Ashby, Linkedin, and using AI to automate the repetitive parts.

• 7+ years of experience in recruiting, with at least 3 years in a startup or high‑growth environment.

Responsibilities

• Full Cycle Recruiting: Own the full‑cycle recruiting across roles

• Talent Strategy: Work with founders and hiring managers to set hiring goals, scope new roles and develop talent roadmaps

• Sourcing: Build and run outbound sourcing strategies to reach top talent

• Manage Talent Infrastructure: Including Ashby, LinkedIn Recruiter, and hiring data

• Growth Strategy: Inform founders on team composition and organizational scaling

• Talent Operations: Own candidate coordination, recruiting tools, and continuously improve our hiring processes and structures

• Brand Building: Build out Short Story’s brand and values with authenticity, empathy, and clarity in every candidate interaction

What We Value

• An obsession with detail - every word, every punctuation mark

• Excellent writing skills

• Anything is possible mindset

• An extremely strong work ethic with commitment to quality and detail

• Scrappiness

Why You Should Join Us

• Strong backing from investors YCombinator, Tribe Capital

• Best-in-class team that is deeply mission‑aligned

• Have a huge impact on a small team with lots of runway for growth

• Competitive salary and equity compensation

• Excellent benefits and versatile health, dental, and vision coverage plans

• Paid parental leave

• Unlimited PTO

Short Story is committed to providing equal employment opportunity and a work environment free of discrimination and harassment for all employees and applicants. We work diligently to ensure equal opportunity for all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics.