Founding Recruiter (Robotics and AI)

Destro; New York (NY); On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Destro is hiring a Founding Recruiter to build and run our talent engine as we scale from a small founding team to a high-velocity engineering workforce. You will own recruiting end-to-end, sourcing, closing, and shaping the process with direct access to the founders.

You will focus on engineering, robotics, software, and systems roles, becoming a deep tech talent expert and driving hiring strategy across the company.

Qualifications

• 1+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience (sourcing to closing).
• Skilled with LinkedIn Recruiter and other AI-native recruiting / sourcing tools.
• Experience hiring technical roles at a startup or high-growth company.
• Strong diplomacy, tact, and experience closing highly sought-after candidates.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting for engineering and technical roles, including robotics, software, systems, and field deployment engineers.
• Be a hunter: proactively identify and engage top talent across robotics, ML, systems, and infrastructure.
• Build talent heatmaps of companies, labs, and teams where top robotics engineers sit.
• Source and close passive candidates through LinkedIn, GitHub, research networks, university labs, and referrals.
• Build long-term relationships with candidates for future opportunities.
• Partner with founders and hiring managers to define role scope, urgency, and tradeoffs.
• Manage offers, negotiations, and closing with the founders.

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

Sourcing

LinkedIn Recruiter

AI-native tools

Startup hiring

Closing candidates

Talent strategy

Tools

Breezy ATS

Job description

About Destro AI

Destro AI is building the intelligence layer for robotics — the system that coordinates robots, humans, and workflows across complex real-world operations. Founded by former leaders from HAI Robotics, Dexterity, and Matic, Destro is built on a simple thesis: robotics has solved movement, but not decision-making. Destro is backed by investors who have previously invested in and built companies like Brex, Figma, Notion, and Instacart.

Destro's MothershipOS is a shared brain across all robots, unlocking complex factory and warehouse workflows. Unlike traditional systems that rely on local intelligence on each robot, Destro brings global intelligence across the entire operation. Destro recently closed its Seed round at one of the highest valuations for a robotics company at this stage, and is already deploying in production with large enterprise operators

About The Role

We're hiring a Founding Recruiter to build and run Destro's talent engine. This is one of the first ten hires at the company, and you will own hiring end-to-end as we scale from a small founding team to 20 to 30 new hires a year, most of them engineers. You will be hands-on, sourcing, closing, and building the process as you go, with direct access to the founders and no existing playbook to inherit.

Recruiting here is not a service function. You will have a seat at the table, shape how we hire, and be expected to speak up. Most of your time goes to recruiting and headhunting. The rest goes to supporting the business side: keeping our hiring and people tools running, handling basic HR operations, and helping the sales team with outreach and pipeline tracking.

What You'll Do

Recruiting

• Own full-cycle recruiting for engineering and technical roles, including robotics, software, systems, and field deployment engineers.
• Be a hunter: proactively identify and engage top talent across robotics, ML, systems, and infrastructure, rather than waiting for applicants.
• Build talent heatmaps of the companies, labs, and teams where the best robotics engineers sit, and use them to guide sourcing strategy.
• Source and close passive candidates through LinkedIn, GitHub, research networks, university labs, and referrals.
• Build long-term relationships with candidates who are not ready to move today, so they are warm when the right role opens.
• Partner with founders and hiring managers to define role scope, tradeoffs, and urgency before a search begins.
• Manage offers, negotiations, and closing, working directly with the founders.

Operations and Tools

• Own and administer our hiring technology stack, including the ATS (Breezy), sourcing tools, scheduling, and reporting.
• Build repeatable systems: job description templates, outreach sequences, interview scorecards, and pipeline dashboards. Track and report on KPIs and department metrics.
• Support onboarding logistics and basic HR operations for new hires in coordination with our payroll and HR tools.

Who You Are

• Proven ability to source and close passive candidates on your own.
• Ability to quickly learn our domain and become a deep tech talent expert.
• A desire to become our first talent/HR hire and grow into a future executive at Destro.
• Direct, organized, and seeking a high velocity environments.

Required

• 1+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience (spanning from sourcing to closing).
• Skilled with LinkedIn Recruiter and other AI-native recruiting / sourcing tools.
• Experience hiring technical roles at a startup or high-growth company.
• Strong diplomacy, tact, and experience closing highly sought-after candidates.

Strongly Preferred

• Prior agency experience handling high-volume/cadence or mid-level executive recruiting.
• Experience with AI-native recruiting stack or modern sourcing tools
• Familiarity with basic HR operations, onboarding, and payroll tools.