Global Talent Partner

Freehand; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Full health coverage

401(k) with employer match

Fully-paid parental leave

HSA/FSA access

Job summary

Freehand is looking for a senior recruiter to lead the US talent function from the ground up. You will work directly with the CEO, shape market intelligence, refine roles with managers, and build an employer brand to attract top 1–2% talent for engineering, GTM, and professional services.

Based in the SF Bay Area with a hybrid setup, you will build processes, scale hiring as Freehand grows, and partner with leadership to align hiring with business priorities and company growth goals.

Qualifications

• 5+ years recruiting for new-age tech companies/startups, ideally including 0-to-1 experience building a recruiting function from scratch.
• Experience hiring for both GTM and technical/engineering roles.
• Able to build employer brand and run or attend events to reach hard-to-find talent.

Responsibilities

• Own Freehand's talent strategy in the US end-to-end as the first dedicated US hire on the team.
• Bring market intelligence to every search and sharpen JDs with hiring managers.
• Lead hiring across engineering/product, GTM, and professional services for Fortune 100 clients.
• Build the US talent function from scratch including interview process, scorecards, and tooling.
• Own employer branding and Freehand’s EVP for a technical brand.

Skills

Talent strategy

Hiring strategy

Employer branding

Stakeholder management

Sourcing

Leadership partnering

Job description

About Freehand

Most AI companies are building tools. We're building the worker.

Freehand's AI agents replace the human decision-making and coordination layer that sits above enterprise software — handling the analysis, negotiation, prioritization, and execution that previously required armies of logisticians / supply chain professionals.

Our customers include Apple, Meta, GE, Pfizer, J&J, Schlumberger, Cardinal Health, and Unilever. They chose us because we have a fundamentally different answer to what enterprise software looks like when AI can do the job.

If you want to work on something that matters, with people who will push you to be sharper than you thought you could be, this is the place.

What You'll Do

• Own Freehand's talent strategy in the US end-to-end as the first dedicated US hire on the team — working directly with the CEO and Co-Founder(s) as a strategic partner, not just executing reqs

• Bring market intelligence to every search: research what talent realistically exists, and sharpen JDs and role definitions with hiring managers before sourcing begins

• Lead hiring across three priorities: building Freehand’s first SF-based engineering/product team, GTM roles (marketing, sales and pre-sales), and upgrading Professional Services/Deployment Strategists to serve Fortune 100 clients

• Build the US talent function from scratch — interview process, scorecards, tooling, and a clear definition of “what good looks like” for each role

• Own employer branding and Freehand’s EVP for a not-yet-known, technical brand, through audience-tailored storytelling, public presence, and community/event engagement

• Source creatively beyond LinkedIn — niche communities, events, alternative platforms, AI-assisted sourcing, and referral programs — to reach top 1–2% talent who aren’t actively looking

• Partner on retention and culture, feeding market intel back into Freehand’s people policies so the company stays a place top talent wants to join and stay

• Flex hiring pace to the business — senior/leadership searches are the core mandate, with the ability to scale to higher-velocity hiring pushes without lowering the bar
  

Who You Are

• Based in the SF Bay Area, comfortable with a hybrid setup

• 5+ years recruiting for new-age tech companies/startups, ideally including at least one 0-to-1 experience building a recruiting function from scratch; also open to ex-Sales candidates now running TA/recruiting for AI startups

• A recruiting background spanning both GTM and technical/engineering hiring — comfortable enough with technical detail to earn credibility with engineering hiring managers

• A demonstrated track record — not just a stated interest — in independently building employer brand, running or attending events, and finding creative ways to reach talent that isn’t easily found. Hunger and willingness to build matter more than polish here.

• Experience hiring for mid-to-senior and leadership-level roles as the core focus, not a junior or volume-recruiting background

• Thrives as a lean, senior IC: builds systems and process from scratch, and leverages AI tools and partners proactively in their work

• A true thought partner to leadership — comfortable having a seat at the table, not just executing what’s asked
  

Working at Freehand

Series C, ~100 people across the US and India. Big enough to have infrastructure, small enough that your work is visible. We run on five core operating principles; these are not values-on-a-wall, this is the exact philosophy we built our AI agents on :

• Context Before Confidence. We get in, ask (a ton of) questions, connect the dots ourselves and move fast. No passengers, no hand-holding. The amount of confidence you'll have in Week 1 is directly proportional to the context strive to gain.

• Decisions, not Recommendations. Freehand folks decide, they don't present options. You'll have real autonomy, and real accountability to match.

• High Agency, High Trust. We won't manage you closely or ask you to elevate every call. Act, share your reasoning, and course-correct when needed. That's the contract.

• Accountability is the Product. When something goes wrong — and it will — we name it, learn from it, and move on. No politics, no cover. Just fix it.

• The Work That Remains is the Work That Matters. We actively cut low-value work. What lands on your plate is there because it matters — and can only be done by you.

It's a small world. Freehand employees Work Anywhere across the globe (we're remote & travel-first). We also cover your monthly home-internet costs. Every quarter, we arrange for a fully-paid trip to one of our Office Hubs to meet & interact with cross-functional teams.

In addition, we proudly offer the following Benefits to all our full-time employees:

• Take what you need Vacation Policy

• Full health coverage (with multiple gold-standard carriers across medical, dental & vision)

• Life Insurance and Disability benefits

• HSA/FSA Access

• 401(k) with a 4% Employer Match

• Fully-paid Parental Leave
  

Equal Opportunity

Freehand hires on merit — your thinking, your track record, your potential — without regard to race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or any other protected characteristic. If you meet most of the criteria above but not all of it, apply anyway. We care more about your willingness to learn & take initiative than whether your resume maps perfectly to every line.