Head of Recruiting

K1 Industries; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Meaningful equity for early-stage role

Competitive compensation

Job summary

K1 Industries seeks a Head of Recruiting to build our recruiting function from the ground up. You will partner with the founding team, hiring managers, and external firms to translate business priorities into top hires, while staying closely aligned with engineering and operations in Nevada.

You will own strategy, external relationships, systems, and a recruiting team as demand grows, using data-driven approaches to scale hiring across technical and leadership roles.

Qualifications

• Built recruiting function from zero to one with concrete hires, systems, team, and results
• Experience recruiting specialized engineers for hardware or energy companies
• Quickly understands unfamiliar disciplines and asks informed questions
• Managed recruiting firms and executive search partnerships
• Hands-on recruiter with proven direct sourcing, offer negotiation, and closing hard-to-fill roles

Responsibilities

• Translate engineering, production, and commercial milestones into a prioritized hiring plan with leadership and Finance
• Personally source, assess, and close critical technical, operational, and leadership hires
• Build and develop a recruiting team as demand grows
• Own external search relationships, including firm selection, briefs, fees, candidate ownership, and performance reviews
• Build ATS, sourcing workflows, and reporting; track pipeline quality and recruiting spend
• Develop talent networks and relocate discussions with leadership

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

Hardware/energy recruiting

Executive search management

Data-driven recruiting

Relocation willingness

Tools

Applicant tracking system

Sourcing automation tools

Job description

About K1 Industries

For the first time in decades, power demand growth in the US has jumped 5x, driving multi-year lead times for critical power infrastructure. K1 builds and deploys modular power packages at scale, now.

The role

K1 is hiring a Head of Recruiting to build our recruiting function from zero to one. We need someone who has done this before: built the systems, developed the team, managed recruiting firms, and personally closed difficult technical searches. You will partner with the founding team, hiring managers, and external recruiting firms to turn business priorities into great hires, while staying close to the engineering and operational work in Nevada.

What the role owns

• Hiring strategy and execution: Translate engineering, production, and commercial milestones into a prioritized hiring plan with leadership and Finance. Personally source, assess, and close critical technical, operational, and leadership hires while building a recruiting team as demand grows.
• Technical hiring: Learn what our teams build and what each role requires, from mechanical, electrical, and controls engineering to manufacturing and field operations. Partner with hiring managers on role calibration, structured interviews, practical assessments, and clear decision criteria.
• Recruiting firms: Own our external search relationships, including firm selection, search briefs, fee negotiations, candidate ownership, and performance reviews. Hold partners accountable for quality, speed, and cost, and decide which searches belong in-house.
• Systems and measurement: Build the applicant tracking system, sourcing workflows, and reporting. Track pipeline quality, conversion, time to fill, offer acceptance, and recruiting spend. Use data and automation tools to identify bottlenecks and improve execution.
• Candidate experience and closing: Build a clear story about K1 and the opportunity in Nevada. Develop targeted talent networks and referrals, keep candidates informed, and partner with leadership on competitive offers and relocation conversations.
• Team and hiring discipline: Hire and develop internal recruiters as needed, coach hiring managers, and establish clear ownership and timely feedback. Balance direct sourcing and agency support so hiring stays fast, rigorous, and efficient as K1 grows.

Who does well here

• Has personally built a recruiting function from zero to one, with concrete examples of the initial hires, systems, team, and results
• Has worked in-house at a hardware or energy company and recruited specialized engineers and people who build, manufacture, or deploy physical systems
• Can get technical: understands unfamiliar disciplines quickly, asks informed questions, and distinguishes relevant experience beyond titles and keywords
• Has managed recruiting firms and executive search partners, including contracts, fees, search quality, and delivery
• Remains a hands-on recruiter with a strong record of direct sourcing, candidate assessment, offer negotiation, and closing hard-to-fill roles
• Uses recruiting data and modern tools confidently, and can build practical processes and develop a team in a fast-moving startup
• Is willing to relocate to Nevada or commit to substantial, regular time onsite with K1's team

Experience hiring through the transition from prototype to production, recruiting for AI infrastructure or data center power systems, and convincing candidates to relocate is a plus. K1 hires for its values: run toward hard problems, own your work, learn obsessively, and bias to action.

Compensation

Competitive salary and meaningful early-stage equity. Your equity participation will reflect the impact and ownership this role carries. Standard benefits package including health, dental, and vision insurance.

Location

The role is based at K1’s headquarters in Carson City, Nevada, near Reno and Lake Tahoe. San Francisco-based candidates are welcome, though relocation is preferred. Remote candidates must be willing to spend substantial time onsite on a regular basis to build relationships with hiring managers and candidates.