Lead Recruiter

Valence; New York, Northern (NY, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Ownership & Rapid Growth

AI-First Operator

Comprehensive health coverage

Generous PTO & parental leave

Equity opportunities

US-based retirement plan

Job summary

Valence is hiring a Lead Recruiter to own and evolve recruiting at a pivotal growth stage. You will work directly with leadership to shape strategy, calibrate talent bars, and build a fast, rigorous recruiting system for an AI-native company.

You’ll partner with GTM and technical teams, design structured interview processes, and maintain a data-driven approach to hiring. This is a high-ownership IC role reporting to the VP of People & Talent.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of full-cycle in-house recruiting experience in high-growth B2B SaaS or AI environments.
• Clear, well-formed POV on recruiting quality and processes.
• Genuine AI fluency and ability to integrate AI into recruiting workflows.
• Experience operating autonomously in ambiguous environments and building recruiting systems.
• Proven track record of proactive sourcing and closing top talent.
• Data fluency and accountability to funnel metrics.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and aligning on decisions.
• Experience with ASHBY (or similar ATS) and clean data practices.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting across GTM and technical roles, from role definition to close.
• Partner with hiring managers to define scope, level, and success criteria.
• Contribute to headcount planning and hiring prioritization across the company.
• Design and run structured, high-signal interview processes with calibration.
• Build proactive pipelines through sourcing, referrals, and network mapping.
• Shape employer brand and deliver a high-quality candidate experience.
• Use funnel data to manage performance and drive action.
• Bring market intelligence on talent, comp, and competitors into decisions.
• Collaborate with leaders to translate recruiting insights into company-wide decisions.

Skills

8+ years exp

GTM & Tech hiring

AI fluency

Autonomous in ambiguity

Proactive sourcing

Data-driven decisions

Stakeholder influence

ATS knowledge (Ashby)

Tools

Ashby

Job description

About Valence

We're the only company pioneering leadership coaching for large enterprises in an AI-first way. Our mission is to transform how the world's biggest companies approach learning and development, helping teams work better together through AI-powered personalization that adapts to individual goals and organizational culture using the latest advances in machine learning and natural language processing.

Valence Brings AI Coaching More Deeply Into the Flow of Work with Microsoft 365

We've been featured in Harvard Business Review, TIME, World Economic Forum, Financial Times, Forbes and an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in America. Our clients represent the most diverse and sophisticated enterprise AI implementations globally, including Coca-Cola, Delta, Nestlé, General Mills, Schneider Electric, Deutsche Telekom, AstraZeneca, Prudential, CVS and Bristol Myers Squibb.

Working at Valence means building the team behind one of the fastest-growing companies in enterprise AI. You'll recruit across GTM and technical roles for a business trusted by the likes of Coca-Cola, Delta, and Bristol Myers Squibb; partnering directly with leadership, owning your process end-to-end, and shaping who gets to define what AI-first transformation looks like. The bar is high, and you'll be the one who holds it.

The Role

We’re hiring a Lead Recruiter to own and evolve how Valence hires at a critical stage of company growth. This is a high-ownership IC role reporting to the VP of People & Talent, with responsibility not just for executing searches, but for shaping hiring strategy, calibrating talent bar, and influencing how we make talent decisions across the company.

You’ll operate as a thought partner to hiring managers and leadership, helping define role scope, prioritize hiring needs, and ensure we are consistently hiring people who raise the bar. This role sits at the center of how Valence scales — with direct visibility into business priorities and the opportunity to build a recruiting system that is fast, rigorous, and aligned with how an AI-native company should operate.

What You'll Do

• Own full-cycle recruiting across GTM (Sales, CS, Marketing) and technical roles as needed, from role definition through close

• Partner with hiring managers and leadership to define role scope, calibrate level, and align on success criteria tied to business outcomes

• Contribute to headcount planning and hiring prioritization, helping the company make informed tradeoffs on where and how to invest in talent

• Design and run structured, high-signal interview processes; drive calibration across interviewers to ensure consistent and high-quality hiring decisions

• Build proactive, high-quality pipelines through sourcing, referrals, and network mapping, with a focus on reaching top-quartile talent

• Help shape Valence's employer brand and deliver a high-touch, high-integrity candidate experience that reflects Valence’s standards, regardless of outcome

• Use funnel data (conversion rates, source quality, time-to-hire) to manage hiring performance and turn insight into action

• Bring market intelligence (talent landscape, compensation, competitor dynamics) into hiring decisions and leadership conversations

• Partner with leaders to turn what recruiting learns [about the talent market, comp, and competitors] into insight that sharpens decisions across the company

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years of full-cycle, in-house recruiting experience in high-growth B2B SaaS or AI environments, with exposure to both GTM and technical hiring

• A clear, well-formed point of view on what great recruiting looks like - how to assess talent, design effective processes, and hold a high hiring bar

• Genuine AI fluency: a real grasp on how AI changes recruiting, and a bias toward building it into the process

• A track record of operating autonomously in ambiguous, fast-moving environments, and of building or materially improving recruiting systems

• Demonstrated success hiring high-caliber talent in competitive markets through proactive sourcing and effective closing

• Strong sourcing instincts and an actively cultivated network, you don't wait on inbound to build pipeline

• Data fluency - you understand your funnel, use metrics to guide decisions, and hold yourself accountable to outcomes

• Experience influencing senior stakeholders, including challenging assumptions and driving alignment

• Experience with Ashby (or a comparable ATS), with a commitment to maintaining clean systems and using them as a source of truth

Nice to have

• Hands-on with AI sourcing/screening/ops tooling in your day-to-day workflow

• Experience hiring the "consulting / professional-services tech" profile, or recruiting in NYC's AI/tech market

• Founding-recruiter DNA: you've stood up recruiting as an early or first dedicated hire

• Exposure to employer-brand or talent-marketing work

• Experience partnering on compensation benchmarking and levelling

What you’ll get

• Ownership & Rapid Growth

• Outsized missions from day one, with direct responsibility for company-defining projects

• Work alongside the executive team with transparency into strategy and decision-making

• Influence on direction through real-time customer feedback and market insights

• AI-First Operator

• Work directly with cutting-edge AI models and next-generation platforms

• Build expertise in enterprise AI implementation across Fortune 500 companies and multiple industries

• Establish yourself as a recognized leader among peers in shaping how AI transforms work at a global scale

• Compensation

• Competitive salary including base + bonuses

• Comprehensive health coverage (medical, dental, vision) from day one

• Generous PTO, company-wide R&R shutdowns, and paid parental leave

• Retirement plan support for US and global employees

• Equity

• Meaningful ownership in a venture-backed company at a growth inflection point

• Financial upside that comes from scaling fast

• Top-up grants as we scale and you deliver exceptional performance - your compensation grows alongside your impact

• Top-Performing Culture

• A culture built for top talent: intensity to win, growth without limits, and a team that solves hard problems and celebrates big wins together

Learn more about us and meet our team here

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