Proactive Tech Recruiter - Build Federal-Scale AI Teams

Kaizen Labs; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health & Insurance

Parental leave

Unlimited PTO

Office stipend (NYC)

Job summary

Kaizen Labs is hiring aRecruiting Lead to own top-of-funnel strategies and actively source passive candidates for technical roles in a hybrid setup from NYC or DC. You will manage end-to-end recruiting, partner with hiring managers, and experiment with AI-powered sourcing workflows to accelerate hiring.

The role emphasizes proactive outreach, market mapping, and close collaboration with co-founders and managers as Kaizen scales to 100 team members next year.

Qualifications

• 3+ years recruiting experience, in-house at a high-bar company or at an agency, with a track record of closing candidates who weren't looking.
• Outbound instincts. You go find people rather than waiting for the right one to apply, and you can map a market from scratch.
• Hands-on AI tooling. You've built your own workflows or agents to source, beyond the tools that came with your last seat.
• An eye for exceptional talent that isn't obvious on paper, and the judgment to back your read with evidence.
• High EQ. You can get a skeptical passive candidate on the phone, earn a hiring manager's trust, and know when to push and when to listen.

Responsibilities

• Proactively source and engage passive candidates for a variety of technical positions by utilizing creative search strategies, conducting thorough market mapping, leveraging professional networks, and reaching out directly on platforms such as LinkedIn and GitHub.
• Manage all stages of the full-cycle recruiting process for technical roles, from identifying and attracting talent through to screening applicants, conducting interviews, facilitating feedback discussion with hiring managers, and supporting candidates through the offer and onboarding process.
• Take an active role in go-to-market (GTM) position searches as needed, based on evolving business priorities.
• Build your own AI tooling (agents, Claude, Claude Code workflows) to map markets and surface people standard sourcing tools miss.
• Write outreach people actually answer, and find new ways to grow inbound from the candidates we most want.
• Own candidates from first touch through close: run your own screens, sell the role, and close offers, with senior recruiting and leadership behind you on the hardest ones.
• Partner with hiring managers across Kaizen to scope roles, design interview loops, and hold the bar.
• Hire people who are excellent at their craft and care about the mission, because they build the tools residents depend on.
• Bring ideas to improve how we recruit as Kaizen scales to 100 people next year.

Skills

Recruiting experience

Outbound sourcing

AI tooling

Talent assessment

High EQ

Tools

LinkedIn

GitHub

Job description

Kaizen Labs is hiring aRecruiting Lead to own top-of-funnel strategies and actively source passive candidates for technical roles in a hybrid setup from NYC or DC. You will manage end-to-end recruiting, partner with hiring managers, and experiment with AI-powered sourcing workflows to accelerate hiring.

The role emphasizes proactive outreach, market mapping, and close collaboration with co-founders and managers as Kaizen scales to 100 team members next year.