Recruiter

depthfirst Inc.; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Meaningful equity

Health insurance

Office lunch and dinner (SF)

Job summary

depthfirst is seeking a Recruiter to build our talent engine from the ground up, owning full-cycle recruiting for engineering and technical roles. You will partner with founders and hiring managers on strategy, design end-to-end processes, and lead proactive sourcing to fuel rapid growth.

You will help define role requirements, candidate profiles, and compensation strategy, while shaping our employer brand to attract top security AI talent in a fast-moving startup environment.

Qualifications

• 5-7+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting experience, ideally at high-growth startups.
• Proven track record of hiring exceptional engineering talent in competitive markets.
• Deep understanding of technical roles including backend systems, ML infrastructure, and security engineering.
• Experience building recruiting functions from scratch (0-1) or as an early recruiting hire.
• High ownership mentality and comfort with ambiguity in fast-moving environments.
• Mission-driven and genuinely excited about AI and security.
• Located in or willing to relocate to San Francisco (in-office role).

Responsibilities

• Own and build full-cycle recruiting for engineering and technical roles, managing multiple searches.
• Partner with founders and hiring managers to define role requirements, candidate profiles, and compensation strategy.
• Build recruiting strategy from scratch: sourcing approach, evaluation frameworks, and market positioning.
• Source proactively through direct outreach, technical communities, referrals, and other channels.
• Help shape employer brand and recruiting narrative to attract top talent.

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

Engineering talent hiring

Tech recruiting

Own end-to-end process

Sourcing and pipeline building

Job description

About depthfirst

We believe that software is the foundation of modern civilization. Yet vulnerabilities threaten its integrity, security, and resilience. We are on a mission to secure the world's software.

depthfirst is building intelligence to detect and remediate critical software vulnerabilities. We are training and scaling security AI agents to discover zero-day vulnerabilities across large customer codebases and popular open source software.

Our founding team brings deep expertise in data, infrastructure, security and AI, with leaders from DeepMind, Databricks, Square, and Faire. We're looking for thoughtful, driven people excited to work at the intersection of AI, Security, and Infrastructure.

About This Role

We're looking for a Recruiter to build our talent engine from the ground up and help us rapidly scale our technical talent this year. This is a rare opportunity to define the DNA of depthfirst during our most critical growth phase: shaping not just who we hire, but how we hire, what our culture becomes, and what it means to be a world-class security AI company.

You'll own full-cycle recruiting for engineering and/or GTM roles, partner directly with founders and hiring managers on hiring strategy, and design the end-to-end recruiting process that will carry us through our next stage of growth. This role has the potential to grow into Head of Talent as we scale.

You're excited about this role because you will...

• Own and build full-cycle recruiting for engineering and technical roles, managing multiple searches simultaneously




• Partner directly with founders and hiring managers to define role requirements, ideal candidate profiles, and inform compensation strategy




• Build our recruiting strategy from scratch: defining our sourcing approach, candidate evaluation frameworks, and competitive positioning in the market that maintains a high bar as we scale




• Source proactively and creatively: building pipelines through direct outreach, technical communities, referrals, and other channels




• Help build our employer brand and recruiting narrative, helping candidates understand why depthfirst is the most compelling place to build the future of autonomous security

Qualifications

• 5-7+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting experience, ideally at high-growth startups




• Proven track record of hiring exceptional engineering talent in competitive markets




• Deep understanding of technical roles: you can speak credibly about backend systems, ML infrastructure, and security engineering




• Experience building recruiting functions from scratch (0-1) or being an early recruiting hire




• High ownership mentality and comfort with ambiguity: you thrive in fast-moving environments




• Mission-driven and genuinely excited about AI and security




• Located in or willing to relocate to San Francisco (this role is in-office)

What We Offer

• Competitive salary with meaningful equity




• Health, vision, and dental insurance




• Office lunch and dinner (SF office)




• High ownership and impact: you'll define how we hire and who we become as a company




• The opportunity to join a rapidly scaling AI startup during its most formative phase