Talent Programs Manager

Modal Labs; New York (NY); On-site; USD 100,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

Modal Labs in New York City is seeking a Talent Programs Manager to own our talent events, intern program, and campus presence. This role is built from the ground up and partners with recruiters, hiring managers, and marketing to drive real hiring outcomes.

You'll design, run and scale programs, mentor intern projects, and represent Modal at career fairs. A hands-on collaborator who thrives in a fast-paced startup culture will excel.

Qualifications

• 3+ years running recruiting/talent programs, events, or university relations.
• Experience owning a program end-to-end including budgets and vendors.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration with recruiting, hiring managers, and marketing.

Responsibilities

• Own Modal's talent events strategy from concept to follow-up.
• Design and run the intern program end-to-end: timelines, scoping, mentorship, conversion.
• Represent Modal at career fairs and campus events; prep brand ambassadors.
• Build relationships with universities, bootcamps, and community groups feeding pipelines.
• Manage budgets and vendor relationships: venues, swag, catering, platforms.
• Track metrics: event/intern conversion, cost per hire from programs.
• Move quickly while preserving candidate/intern experience.

Skills

Talent programs management

Recruiting events

Budget management

Vendor relations

Project management

Job description

About Us:

AI needs a new infrastructure layer. We're building it at Modal.

Every era of computing brought new workloads that previous infrastructure couldn't support: mainframes, databases, and the cloud. Each time, the company that rebuilt the layer underneath defined the decade. AI is no different, except it touches everything instead of one slice, and the window to build the layer underneath it is open right now.

Our customers include category-defining companies like Lovable, Ramp, Cognition, DoorDash, and Suno. They rely on Modal for instant GPU access, sub-second container starts, and native storage, so it's simple to serve low-latency inference, fine-tune models, and access production-ready sandboxes at scale.

We recently raised a $355M Series C at a $4.65B valuation, led by General Catalyst and Redpoint Ventures. We've crossed $300M+ ARR and grown fivefold since September.

Our team includes creators of popular open-source projects (e.g., Seaborn, Luigi), academic researchers, international olympiad medalists, and experienced engineering and product leaders with decades of experience.

About Talent at Modal

Modal is growing fast, and the programs that bring people in and set them up to succeed are still being built. You'll join the Talent team as one of its first hires focused purely on programs; working closely with recruiting and leadership to build the events, internship, and campus presence that shape how the best people discover and experience Modal for the first time.

The Role

As Talent Programs Manager, you will own Modal's talent events, our intern program, and our presence at career fairs, end-to-end. This is a build-from-the-ground-up role for someone who wants full ownership rather than an existing playbook to execute. You'll work directly with recruiters, hiring managers, and marketing to make sure every program ladders up to real hiring outcomes, and you'll be the person who makes candidates' and interns' first experience of Modal a great one.

What You'll Do:

• Own Modal's talent events strategy; meetups, recruiting mixers, tech talks, and community events, from concept through post-event follow-up

• Design and run the intern program end to end: recruiting timeline, project scoping with hiring managers, mentorship matching, and conversion

• Represent Modal at career fairs and campus events, and recruit and prep employee brand ambassadors to join you

• Build and maintain relationships with university programs, bootcamps, and community organizations that feed our pipeline

• Manage program budgets and vendor relationships; venues, swag, catering, event platforms

• Track and report on program metrics: event pipeline conversion, intern conversion rate, cost per hire from programs

• Move quickly without sacrificing the candidate or intern experience

Requirements:

• 3+ years running recruiting/talent programs, events, or university relations, with a track record of owning a program end-to-end including budget and vendors

• High influence, low ego: you build relationships easily across recruiting, hiring managers, and marketing, and share credit freely

• Strong project management skills; comfortable juggling multiple concurrent events and timelines without dropping details

• Excellent written and verbal communication; comfortable representing Modal externally

• Someone who takes ownership seriously: you drive programs to completion and build structures that let them scale

• Based in or willing to relocate to NYC, in-office