Technical Recruiter

AfterQuery; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

AfterQuery in San Francisco is looking for a Technical Recruiter to lead full-cycle recruiting for engineering and technical roles. You will work closely with founders to define role requirements and implement hiring systems that align with the company's culture.

This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the team at one of the fastest growing AI research labs, focusing on innovative datasets and advanced AI technologies. Ideal candidates have a strong background in technical recruiting and a passion for building high-performing teams.

Qualifications

• 1+ years of experience in technical recruiting.
• Strong understanding of technical roles across software engineering and AI.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting for technical roles.
• Build high-quality outbound sourcing pipelines.
• Partner with founders and hiring managers on hiring strategy.

Skills

Technical recruiting

Sourcing candidates

Communication skills

Judgment on candidate quality

Ownership

Tools

LinkedIn Recruiter

ATS systems

Sourcing tools

Job description

Technical Recruiter

As one of our first recruiting hires, you’ll help build the technical team shaping the future of frontier AI data infrastructure. You’ll own recruiting for engineering and technical roles end-to-end, partner directly with the founders, and help define the hiring systems, candidate experience, and talent bar from day one.

Company Overview

AfterQuery is a research lab investigating the boundaries and capabilities of artificial intelligence through novel datasets and experimentation. Our customers are foundation model labs, and we serve all of the frontier AI labs.

We are based in San Francisco, CA, and have raised funding from top investors, including Altos, Y Combinator, BoxGroup, ex-partners from Lightspeed and Index Ventures, and senior leadership at Google DeepMind and Meta GenAI. We raised a 30M series A at a 300M valuation just under 16 months after starting and have reached a 100M annual run rate in the same time frame.

Our founding team brings backgrounds from Jane Street, Meta, Citadel Securities, Google, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Silver Lake, BAIR, and SAIL.

Why Apply

• Massive Opportunity: We were one of the fastest growing YC companies in our batch, and we believe we can be one of the fastest growing YC companies of all time.

• Founding Role: You’ll be one of our first recruiting hires and help define how AfterQuery hires world-class technical talent.

• High Ownership: You’ll own full-cycle recruiting across engineering and technical roles.

• Direct Founder Access: You’ll work directly with the founding team on hiring strategy, candidate calibration, and closing.

• Strong Team: Founding team has experience from Citadel Securities, Meta, Google, Silver Lake, Morgan Stanley, and more.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting for technical roles, including software engineering, infrastructure, applied AI, full-stack, and product engineering.

• Build high-quality outbound sourcing pipelines for top technical talent.

• Source candidates from AI labs, high-growth startups, big tech, quant firms, and elite universities.

• Partner with founders and hiring managers to define role requirements, interview loops, scorecards, and hiring strategy.

• Run candidate processes end-to-end, including outreach, screens, coordination, feedback collection, offer support, and closing.

• Create a high-touch candidate experience that reflects AfterQuery’s bar, speed, and culture.

• Track and improve recruiting funnel metrics, including response rates, pass‑through rates, offer acceptance, and time to hire.

• Help build the foundation of AfterQuery’s recruiting function, including systems, templates, workflows, and talent market maps.

Required Qualifications

• 1+ years of experience in technical recruiting, ideally at a high‑growth startup, AI company, top tech company, or technical recruiting agency.

• Proven ability to source, engage, and close strong engineering candidates in competitive markets.

• Strong understanding of technical roles across software engineering, infrastructure, full‑stack, applied AI, and systems/product engineering.

• Experience building outbound sourcing pipelines from scratch.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Strong judgment on candidate quality, calibration, culture fit, and hiring urgency.

• High agency, strong ownership, and comfort operating in a fast‑moving startup environment.

• Experience partnering directly with founders, executives, or senior hiring managers.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience recruiting for AI, ML, data infrastructure, developer tools, quant, or frontier technology companies.

• Strong network across engineering, AI, startup, university, or quant communities.

• Experience hiring founding engineers, senior engineers, infrastructure engineers, or other hard‑to‑close technical talent.

• Comfortable with LinkedIn Recruiter, ATS systems, sourcing tools, email sequencing tools, and AI‑assisted recruiting workflows.

• Experience improving interview processes, scorecards, calibration systems, or candidate experience.

• Startup experience preferred.

Compensation will depend on experience, seniority, and demonstrated ability to independently source, manage, and close high‑quality technical candidates.