San Francisco | Work Directly with CEO & Founding Team | OpenAI for Physics | 5 Days OnsiteManager, RecruitingLocation: Onsite in San Francisco
Compensation: Competitive Salary + Equity
About the RoleAs our Manager of Recruiting, you'll own one of the most critical functions at UniversalAGI: finding, closing, and nurturing the people who build our foundation models. This is a high-ownership, player-coach role. You'll lead and grow a team of technical and non-technical recruiters, sourcing and coordination, while carrying your own req load and working full-cycle across the hardest searches yourself.
You'll partner directly with the CEO, Hiring Managers, and founding team to translate our headcount plans into a world-class talent engine. This is a rare chance to help build a recruiting team from the ground up at a company moving relentlessly fast.
What You'll Do- Lead, coach, and grow a team of technical and non-technical recruiters, sourcers, and recruiting coordinators
- Carry your own full-cycle requisition load across technical (AI/ML, research, CFD/physics simulation, engineering) and non-technical (GTM, sales, operations) searches
- Own recruiting OKRs and capacity planning: translate hiring plans into team capacity, requisition allocation, and be able to reallocate fast as priorities shift.
- Partner with CEO, founding team, and hiring managers to shape role definitions, ideal candidate profiles, and hiring strategy for every open requisition.
- Build and protect talent pipelines in the hardest-to-fill niches while staying weeks ahead of demand.
- Own the recruiting metrics that matter: pipeline conversion, time-to-hire, sourcing effectiveness, offer acceptance.
- Set the standard for candidate experience across every discipline, from first outreach through offer and close
- Build UniversalAGI's reputation as the destination for top talent across AI/ML, research, CFD/physics simulation, engineering, GTM, sales, and operations.
- Coach your team and hiring managers alike on sourcing strategy, technical/business fluency, and closing
Qualifications- 5+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with 2+ years directly managing a team of recruiters, sourcers and coordinators.
- A track record that spans both technical (engineering, AI/ML, research, or similarly specialized deep-tech roles) and non-technical (GTM, sales, operations, or business) hiring
- Experience building or scaling a recruiting function inside a fast-growing startup
- Expert-level sourcing chops (LinkedIn Recruiter, Boolean/X-ray search, AI sourcing tools, Ashby) and a track record of closing top talent with multiple offers
- High agency and ownership - you operate with extreme urgency and bias to action - you don't wait for a playbook, you build one
- Strong data fluency: you build and utilize recruiting dashboards to guide team and process decisions, not just track them.
- Execution velocity that holds up under pressure - comfortable running multiple open requisitions and a team's pipeline against aggressive targets
- Executive-level communication and judgment- you're someone the CEO, founding team, and hiring managers trust with hard calls
- Comfortable operating in a high-intensity, in-person, fast-paced startup environment where priorities shift fast
Bonus Qualifications- Prior experience recruiting for highly technical startups (Seed to Series C) through a hypergrowth phase (0-500+ employees)
- Experience recruiting for deeply technical or specialized roles
- Have built recruiting infrastructure: ATS setup, interview process design, scorecards, comp bands and beyond from a blank page
- An existing network across AI research, deep tech, recruiting, and GTM/sales talent communities you can activate on day one
Cultural Fit- Technical & Business Fluency: Experience recruiting for and comfortable earning credibility with both engineers/researchers and GTM/business hiring managers
- High Agency: Well-formed but loosely held opinions - you build the process, then improve it fast to make it more effective
- Player-Coach Mentality: Leads by doing - carries reqs while coaching the team to close theirs
- Ownership: Treats the team's hiring numbers as your own, not just your individual req performance; cares deeply about building an extremely high talent dense team
- Comfortable with Ambiguity: Thrives in undefined spaces, bringing order and process where none exists yet
- Communication: Can translate complex technical and business requirements into compelling narratives that attract top talent
- High Availability: Ready to be deeply involved whenever critical candidates or team needs arise
- Growth Mindset: Invests in growing your team's skills, pushes yourself and your team into unfamiliar territories with a can do mindset
- Work Ethic: Willing to put in the extra hours to hit critical hiring milestones
- Team Player: Collaborative approach with low ego and high accountability
What We Offer- Full ownership of UniversalAGI's talent engine- from team structure and process to the hires you personally close.
- A rare seat building recruiting from the ground up at one of AI's fastest-moving foundation model companies.
- Direct collaboration with the founding team and CEO, and real influence over hiring strategy and company growth
- Competitive compensation with significant equity upside.
- In-person first culture - 5 days a week in office with a team that values face-to-face collaboration.
- Access to world-class investors and advisors in the AI space.
BenefitsWe provide great benefits, including:
- Competitive compensation and equity.
- Competitive health, dental, vision benefits paid by the company.
- 401(k) plan offering.
- Flexible vacation.
- Team Building & Fun Activities.
- Great scope, ownership and impact.
- AI tools stipend.
- Monthly commute stipend.
- Monthly wellness/fitness stipend.
- Daily office lunch & dinner covered by the company.
