- Job title
- Founding Recruiting Lead
- Job location
- San Francisco, CA, US / Remote (US)
- Job description
- ### **What is SilkTalent?**
[SilkTalent](https://www.silktalent.ai/) is an AI native recruiting firm. We back the best independent and agency recruiters with **best-in-class recruiting tools and custom-built products proven to drive higher response rates and faster fills**. Run more searches, close more clients, and keep the upside of the business you build. In short: **your book, your clients, our technology and capital behind you.**
### **Why Join?**
* **Top investors**: Raised $5M+ from top investors including Y Combinator, SoftBank, and top execs from Instacart, Twitter, General Catalyst, Asana, and Ramp
* **Rapid growth:** We’ve doubled revenue monthly since launch, and are already profitable
* **Team quality:** Our team has built and scaled products at Meta, Amazon, Instacart, Twitter, Microsoft, and Squarespace, and studied at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Yale.
### **Why this Role is Different**
* **You're the industry expert on the founding team — directly shaping the products we build.** Most recruiting tools were built by people who never ran a desk; here, your judgment defines what ships, from intake to screening to candidate engagement.
* You're building a book on top of a platform, not from scratch: venture backing and a brand behind your name, demand channels we're investing in — marketing, VC ecosystem relationships, referral loops — so your network is one engine of growth, not the only one.
* Clients you originate earn you revenue share for the life of the account. Outsized product impact, durable upside, none of the feast-or-famine.
### **What You’ll Get**
* **Guaranteed base salary + uncapped performance pay.** The stability of a salary without giving up the economics of running your own desk. No more zero-income quarters.
* **Revenue share on every client you bring.** You earn a cut of account revenue on top of placement fees.
* **Exclusivity on every search.** No marketplace races, no competing recruiters on your roles.
* **Founding-level equity.** Real ownership in the firm you're helping build.
* **Tools and tech, on us.** We pay for top recruiting tools and build custom products for you — proven to lift response rates and fill rates — so your time goes to clients, candidates, and closing.
### **What You'll Do**
* **Win clients.** Convert your existing book and open new accounts — fast-growing, VC-backed startups hiring for hard-to-fill technical roles.
* **Own those accounts** end to end: relationships, expansion, renewals.
* **Run full-cycle searches** with our tools multiplying your output — your job is judgment, negotiation, and closing.
* **Shape the product.** As a founding recruiter, your feedback directly drives what we build.
### **Requirements**
You currently make your living winning clients and filling their roles — on contingency, retained, or embedded — at an agency, on your own desk, or as the founder of your own shop. **This is a business development role as much as a recruiting role:** you bring in clients, own those accounts, and earn a share of the revenue they generate.
* **Agency, freelance, or founder background** — 5+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting at an agency, on your own desk, or running your own firm.
* **Relationships with partners at top VCs** and experience sourcing clients through portfolio referrals
* **Startup + technical depth** — you've placed founding engineers, AI/ML and deep tech talent, or early GTM hires at Series A–C startups and know what great looks like at that stage.
* **Proven BD ability** — founders and hiring managers respond when you reach out, and $500K+ in annual billings you personally generated. You're as comfortable selling a search as running one.
### **Nice to Have**
* Retained or executive-search experience and strong client relationships from this work
* A network of strong independent recruiters who would want to work with you again
* Bay Area based — not required, but a plus
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> **NOTE:** **This is not a role at SilkChart, and it is not an in-house talent acquisition position.** SilkTalent is a new, separate company (currently in stealth) built by the SilkChart founders and backed by $5M+ in venture funding. **This role is for recruiters who have run their own book of business — at an agency, as a freelancer, or as founders** of their own firm.
