Technical Recruiter (Founding Team)

About the Opportunity

Pallet is hiring our first Lead Technical Recruiter, a high-impact IC role with true ownership over how we build our engineering organization.

As we scale from ~100 to 200+ employees, engineering hiring is one of the most critical levers in the business. This role will own technical recruiting end-to-end - partnering closely with our Head of Talent, engineering leadership, and founders to hire across Product, Platform, FDE, and AI/ML roles.

This is not a support function. Recruiting at Pallet is a strategic partner to the business. You'll be embedded with engineering leadership, deeply understand our product and technical roadmap, and play a direct role in shaping the team that builds our AI agents. The impact of this role will be immediate, visible, and long-lasting.

Why this Role is Different

• True 0->1 ownership at a company that takes hiring seriously. You'll be the first dedicated Senior Technical Recruiter at Pallet, with real influence and partnership - recruiting is treated as a core business function, not a support role.
• High-bar, white-glove technical hiring. Deep ownership, and strong trust with engineering leadership and senior candidates. This role is optimized for judgment and quality, not volume.
• Hands-on ownership, not resource constrained. You'll personally source and close top engineering talent, with budget for modern recruiting tools, selective agency support, and light shared sourcing resources available as needed.
• Career-defining impact at a Series B AI company. You'll help set the foundation for technical recruiting as Pallet scales, with meaningful equity upside, a strong engineering brand already in place, and the opportunity to shape what great looks like long-term.

How You Will Make an Impact

• Own and close senior, high-bar engineering roles across Product, Platform, FDE, and AI/ML in competitive SF / NYC markets.
• Make your first hire within ~45 days and sustain ~2 high-quality engineering hires per month thereafter.
• Run end-to-end searches: scoping ambiguous roles, sourcing, pipeline management, interview coordination, and closing.
• Protect and scale Pallet's technical hiring bar through high-signal screening, thoughtful debriefs, and pushback when quality is slipping.
• Build trust with senior engineering candidates through a white-glove candidate experience and calm, credible selling.
• Diagnose pipeline or close issues using data and candidate feedback, and adapt strategy in real time.
• Act as a true partner to engineering leadership - bringing structure, judgment, and clarity without needing hand-holding.
• Increase leverage across the technical recruiting system while remaining hands-on - personally sourcing for hard roles, partnering effectively with sourcers, and strengthening referral quality and conversion.

Preferred Experience

• 5-10+ years of recruiting experience, with 3+ years owning senior technical roles end-to-end.
• Proven experience hiring: Senior Software Engineers, Platform / Infra / SRE Engineers, ML- or data-adjacent roles bonus if you've also hired: Product Managers, Designers etc.
• Track record of closing senior engineers in competitive markets.
• Experience operating in high-bar, founder-led or early-stage environments.
• Strong technical recruiting judgment - able to spot misalignment early and maintain a low false-positive rate.
• Calm, credible communicator who can sell Pallet to engineers without hype.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, high ownership, and accountability for outcomes.
• Low ego, collaborative, and motivated by impact rather than process for process's sake.

Our Recruiting Stack

• Greenhouse for ATS
• Juicebox, Covey, LinkedIn Recruiter, LinkedIn InMails (400 a month), Clay
• Grammarly Pro, for polished writing
• Brighthire for call recordings and Granola/Wispr for note-taking
• Modern Loop for easy scheduling
• Calendly, Notion, GSuite, Slack, etc
• Claude AI Recruiting Brain: we have Greenhouse, ModernLoop and Brighthire connected so you can build your own recruiting solutions

Interview Process

• Chat with Grace, Head of Talent- 30 mins
• Short Take Home Assignment - 2-3 days to complete
• Final Interviews - ~ 3 hours of interviews at our office in SF

We move fast, and we'll keep you informed at every stage of the process.

Location

• As a small, early-stage team building from 0->1, we value in-person collaboration.
• This role is based in our San Francisco office, and we typically work from the office five days a week.
• That said, we're pragmatic - flexibility is available on days with heavy calls or as needed over time.
• Relocation assistance can be provided for candidates interested in moving to San Francisco.

Compensation

The estimated salary range for this role is $165,000-$220,000, depending on experience and skill set. In addition to cash compensation, we offer competitive equity, benefits, and meaningful opportunities for growth. Final compensation is determined based on experience, qualifications, and location.

Our Benefits

We invest in our people the same way we invest in our product: seriously.

• Health, Vision, and Dental benefits
• Take-what-you-need Paid Vacation
• Life Insurance and Accidental Insurance
• Short-Term Disability Coverage
• Generous salary and equity for all staff
• 401k option; helping you save for the future
• Paid parental leave to support growing families
• Yearly learning and development stipend
• Commuter benefits for Bay Area employees
• Uber ride stipend if you ever have to work late in the office
• Remote office home stipend to get you comfy in your space
• Daily catered lunches provided
• Onboarding trip to San Francisco HQ if you work remotely
• Monthly happy hours
• Annual Company Offsites; our last one was in Palm Springs CA

Workplace Policy

• We are an in-person company.
• Our offices in San Francisco, New York City and London are where ideas get built, decisions get made, and the team gets stronger.
• We have invested in making them genuinely great places to spend your day, with catered lunches, monthly happy hours, and people who care about the work and each other.

• Most of our team works in office five days a week. For select roles, we hire remotely across the U.S. Remote employees come to one of our offices for their first week to onboard and meet the team, and we cover the full trip.
• Every role is different. Travel expectations are always shared upfront in the job description and confirmed in your first call with us.