Founding Recruiter

Job description

ABOUT LANCEDB AI advances at the speed of its research, and research moves at the speed of its data. LanceDB is the AI-native Multimodal Lakehouse: one system where a researcher curates petabytes of video, audio, and every signal derived from them with a few lines of Python, and the next training run starts as fast as the next idea. Customers like Runway, Midjourney, and Netflix build the future of AI on LanceDB, from frontier and world models to robots and autonomous vehicles. About the Role As a founding recruiter at LanceDB, you will be responsible for scaling our team by building and standardizing our recruiting process and leading end-to-end hiring. You’ll partner directly with founders and leadership to define hiring strategy, attract and hire exceptional talent. You'll own our recruiting platform and tools, design a hiring engine that delivers a great candidate experience, and drive impactful, high-velocity talent initiatives — sourcing, engaging, and closing top-tier talent spanning engineering, product, sales, marketing, and other business functions. We're a remote-native company hiring across the United States and just beginning to expand globally, so you'll help shape how we find and hire great people across time zones and, increasingly, borders. This is an opportunity to build a world-class recruiting function from the ground up and help define the culture of a fast-growing, open-source-first startup. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Build, standardize, and continuously improve LanceDB's end-to-end hiring process across both technical and GTM roles — from sourcing and screening to closing candidates. - Own our recruiting platform and tech stack (ATS, sourcing, and AI recruiting tools), defining and optimizing the systems that let hiring scale with the team. - Design and deliver an exceptional candidate experience at every stage, ensuring a fast, consistent, and high-signal process that reflects our brand and works for candidates across time zones. - Recruit for deeply technical roles — systems and database engineers, many working in Rust — alongside go-to-market roles across sales, marketing, developer relations, and customer success. - Partner closely with hiring managers in engineering and GTM to define role requirements, craft compelling job descriptions, and standardize a structured interview process tailored to each function. - Proactively source candidates through direct outreach, team referrals, open-source communities, hackathons, and other industry events. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - 8+ years of experience in recruiting, preferably in a fast-growing startup environment or technical companies. - A track record of building and standardizing recruiting processes from the ground up, with a bias toward operational excellence. - Hands-on experience owning and optimizing applicant tracking systems (ATS) and AI recruiting tools. - Proven ability to source and execute creative talent attraction strategies; close high-caliber candidates across both technical and go-to-market roles. - A commitment to delivering a great candidate experience while running an impactful, high-velocity process. - Data-driven mindset with experience using recruiting analytics to improve hiring outcomes. - Comfort recruiting for deeply technical positions (e.g. infrastructure and database engineering) as well as sales, marketing, and other GTM functions. - Experience recruiting for a remote-native, distributed team; experience supporting international or multi-country hiring is a plus as we begin expanding globally. - Passion for startup culture and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. - A strong communicator who can effectively sell the vision of LanceDB to potential hires. - Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and negotiation skills. - Bonus: familiarity with the AI/ML, data infrastructure, or developer-tools ecosystem.