Principal Recruiter, Research Talent

Job description

WHO WE ARE Odyssey https://odyssey.ml is an AI lab pioneering general world models: causal, multimodal systems that learn to predict and interact with the world over long horizons. This foundational technology promises to revolutionize robotics, science, healthcare, education, gaming, defense, and beyond. Odyssey’s founders previously pioneered the most complex application of physical AI: self-driving cars. They’ve now brought together a world-class research team from DeepMind, Tesla, Waymo, Meta, Apple, and Wayve, who have made significant contributions to language models (DeepMind Gemini), video models (DeepMind Veo), world models (Wayve GAIA), and autonomous systems (Tesla FSD). Odyssey has raised significant venture capital from GV, Amazon, AMD, EQT, NVIDIA, Natural Capital, In-Q-Tel, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Guillermo Rauch, Garry Tan, Kyle Vogt, and researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, MSL, Recursive, and Thinking Machines. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR We are hiring our first Principal Recruiter dedicated entirely to research. This person will play a foundational role in how we identify, engage, and close world-class research talent. Research hiring is rarely linear. The best candidates are often deeply embedded in their work, motivated by intellectual fit, and unlikely to respond to a conventional recruiting process. This role is for someone who knows how to build trust over time, understand the research landscape deeply, and help senior leaders make thoughtful, high-conviction hiring decisions. You will partner closely with research leadership to define the talent we need, map the people and teams shaping the field, and create highly personalized approaches for exceptional candidates. This is not a high-volume recruiting role. It is a strategic, relationship-driven role focused on the researchers, technical leaders, and emerging talent who could meaningfully shape the future of our work. You should be equally comfortable developing long-term market intelligence, advising leaders on candidate strategy, and personally driving sensitive, high-priority searches from first conversation through close. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Partner closely with research leadership to understand priorities, define critical talent needs, and build recruiting strategies for high-impact research hires. - Own deeply strategic searches for senior researchers, research leaders, and exceptional emerging talent across AI, machine learning, and adjacent technical fields. - Build a clear and continuously evolving map of the research talent market, including labs, universities, startups, companies, research groups, and individual contributors shaping the field. - Develop long-term relationships with outstanding candidates, including people who are not actively looking and may require thoughtful, patient engagement. - Turn market insight, network signal, and candidate context into practical recommendations for hiring managers and senior leaders. - Design and manage tailored candidate processes that reflect the seniority, motivations, confidentiality needs, and evaluation requirements of each search. - Advise on candidate positioning, timing, compensation strategy, closing approach, and potential risks for especially important hires. - Help establish the operating model, standards, and talent intelligence practices for research recruiting as the function grows. WHO YOU ARE - Significant experience recruiting highly technical, senior, executive, academic, or otherwise specialized talent. - A strong track record of building relationships with exceptional candidates who are not actively searching or who require a highly personalized recruiting approach. - Excellent judgment, discretion, and follow-through in sensitive or confidential hiring situations. - Deep curiosity about AI research, technical talent markets, and the people and institutions shaping the frontier. - Strong talent intelligence instincts: you know how to gather context, interpret incomplete information, and convert signal into action. - Experience partnering with senior leaders and influencing recruiting strategy in ambiguous, fast-moving environments. - The ability to balance long-term relationship building with the urgency required to close critical hires. - A low-ego, high-ownership approach to building something important from an early stage.