Lead Recruiter

About Valence

We are pioneering leadership coaching for large enterprises using AI-first methods. Our mission is to transform learning and development within the world's largest companies, enhancing teamwork through personalized AI that adapts to individual goals and organizational culture.

Valence has been featured in prestigious publications such as Harvard Business Review, TIME, World Economic Forum, Financial Times, Forbes, and has been named an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in America. Our clients include Coca-Cola, Delta, Nestlé, General Mills, Schneider Electric, Deutsche Telekom, AstraZeneca, Prudential, CVS, and Bristol Myers Squibb.

The Role

We are seeking a Lead Recruiter to lead how Valence recruits during a period of significant company growth. This role reports to the VP of People & Talent and involves not just executing searches but also shaping hiring strategy, setting talent standards, and influencing talent decisions across the organization.

This role is pivotal in scaling Valence, offering direct access to business priorities and the opportunity to build a recruiting system that aligns with an AI-native company's needs. You will be responsible for:

• Full-cycle recruiting across GTM (Sales, CS, Marketing) and technical roles
• Partnering with hiring managers and leadership to define role scope, calibrate levels, and align on success criteria tied to business outcomes
• Contributing to headcount planning and hiring prioritization, making informed trade-offs on talent investments
• Designing and running structured, high-signal interview processes; driving calibration across interviewers to ensure consistent and high-quality hiring decisions
• Building proactive, high-quality pipelines through sourcing, referrals, and network mapping, focusing on top-quartile talent
• Using funnel data (conversion rates, source quality, time-to-hire) to manage hiring performance and turn insights into action
• Bringing market intelligence (talent landscape, compensation, competitor dynamics) into hiring decisions and leadership conversations
• Partnering with leaders to turn insights into decisions across the company

What You'll Get

• Ownership and rapid growth opportunities
• Transparency into strategy and decision-making with the executive team
• Influence on direction through real-time customer feedback and market insights
• AI-First Operator role, working directly with cutting-edge AI models and platforms
• Expertise in enterprise AI implementation across Fortune 500 companies and multiple industries
• A top-performing culture built for top talent: intensity to win, growth without limits, and a team that solves hard problems and celebrates big wins together

Requirements

• 8+ years of full-cycle, in-house recruiting experience in high-growth B2B SaaS or AI environments, with exposure to both GTM and technical hiring
• A clear, well-formed point of view on what great recruiting looks like - how to assess talent, design effective processes, and hold a high hiring bar
• Genuine AI fluency: a real grasp on how AI changes recruiting, and a bias toward building it into the process
• Demonstrated success hiring high-caliber talent in competitive markets through proactive sourcing and effective closing
• Strong sourcing instincts and an actively cultivated network, you don't wait on inbound to build pipeline
• Data fluency - you understand your funnel, use metrics to guide decisions, and hold yourself accountable to outcomes
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders, including challenging assumptions and driving alignment
• Experience with Ashby (or a comparable ATS), with a commitment to maintaining clean systems and using them as a source of truth
• Nice to have: hands-on with AI sourcing/screening/ops tooling in your day-to-day workflow, experience hiring the "consulting / professional-services → tech" profile, or recruiting in NYC's AI/tech market, founding-recruiter DNA: you've stood up recruiting as an early or first dedicated hire, exposure to employer-brand or talent-marketing work, experience partnering on compensation benchmarking and levelling

Compensation

• Competitive salary including base + bonuses
• Comprehensive health coverage (medical, dental, vision)
• Generous PTO, company-wide R&R shutdowns, and paid parental leave
• Retirement plan support for US and global employees
• Equity: meaningful ownership in a venture-backed company at a growth inflection point
• Financial upside that comes from scaling fast
• Top-up grants as we scale and you deliver exceptional performance — your compensation grows alongside your impact