Technical Recruiter

About the role

Arena Intelligence is seeking a Technical Recruiter to act as a strategic partner in building a world-class team capable of evaluating AI performance in real-world contexts. You will own the full lifecycle for technical roles, ensuring alignment with the mission of measuring and advancing AI for practical, human-centered applications. This position requires a high level of collaboration with hiring managers to define success profiles and prioritize roles that move the frontier of agentic coding, creative generation, and professional productivity. You will be responsible for sourcing and closing top-tier talent across Machine Learning and Research domains, maintaining a structured and fair process that reflects the company's values of craftsmanship, curiosity, and impact. The role demands a relentless drive for excellence in every stage of recruiting, from calibration and funnel analytics to offer strategy and negotiation. You will also contribute directly to employer brand through events, content, and community engagement in the deep-tech space. Ultimately, this role owns the candidate experience end-to-end, ensuring that thoughtful, diverse, and curious individuals can perform their best work within a culture that radiates excellence and focus.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Partner with hiring managers to clarify role outcomes, success profiles, and interview plans; prioritize reqs against business goals for positions spanning agentic coding, creative generation, and professional productivity.
• Run full-cycle recruiting for technical roles, owning kickoff, JD refinement, sourcing, assessment, debriefs, offer, and close with attention to equity, transparency, and rigorous human-centered evaluation.
• Build diverse pipelines through targeted sourcing including passive outreach, talent communities, academic and industry events, referrals, and thoughtfully crafted job posts that reflect Arena's mission.
• Maintain a structured, fair process by defining competencies, calibrating rubrics, and upholding a consistent candidate experience that aligns with the company's commitment to truth and impact.
• Drive a relentless pursuit of excellence by calibrating rubrics, tightening feedback loops, and continuously improving funnel health for speed, quality, and diversity signals.
• Track and report on funnel health metrics weekly and quarterly, providing clear narratives and data-driven insights to hiring leaders and stakeholders.
• Develop and execute offer strategy and negotiations aligned to leveling, compensation bands, and market insights to close high-bar candidates in deep-tech fields.
• Nurture long-term networks of high-potential talent, maintaining a mapped bench for critical and future roles in Machine Learning and Research.
• Partner on employer brand moments such as events, content creation, and community participation to attract deep-tech talent aligned with Arena's values.
• Coach hiring managers and interviewers on best practices and candidate excellence, emphasizing structured interviewing, competency rubrics, and inclusive hiring.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with research, product, and engineering teams to ensure hiring plans reflect evolving business needs and timelines.
• Leverage sourcing tools and platforms to identify passive candidates who can thrive in Arena's fast-paced, mission-driven environment.
• Analyze recruiting analytics to identify bottlenecks and opportunities, proposing data-backed improvements to end-to-end processes.
• Represent Arena in talent marketplaces and technical forums, reinforcing the brand as a transparent, rigorous, and human-centered evaluation platform.
• Support special projects related to employer branding, job descriptions, and process documentation to scale recruiting operations effectively.

Requirements

• 10+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting in deep-tech environments with a track record of success in fast-paced, mission-driven organizations.
• Proven strength sourcing and closing passive candidates for high-bar roles, skilled at narrative selling and objection handling across technical and research domains.
• Demonstrated ability to translate business needs into clear hiring plans, profiles, and processes that align with evaluations of AI in real workflows.
• Experience collaborating across functions and influencing stakeholders at pace, including leadership at companies such as UC Berkeley, Google, Stanford, and DeepMind.
• Expertise at hiring across Machine Learning and Research, understanding the nuances of roles in agentic coding, creative generation, and professional productivity.
• Fluency with structured interviewing, competency rubrics, and recruiting analytics to support transparent, rigorous, and human-centered evaluations.
• Commitment to inclusive hiring and candidate experience, ensuring that thoughtful, curious people from all backgrounds can thrive.
• A relentless drive for excellence, raising the bar on candidate quality, process rigor, and stakeholder satisfaction through continuous improvement.

Nice to have

• Preferred items are not specified; the listed requirements represent the hard bars and expectations for this role.

Practical notes

• This is a full-time position.
• The role requires in-office presence 3 days per week.
• Candidates must be eligible to work in the Bay Area location.
• No specific visa sponsorship details are provided in the source material.
• No compensation figures are disclosed in the source material.
• No application deadline is specified; interested candidates should engage as soon as possible.