Manager, Recruiting
UniversalAGI · San Francisco
📍 San Francisco | Work Directly with CEO & Founding Team | OpenAI for Physics | 🏢 5 Days Onsite
Manager, Recruiting
Location: Onsite in San Francisco
Compensation: Competitive Salary + Equity
Who We Are
Engineering simulation is one of the last major categories of software that AI hasn't rebuilt. The tools used to design aircraft, ships, reservoirs, and medical devices still run on numerical methods that are decades old, and an engineer can wait a full day for a single answer. UniversalAGI is building foundation models that learn physics directly from data, and they are already running in early deployments on real computational fluid dynamics and reservoir engineering problems for some of the largest industrial and defense organizations in the world.
We are a team of 25 researchers and engineers in San Francisco backed by Elad Gil (#1 Solo VC), Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO), Prith Banerjee (ANSYS CTO), Ion Stoica (Databricks Founder), Jared Kushner (former Senior Advisor to the President), David Patterson (Turing Award Winner), and Luis Videgaray (former Foreign and Finance Minister of Mexico).
About the Role
As our Manager of Recruiting, you'll own one of the most critical functions at UniversalAGI: finding, closing, and nurturing the people who build our foundation models. This is a high-ownership, player-coach role. You'll lead and grow a team of technical and non-technical recruiters, sourcing and coordination, while carrying your own req load and working full-cycle across the hardest searches yourself.
You’ll partner directly with the CEO, Hiring Managers, and founding team to translate our headcount plans into a world-class talent engine. This is a rare chance to help build a recruiting team from the ground up at a company moving relentlessly fast.
What You'll Do
Lead, coach, and grow a team of technical and non-technical recruiters, sourcers, and recruiting coordinators
Carry your own full-cycle requisition load across technical (AI/ML, research, CFD/physics simulation, engineering) and non-technical (GTM, sales, operations) searches
Own recruiting OKRs and capacity planning: translate hiring plans into team capacity, requisition allocation, and be able to reallocate fast as priorities shift.
Partner with CEO, founding team, and hiring managers to shape role definitions, ideal candidate profiles, and hiring strategy for every open requisition.
Build and protect talent pipelines in the hardest-to-fill niches while staying weeks ahead of demand.
Own the recruiting metrics that matter: pipeline conversion, time-to-hire, sourcing effectiveness, offer acceptance.
Set the standard for candidate experience across every discipline, from first outreach through offer and close
Build UniversalAGI's reputation as the destination for top talent across AI/ML, research, CFD/physics simulation, engineering, GTM, sales, and operations.
Coach your team and hiring managers alike on sourcing strategy, technical/business fluency, and closing
Qualifications
5+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with 2+ years directly managing a team of recruiters, sourcers and coordinators.
A track record that spans both technical (engineering, AI/ML, research, or similarly specialized deep-tech roles) and non-technical (GTM, sales, operations, or business) hiring
Experience building or scaling a recruiting function inside a fast-growing startup
Expert-level sourcing chops (LinkedIn Recruiter, Boolean/X-ray search, AI sourcing tools, Ashby) and a track record of closing top talent with multiple offers
High agency and ownership - you operate with extreme urgency and bias to action - you don't wait for a playbook, you build one
Strong data fluency: you build and utilize recruiting dashboards to guide team and process decisions, not just track them.
Execution velocity that holds up under pressure - comfortable running multiple open requisitions and a team's pipeline against aggressive targets
Executive-level communication and judgment- you're someone the CEO, founding team, and hiring managers trust with hard calls
Comfortable operating in a high-intensity, in-person, fast-paced startup environment where priorities shift fast
Bonus Qualifications
Prior experience recruiting for highly technical startups (Seed to Series C) through a hypergrowth phase (0-500+ employees)
Experience recruiting for deeply technical or specialized roles
Have built recruiting infrastructure: ATS setup, interview process design, scorecards, comp bands and beyond from a blank page
An existing network across AI research, deep tech, recruiting, and GTM/sales talent communities you can activate on day one
Cultural Fit
Technical & Business Fluency: Experience recruiting for and comfortable earning credibility with both engineers/researchers and GTM/business hiring managers
High Agency: Well-formed but loosely held opinions — you build the process, then improve it fast to make it more effective
Player-Coach Mentality: Leads by doing — carries reqs while coaching the team to close theirs
Ownership: Treats the team's hiring numbers as your own, not just your individual req performance; cares deeply about building an extremely high talent dense team
Comfortable with Ambiguity: Thrives in undefined spaces, bringing order and process where none exists yet
Communication: Can translate complex technical and business requirements into compelling narratives that attract top talent
High Availability: Ready to be deeply involved whenever critical candidates or team needs arise
Growth Mindset: Invests in growing your team's skills, pushes yourself and your team into unfamiliar territories with a can do mindset
Work Ethic: Willing to put in the extra hours to hit critical hiring milestones
Team Player: Collaborative approach with low ego and high accountability
What We Offer
Full ownership of UniversalAGI's talent engine- from team structure and process to the hires you personally close.
A rare seat building recruiting from the ground up at one of AI's fastest-moving foundation model companies.
Direct collaboration with the founding team and CEO, and real influence over hiring strategy and company growth
Competitive compensation with significant equity upside.
In-person first culture - 5 days a week in office with a team that values face-to-face collaboration.
Access to world-class investors and advisors in the AI space.
Benefits
We provide great benefits, including:
Competitive compensation and equity.
Competitive health, dental, vision benefits paid by the company.
401(k) plan offering.
Flexible vacation.
Team Building & Fun Activities.
Great scope, ownership and impact.
AI tools stipend.
Monthly commute stipend.
Monthly wellness/fitness stipend.
Daily office lunch & dinner covered by the company.
How We're Different
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again... who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly." - Teddy Roosevelt
At our core, we believe in being "in the arena." We are builders, problem solvers, and risk-takers who show up every day ready to put in the work: to sweat, to struggle, and to push past our limits. We know that real progress comes with missteps, iteration, and resilience. We embrace that journey fully knowing that daring greatly is the only way to create something truly meaningful.
If you're ready to join the future of physics simulation, build a world-class team from scratch, and deliver impact, UniversalAGI is the place for you.
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