Job Description
Recruiting Lead
Harper is an AI-native commercial insurance company in San Francisco. We're not bolting AI onto insurance — we're rebuilding the entire business as software, on a simple bet: turning expert human judgment into compute is one of the largest transitions left to make, and a trillion-dollar industry still run 90% by hand is the place to prove it. We've grown ~100x in the last year and we move at that speed — on-site, in person, long days, very high standards. Almost no one joins Harper for insurance; they join to build the company that replaces how it works.
The role in one line
You are Harper's first dedicated recruiting hire. You source, sell, and close exceptional people yourself this week — and you build the function that lets Harper go from ~30 to 100+ without losing the bar.
Why this role exists now
A rebuild this large is a talent problem before it's anything else. We're hiring against the best AI-native companies in the country for the same people, and at ~100x growth the cost of a mediocre hire — or a slow one — compounds fast. We don't have a recruiting function yet. You'll be it, then you'll build it.
This is not a coordination role. You're not scheduling other people's interviews or running a calendar. You're a closer and a function-builder: you find the candidate, you sell the bet, you close the offer, and then you build the system that lets the next ten hires happen without you in every loop. Execution and strategy — the same person doing both.
In 6–12 months you'll have filled critical roles yourself and stood up a repeatable recruiting machine that can absorb the next 10x. You'll also be thinking about the team we need 24 months out, not just today's open reqs.
What you'll do
Close candidates yourself. Source, screen, sell, and close across engineering, sales, and GTM. You own the funnel end to end.
Own technical recruiting. Understand the stack, know which competitors to pull from, and carry a real mental map of the talent landscape. Evaluate whether an engineer is actually good — don't just pass resumes through.
Build infrastructure for 10x. Repeatable sourcing strategies, structured interviews, calibrated scorecards that don't break when we triple headcount.
Expand into GTM and operations. Once technical recruiting runs cleanly, stand up pipelines for sales, marketing, and ops.
Partner with founders on hiring strategy. Work directly with founders — no committee, no approval chain. Push back when a spec doesn't make sense. Think 24 months ahead.
Build and lead a team. Hire and manage recruiters as we scale, and set the bar for performance and velocity.
Who you are
A closer with a technical background — years recruiting engineers, with offers to prove it.
You've scaled recruiting through rapid growth, not just done early-stage setup — you know the ebbs and flows from Series A through C and what breaks at each stage.
You've built systems, not just filled roles, and you think about what fails at 10x.
You have tenure and depth — 2–3 year in-house stints where you saw real scale, not a string of short stops.
You move at founder speed. You close great candidates this week, not next month.
You can sell the reality honestly — an intense, loud, collaborative, on-site trading-floor culture — to the people who want exactly that.
You're ready to own the function and build a team under you.
Requirements
6–10 years in recruiting, including scaling through rapid growth (Series A–C).
2+ years managing recruiting teams of 3+.
Technical recruiting background strongly preferred.
Demonstrated ability to source, sell, and close directly — not just manage others who do.
Experience building recruiting processes that survive 10x growth, and a deep understanding of technical roles and the talent landscape.
Based in San Francisco or willing to relocate.
Nice to have: companies that scaled from 30 to 200+ (not repeated Series A stints); recruiting for AI-native or technical sales orgs; employer brand and recruiting-content experience; building recruiting teams from scratch.
The reality
On-site in San Francisco, Monday–Friday, roughly 5 AM–8 PM. The hours are long and the learning curve is steep. You'll be selling that intensity to candidates, so you have to want it yourself — the people who thrive here wouldn't have it any other way. If your instinct is to own outcomes rather than manage a process, this is the seat.
Compensation & benefits
Salary: $185,000–$250,000 + performance bonuses & equity
Location: San Francisco, in-office
Schedule: Monday–Friday, 5 AM–8 PM. The hours are long.
Benefits: Uber commuter benefits; breakfast, lunch, and dinner provided; snacks/drinks/coffee daily; free gym membership; health, dental, and vision insurance.
Process
People screen — initial fit and alignment.
Founder screen — skills and culture fit.
Super day — see how you operate in real time.
To apply: if you've built recruiting infrastructure that scales and can close technical talent others can't reach — send your resume and tell us about the hardest role you ever closed.