Talent AI Operator

About the Role This is a founding operations role at a pre-seed AI recruiting startup that deploys autonomous agents to source, message, qualify, and schedule candidates at scale. You sit at the intersection of human judgment and AI execution, acting as the critical layer that keeps agent pipelines accurate, high-quality, and effective. The role is genuinely new, and you will help define what AI-native recruiting operations looks like as the company grows. What You'll Do Monitor live AI agent pipelines, flag errors, and intervene when a situation requires human judgment. Handle high-stakes candidate conversations including senior outreach, objection handling, and compensation negotiations. Review agent outputs, label good and bad responses, and write examples that improve model performance over time. Audit candidate matches, outreach quality, and conversion rates across hundreds to thousands of weekly touchpoints. Guide candidates through final stages, manage offers, and ensure successful placements close. Document what works, build SOPs, and shape the operational playbook for how humans and agents collaborate. What We're Looking For 2+ years in talent operations, recruitment, or sourcing at early-stage tech startups. Proven, hands-on experience using AI tools (such as large language models) to evaluate quality, identify errors, and understand AI capabilities and limitations. Demonstrated ability to design and optimize end-to-end recruitment processes: sourcing, screening, coordination, offer management, and candidate experience. Experience monitoring and quality-assuring high-volume candidate pipelines. Track record closing placements and managing final-stage candidate conversations including offers and objections. Comfort using data to drive decisions: KPIs, dashboards, A/B tests, and conversion rate analysis. Experience training or providing structured feedback to improve AI or ML systems. Ability to work cross-functionally with product, engineering, and leadership in a fast-moving startup environment. Mid-career operator profile, hands-on and execution-focused. Familiarity with TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, React, Node.js, or similar technologies is a plus for collaborating with engineers. Experience in AI-focused startups or with AI-native hiring processes is a plus. Compensation & Benefits Competitive base salary plus uncapped performance-based compensation tied to placements. Top performers earn meaningfully above base. Equity grants are available for strong performers after an initial 90-day window, with potential for significant ownership as scope grows. Benefits include health insurance and visa sponsorship. Location Hybrid, based in San Francisco, California. Remote work is also considered for candidates based in the United States. Optional access to a shared team house in San Francisco.