Senior Recruiter
Location: Austin, TX - In Office
Reports to: SVP, People
Type: Full-time
About the Role
We're looking for a senior recruiter who can do two things at once: build our talent acquisition function from the ground up, and personally source and close high-quality hires while that infrastructure comes together. This isn't a "post a job, screen resumes" role, we're unstructured today, and we need someone who's comfortable creating process, systems, and standards out of ambiguity, not just executing an existing playbook.
You'll be the first dedicated senior recruiting hire, which means you'll wear both a builder hat and a doer hat. Expect to spend real time in the weeds, sourcing, screening, interviewing, while simultaneously standing up the infrastructure (ATS, interview process, scorecards, employer brand) that lets the company scale hiring sustainably.
What You'll Own
- Build the function
- Select and implement an ATS and core recruiting tech stack
- Design a structured interview process (scorecards, panels, debrief format) for key roles
- Define leveling and hiring criteria in partnership with hiring managers/leadership
- Build repeatable sourcing pipelines and channels rather than one-off searches
- Create offer, negotiation, and closing processes, including comp benchmarking
- Establish basic employer branding and candidate experience standards
- Set up hiring metrics/reporting (time-to-fill, pipeline conversion, source of hire, offer-accept rate) so leadership has visibility
- Hire high-quality people
- Own full-cycle recruiting for priority roles (sourcing through close)
- Partner directly with hiring managers to scope roles and calibrate on what "great" looks like
- Proactively source passive candidates, not just manage inbound
- Run a high-bar, candidate-respectful interview experience
- Negotiate and close offers with competitive, defensible comp
- Influence and partnership
- Act as a strategic partner to leadership on org design and hiring plans, not just an order-taker
- Coach hiring managers on interviewing and decision-making
- Bring structure and rigor to a company that doesn't have much yet — without over-engineering for a company this size
What We're Looking For
- 5+ years of recruiting experience, including full-cycle recruiting for a range of roles (not just one function)
- Direct experience building or significantly maturing a recruiting function at an early-stage or fast-growing company, you've done this before, not just used someone else's system
- Strong sourcing skills, comfortable finding and engaging passive candidates, not reliant on inbound
- Track record of closing competitive candidates against other offers
- Comfortable operating with minimal process and creating it yourself
- Strong judgment on hiring bar, able to push back on hiring managers when needed
- Excellent stakeholder management; credible with executives and hands-on with candidates
- Bonus: experience with comp benchmarking/leveling frameworks, employer branding, or DEI sourcing strategies
Success Looks Like (first 6–12 months)
- A working ATS and defined interview process in place
- A measurable reduction in time-to-fill and improvement in offer-accept rate
- A slate of strong hires closed personally, with hiring managers satisfied with quality
- Leadership has visibility into pipeline health via basic reporting
- Hiring managers trained on structured interviewing
- Selected candidates will be required to pass a comprehensive background check and drug screening.
Universal Background is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visa. Universal Background is committed to creating a diverse work environment and we are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.