About Plug
Plug is an automotive fintech startup building the marketplace for electric vehicles. Consumers, dealers, and commercial partners trade in, sell, and auction used EVs through a platform built exclusively for electric — nothing adapted from legacy automotive.
Consumers get an instant cash offer in minutes, backed by data-driven pricing and battery state-of-health analysis, with pickup, payment, and title transfer handled end-to-end. Franchise and independent dealers across the U.S. bid in real time on that inventory. One platform: a fast, fair exit for sellers, and a dedicated sourcing channel for dealers.
Founded in 2023 and led by former Tesla executives, Plug has facilitated $100M in EV sales since launch and is backed by a $20M Series A from Lightspeed Venture Partners. We're building the most AI-native startup team in Los Angeles — operators, engineers, and ML researchers laying the transaction rails for the used EV market.
Why Plug
Real ownership of a core function at a company where hiring is the growth strategy.
A platform built exclusively for EVs, with nothing inherited from legacy automotive.
An AI-native company rethinking how work gets done — including how we recruit. You'll have a tool budget and a mandate to decide what we adopt.
Direct partnership with operators who have scaled multi-billion dollar businesses in automotive, EV, and marketplaces.
The Role
We're hiring a Talent Acquisition Partner to own full-lifecycle recruiting across engineering, ML, and go-to-market.
Over the last decade most tech companies split recruiting into parts — sourcer, coordinator, recruiter, sometimes a separate closer. We built this role the other way. No sourcer. No coordinator. No separate closing team. You run the whole search, kickoff through offer accepted, including your own coordination — supported by Ashby automation and AI tooling rather than by handoffs.
That's a deliberate tradeoff. It's a harder job and it narrows the pool. What it gives you back is ownership of the outcome, not a stage of it.
You'll carry 8–12 open requisitions across multiple hiring managers and functions, report to the VP of People, and partner closely with our Senior Recruiter on calibration and search strategy.
What You'll Own
Full-lifecycle recruiting. Intake and launch meetings, sourcing strategy, screening, interview loops, debriefs, offer construction, negotiation, and close. You prioritize your portfolio against business urgency without being told which fire is hottest.
Hiring manager partnership. Run structured kickoffs that align scope, must-haves, sourcing strategy, panel, and timeline before a search opens. Advise on market realities, leveling, and comp — and push back when a plan won't work. Keep panels engaged and accountable through weekly pipeline reviews.
Proactive sourcing. Direct outreach, referrals, and market mapping — not inbound triage. Build pipelines for recurring and hard-to-fill roles ahead of need.
Interview quality and close. Design structured loops with clear rubrics and scorecards, coach interviewers on evidence-based interviewing, and facilitate debriefs that produce fast, clear decisions. Own comp conversations and close offers in partnership with the hiring manager.
Build the system that replaces the support layer. This is core to the job, not a nice-to-have. You'll own our Ashby automation — self-schedule links, interview plans with pre-assigned panels and standing availability, stage-triggered notifications, templated outreach and rejections, scorecards attached to every stage — so coordination stops eating your day. You'll use AI where it actually pays: market mapping and target company lists, intake synthesis, screen guides built from the must-haves, debrief summaries, first-draft personalized outreach. You'll have a tool budget and real say in what we adopt.
Where it doesn't go: screening decisions, candidate ranking, comp conversations, closing, and calibration stay human. Those are the job, and we don't automate selection.
Candidate experience. First outreach, scheduling, feedback timing, rejection, offer — every touchpoint is Plug's brand. Find the friction and fix it.
Data you can defend. Keep Ashby clean and current, and surface funnel metrics to hiring managers and leadership so the numbers drive the conversation.
You'll also contribute to interviewer training and new hire onboarding as our process matures — supporting, not building from scratch.
What You Bring
5+ years of full-lifecycle recruiting in a high-growth tech environment.
A track record of owning searches intake through close, without a sourcer or coordinator carrying pieces of the process.
Experience recruiting both technical and go-to-market roles — engineering or ML plus sales, ops, or marketing.
Hands-on Ashby experience — required. You can build and maintain workflows, interview plans, templates, and reporting, not just work inside someone else's setup.
Strong sourcing chops: you find and engage passive candidates directly.
Experience advising hiring managers on leveling, comp, and search strategy — with the confidence to disagree.
Evidence you've automated your own support layer — self-scheduling, templated workflows, or AI tooling you actually put into production. Tell us what you built and what it saved.
Comfort in a lean team where you wear multiple hats, including your own coordination.
Excellent written and verbal communication. You can represent Plug credibly to a senior candidate and give a hiring manager direct, useful feedback.
Currently based in the Los Angeles area and able to work onsite in Sawtelle.
Nice to Have
Marketplace, consumer, or two-sided platform recruiting experience.
Experience building or delivering interviewer training.
Exposure to employer branding or talent marketing.
Experience in a small or scaling TA function rather than a large, highly specialized org.
Your First 90 Days
30 days: Fully ramped in Ashby, kickoff completed on every open req in your portfolio, first offer extended.
60 days: Pipeline health visible to every hiring manager you support. Scheduling largely automated — self-schedule links and interview plans live across your reqs.
90 days: Owning your functions end-to-end with minimal oversight, and a written sourcing-and-screening playbook documenting what we've adopted, what works, and what we dropped.
We'll review three numbers together, monthly: intake to first slate, scheduling touches per candidate, and outreach reply rate.
Compensation & Benefits
Annual salary: $130,000 – $150,000
Ranges reflect third-party benchmarking against comparable Los Angeles market data. Where an offer falls within the range depends on relevant experience, specialized skills, and business needs. Ranges are reviewed periodically.
Meaningful early-stage equity
Discretionary tooling budget for recruiting automation and AI
Health, vision, and dental insurance
401(k) plan
Unlimited PTO
Daily lunch stipend and fully stocked kitchen
Dog-friendly office
Real growth opportunity as the People function scales
Location
This is an in-person role based in Sawtelle, between Santa Monica and West Los Angeles. We are hiring locally only — candidates must already be based in the Los Angeles area. Relocation assistance is not provided, and sponsorship is not available at this time.