Talent Lead (Special Projects)

About Etched

Etched is building AI chips that are hard-coded for individual model architectures. Our first product (Sohu) only supports transformers, but has an order of magnitude more throughput and lower latency than a B200. With Etched ASICs, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep & parallel chain-of-thought reasoning agents.

Job Summary

At Etched, we approach talent differently. We’ve rethought recruiting from first principles, and came up with a unique recruiting philosophy that’s led to much higher conversion rates and helped us hire truly exceptional people. Our goal is to expand this model, and if successful, you will be responsible for running the team in charge of the talent channel driving a majority of our new hires by the end of year.

We’re seeking a Talent Lead (Special Projects) to help build and scale this high-leverage philosophy across our recruiting function. This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of a company that’s redefining AI hardware. You’ll work directly with the COO and collaborate closely with our leadership team on the most important and challenging hiring efforts, focused on securing the best engineering talent in the world.

This role is ideal for someone with an executive search background who thrives in relationship-driven, unstructured environments, and loves building systems from scratch. It requires high agency, creativity, and operational rigor.

Key responsibilities

• Own and drive the most critical, high-prioritest searches across the organization, ensuring we hire world-class engineering and technical leaders.

• Design and implement bespoke recruiting initiatives that support Etched’s differentiated talent philosophy.

• Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering, operations, and leadership to define talent priorities and align hiring with company goals.

• Champion high-touch engagement practices, ensuring thoughtful, high-signal interactions at every stage of the process. Be a thoughtful representative of Etched’s culture and standards.

You may be a good fit if you

• Have 5+ years of experience in executive search, senior technical recruiting, or equivalent roles focused on high-caliber talent.

• Thrive in unstructured, ambiguous environments, bringing creativity, agency, and rigor to navigate complexity and help secure exceptional talent.

• Are deeply relationship-driven and credible with senior engineers, technical leaders, and operators.

• Have a proven track record of managing high-touch candidate engagement processes with exceptional attention to detail.

• Deeply understand AI, hardware, semiconductor, or systems engineering markets.

Benefits

• Full medical, dental, and vision packages, with generous premium coverage

• Housing subsidy of $2,000/month for those living within walking distance of the office

• Daily lunch and dinner in our office

• Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)

How we’re different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We think most of the progress in the AI field has come from using more FLOPs to train and run models, and the best way to get more FLOPs is to build model-specific hardware. Larger and larger training runs encourage companies to consolidate around fewer model architectures, which creates a market for single-model ASICs.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both as needed.