Talent Acquisition Lead

About Yupp

We are a well-funded, rapidly growing, early-stage AI startup headquartered in Silicon Valley that is building a two-sided product -- one side meant for global consumers and the other side for AI builders and researchers. We work on the cutting edge of AI across the stack. Check out our product that was launched recently, and how it solves the foundational challenge of robust and trustworthy AI model evaluations. Here's more information about us.

Why Join Yupp?

Are you ready to have the ride of a lifetime together with some of the smartest and most seasoned colleagues? You’ll work on challenging, large-scale problems at the cutting edge of AI to build novel products that touch millions of users globally, in a massive and growing market opportunity.

Yupp’s founding team is highly experienced and comes from companies like Twitter, Google, Coinbase, Microsoft and Paypal. This team is one of the smartest, most fun, cracked top talent you will ever work with. Our work culture provides a high degree of autonomy, ownership and impact. It’s intense and isn’t for everyone. But if you want to build the future of AI alongside others who are at the top of their game and expect the same from you, there’s no better AI startup to be.

At Yupp, you will experience both the excitement of building for a large scale global user base as well as for the deeply technical audience of AI model builders and researchers. You’ll get immersed in and learn all about the latest and greatest AI models and agents. You’ll interact with AI builders and researchers from other AI labs all around the world.

We are a mostly in-person startup, but we are also flexible – you can usually work from home when you need to and come in and leave when you want to. Many employees work from home on average 1 day a week.

Job Summary

Join a fast‑growing AI‑first startup as the founding Talent Acquisition Lead. You will design and launch a full‑stack recruiting function that fuels Yupp’s hyper‑growth across AI research, engineering, product, design, partnerships, and operations. Partner directly with senior leadership, champion an elite candidate experience, and set the talent bar for a company at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence. This role can be either a full-time employee role or a contractor role.

Responsibilities

• End‑to‑end recruiting – source, interview, negotiate, and close top global AI, engineering as well as non-technical talent.

• Build the hiring engine – create sourcing strategies, interview frameworks, assessment rubrics, and onboarding processes from the ground up.

• Data‑driven talent strategy – define hiring metrics, track sourcing KPIs, and produce regular reports to inform leadership decisions.

• Creative sourcing – tap non‑traditional channels, academic networks, and AI research communities to uncover talent missed by conventional pipelines.

• Candidate experience – craft a high‑touch, personalized journey that reflects Yupp’s innovative culture and values.

• Partner with hiring managers – translate product and research roadmaps into concrete hiring plans; coach managers on interviewing and closing techniques.

• Employer branding – position Yupp as the premier destination for AI specialists, differentiating us from larger tech firms.

• Bottleneck elimination – proactively identify and resolve process friction to accelerate hiring velocity.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of full‑cycle technical recruiting, preferably in early‑stage, high‑tech startups.

• Proven success sourcing and hiring engineers, ML researchers, and other AI‑focused roles.

• Strong analytical mindset; experience building hiring metrics and using data to shape strategy.

• Expertise in talent operations, process design, and ATS implementation.

• Excellent communication and storytelling skills; ability to convey Yupp’s mission and impact.

• Comfortable recruiting across time zones and cultural contexts.

• Detail‑oriented multitasker with a passion for creating great employee experiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience recruiting for applied ML/AI positions.

• Track record scaling recruiting functions in high‑growth, ambiguous environments.

• Demonstrated ability to launch employer‑branding, community‑outreach, or team‑building initiatives.

• Strong curiosity in AI.

• Outstanding communication skills, both verbal and written with the ability to engage candidates, build relationships, and explain the value proposition of working at Yupp

• Certifications or training in recruitment, talent acquisition, or organizational development.

If you thrive on building world‑class talent engines that power breakthrough AI innovation, we want to hear from you.