Strategy & Operations

The bottleneck in recruiting isn't sourcing. It's data. Candidate data is poor and getting noisier (self-reported, outdated, now AI-inflated). But recruiters hold high-quality, real-time signal because they talk to candidates every day. That's why companies spend >$800B/year on recruiting. The problem is this signal is fragmented and unusable at scale.

Squad's first product aggregates signals from hundreds of recruiters and uses AI to instantly match their candidates to roles, giving companies unprecedented reach without the usual pain of managing external partners.

We give recruiters a business-in-a-box that lets them earn more while doing what they do best: building relationships and knowing their candidates deeply. In return, we get proprietary data. Our AI structures signal from real recruiter-candidate context that doesn't exist on LinkedIn or resumes. Every submission, every rejection, every hire feeds a self-improving AI matchmaking engine.

We believe the future of recruiting is human authenticity paired with AI efficiency. Great recruiters have a critical role to play, and Squad is built to empower them.

Long-term, Squad becomes the infrastructure layer for how talent meets opportunity.

Squad is a generational opportunity to rethink how recruiting works, and our path to doing so is significantly de-risked. We have:

• Exponential growth: We have product-market fit and are growing rapidly. Squad supports hundreds of candidates, recruiters, and employers every day. We've grown 10x in under a year with a 3-person team.

• AI-first business model. Our approach is distinctly enabled by AI, and our business gets stronger as foundation models improve. We're building durability through cross-sided network effects that compound over time. Every submission, rejection, and hire feeds a self-improving matchmaking engine.

• Real ownership. It’s still ‘day 0’. You'll shape what Squad looks like and how far we get. Your input will define our vision, product, team, and execution. What you build now becomes the foundation for everything that follows.

• Top tier investors: We've raised over $5M from FJ Labs (Airbnb, Uber, Dropbox), Link Ventures (Mercor, Liquid AI), Golden Ventures (Faire, Boardy), and angels.

• Massive ceiling: The recruiting industry is >$800B and broken. We're building the infrastructure layer for how talent meets opportunity. The scope is as big as you want it to be.

Market demand is pulling us forward. We're looking for people who are excited about high ownership, high velocity, and high impact.
There's an enormous amount to build - and the scope only gets bigger. You will never be bored.
If we succeed, every company finds the right people the moment they need them. Every person finds meaningful work without friction. And the pace of innovation changes forever.

As one of the first team members at Squad, you'll work directly with the founder (Iggy) to identify the most strategic problems to solve - and then own them end-to-end.

This isn't a role where you execute a predefined playbook. You'll help figure out what the highest priority problems are, come up with hypotheses on how to solve them, and drive toward outcomes across whatever vectors make sense - product, operations, growth, partnerships. The goal is the outcome, not the function.

One day you're automating marketplace operations with AI. The next, you're building the playbook for launching new verticals.

You'll work in tandem with the founder and own problems end-to-end, including:

• Architecting AI workflows that make recruiters 10x more effective - and working with engineers to build them

• Redesigning how companies engage - across UX, onboarding, pricing - to maximize response rates

• Figuring out which vertical to launch next and how to win it

• Creating incentive structures that drive recruiter quality and engagement

• Scoping a new product line or partnership from scratch

Your input will shape the vision, product, and team we're building.

• Experience in a high-intensity environment with analytical rigor and outcome ownership (e.g., consulting, finance, fast-growing startup, 0→1 business line)

• Strong written and verbal communication - effective in internal debates and external relationships

• Track record of moving fast, finding shortcuts, and going to unreasonable lengths to deliver

• Comfort with ambiguity and fast-shifting priorities
  

We're hiring across levels - whether you have 1 year of experience or 10, what matters is the intensity and ownership you've demonstrated.

Squad is based in New York, with our team working out of a beautiful office in Flatiron.

We run a high-trust environment with real autonomy and ownership. We provide competitive compensation with meaningful equity to reflect that. Everyone who joins early will be a major contributor to our success.

We also provide benefits to ensure you can focus on creating impact:

• Health insurance

• Unlimited PTO

• Lunch at the office every day and dinner after 7pm (usually fresh healthy food from Eataly)

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Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our company's size and industry, and are one part of the total compensation package that also includes equity, benefits, and other opportunities at Squad (for full-time employees). Individual pay decisions are ultimately based on a number of factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skillset, geography, and balancing internal equity.

Squad is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition, or any other basis protected by law.