Senior Technical Recruiter (Contract)

Full-time contract (3-6 months)

San Francisco 

Salary range: $10,000 - $15,000/mo

At Ello, our mission is to maximize the potential of all children. Our first product, Read with Ello, is an AI reading teacher that listens to children read out loud. Ello uses speech recognition to help them when they get stuck, makes up stories using generative AI, and inspires a love for reading.

We’re now building on the success of Read with Ello and putting together the pieces of the world’s first complete AI teacher for all children. Together, we believe we can close the primary school education gap worldwide.

Ello has been recognized on Fortune’s “Change the World” and Time’s 2024 Best Inventions lists. We are well-funded, backed by world-class investors, and ready to recruit new talent to help us achieve our vision. That’s where you come in!

About the role

We’re seeking an in-house, San Francisco-based Senior Technical Recruiter to lead full-cycle recruiting efforts for the next 3-6 months, owning the end-to-end process from sourcing to closing for technical roles on our engineering team. As a builder at heart, you’ll work closely with our Head of People and CTO to design and execute strategies to recruit and hire the strongest candidates for our edtech startup.

Given the small size of our team, this role requires someone with a startup mindset – comfortable with ambiguity, quick to learn, and excited to jump right in on day one to help grow our team. 

Responsibilities

• Lead the full-cycle recruitment process, including sourcing, screening, interviewing, and closing candidates for technical roles.

• Build strong partnerships with hiring managers to deeply understand team needs and craft effective hiring strategies.

• Develop a diverse pipeline of top-tier candidates using creative sourcing strategies, leveraging networks, referrals, and tools. 

• Create a seamless and positive candidate experience, acting as a trusted advisor throughout the hiring process.

• Champion Ello’s mission, values, and culture in all interactions with candidates and stakeholders.

Requirements

• Proven experience in technical recruiting (4+ years), ideally with at least one role at a startup 

• Strong understanding of engineering roles and tech stacks, enabling quick and effective evaluation of technical talent.

• Exceptional relationship-building and communication skills, fostering trust with candidates and internal teams while ensuring a seamless recruitment experience.

• Expert-level proficiency with applicant tracking systems (we use Ashby), leveraging them to streamline organization, improve candidate communication, and boost hiring efficiency.

We look for candidates who can demonstrate

• An owner’s mindset: You’re a results-oriented self-starter who knows how to take ownership, manage competing priorities, and consistently exceed expectations. You thrive on delivering outcomes and can juggle multiple roles with confidence and efficiency.

• High speed of learning: You embrace challenges and are a quick learner, tackling new areas outside your existing expertise. Your resourcefulness and curiosity fuel your growth, and you’re always eager to expand your skills and knowledge.

• Strong communication: You excel in both verbal and written communication, forging strong connections with candidates and internal teams alike. As an Ello ambassador, you convey our values through thoughtful and engaging communications, ensuring every candidate experience is positive.

• Exceptional organization: Your organizational skills are key to managing complex, cross-functional projects. You know how to balance multiple work streams, ensuring that each progresses smoothly and efficiently, without losing sight of the bigger picture.

• Teamwork: You approach the role with a collaborative spirit, handling any task—big or small—with humility. You value feedback, communicate openly and empathetically, and work seamlessly with others to achieve shared goals.

• Mission alignment: You are passionate about making a meaningful impact through your work, and you’re inspired by Ello’s mission to maximize the potential of all children. 

Here are some reasons to be a part of our team

• Work directly with the Head of People and CTO of a cutting-edge technology startup at the intersection of AI and learning design.

• Do work that matters by helping to grow a team making a true impact on child development and literacy at scale. 

• Change people’s lives by helping them find their dream job with us! :)

About Ello

Ello is a public benefit corporation on a mission to maximize the potential of all children. We’re currently around 45 people, headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in São Paulo, Brazil; Nairobi, Kenya; and New York.

Our team has deep expertise in artificial intelligence, K-12 education, and child development across institutions such as Stanford, Berkeley, Google, Apple, and more. We were part of Y Combinator’s W20 batch and are funded by world-class investors including Goodwater Capital, Homebrew, Reed Hastings, Common Sense Growth, Ravensburger, Project A Ventures, Reach Capital, Khosla Ventures, WndrCo, Visible Ventures, and K9 Ventures.

We’re a small, collaborative team that takes each other’s voices very seriously. Because our mission is to support all children, it is critical that our team is representative of the communities we work in; we place significant emphasis on ensuring diversity in our team and inclusion in our culture.

We feel enormously privileged to be one of the few companies that has the opportunity to take a shot at truly revolutionizing education with AI at this inflection point in technology. We don’t take it for granted, so we work quite hard to turn that vision into reality with urgency. We want to create an environment in which we can all be our best selves, use our strengths to take Ello forward, and develop our own skills. We want to have fun while working hard to do impactful things that we’re proud of – and we believe it’s possible to do both.

At Ello, we view diversity as a moral imperative and a competitive advantage. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, skin color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We plan and structure our interviews to directly assess skills and experience. If you need any accommodations throughout the interview process, please reach out to jackie@ello.com.