About this Senior Recruiter role at January
At January, we're transforming consumer finance by bringing humanity to collections. Our data-driven products help financial institutions streamline their recovery operations while offering borrowers straightforward and compassionate solutions to regain financial stability. We're not just expanding access to credit – we're restoring dignity and giving millions of people the chance to achieve financial freedom.
About the Role
As Senior Recruiter, you own searches end-to-end across engineering, product, operations, and business. You ship hires at the velocity our growth demands, and you hold the bar even when the timeline pushes you to drop it.
We treat recruiting as a science, not an art. You read what a candidate actually wants from a short conversation, then sell to that. Not to a feature list. You find people others can't, and you close them on a company they've never heard of, against one they already trust. You ask the same kind of question of the funnel itself: when it leaks, you find out why and fix it.
An empty seat is expensive. A wrong hire costs more. You're the person we trust to know the difference.
Your Impact
Deliver hires at velocity. Own 6-8 concurrent searches and hit our growth targets without lowering the bar. Close by handling the real objection, not the one said out loud.
Find talent. Source from the highest-bar organizations and get passive candidates to engage. Read quality from limited signal, and tell strong from merely good before the formal interviews.
Build recruiting that compounds. Diagnose pipeline breakdowns from funnel data. Run experiments that prove value before you scale them. Leave behind playbooks others can run without you.
Turn hiring managers into partners. Coach them to hold the bar without being asked. Activate them as a sourcing channel. Share the outcome, and the accountability.
Hold the bar under pressure. Reject weak candidates when the pipeline's thin and the timeline's tight. Defend the no with evidence; the specific gap, not "not strong enough."
What You Bring to the Table
Curiosity as your core instrument. You ask the fewest, sharpest questions to find what a candidate actually wants. Then sell to that. You point the same questions at the funnel: when it leaks, you find out why before you act.
An eye for what others miss. You read past the credential. You can say what made a hire great beyond where they worked or studied.
Quality over speed. You hold the line when under timeline pressure, and you name the specific gap, not "not strong enough."
A pitch that lands. You make a strong candidate who's never heard of January want in.
The truth, early. You flag a search in trouble before you're forced to, with the data, when staying quiet would have been easier.
Judgment under constraint. When capacity is tight, you protect the priority searches and let the others slip, on purpose, instead of spreading thin and missing on all of them.
A system you make better. You leave behind playbooks and experiments others can run. Progress that compounds.
5+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience in a startup or tech company, with at least 3 years owning technical recruiting pipelines.
We encourage you to apply if you value:
Collaborative Ownership beats Fiefdoms. You step into gaps without being asked. You fix issues. You seek to bring in the right people.
Speed beats perfection. You make decisions with incomplete information, iterate quickly, and course-correct based on what you learn. Fast loops beat slow ones.
Candor beats comfort. You give direct feedback because you care about people's growth. You'd rather hear a hard truth early than a polite sidestep that wastes time.
Inputs beat outcomes. You evaluate decisions by the thinking behind them, not just results. Good process increases the odds; bad outcomes don't always mean bad decisions.
Why beats what. You diagnose before prescribing. You're more interested in root causes than symptoms, and you share context so others can make good decisions without you.
Writing beats meetings. You structure your thinking on paper. You know that clarity scales and that a well-written doc often accomplishes more than an hour-long meeting.
We are currently hiring for this position in our New York office.
As a New York City-based company, we are dedicated to transparent, fair, and equitable compensation practices that reflect our commitment to fostering an environment where all team members are valued and supported. We encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply.
We are an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, age, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.