About Us
Substack is building a new economic engine for culture, with over 3 million paid subscriptions to writers, podcasters, and video-makers on the platform. We’re driving a fundamental shift in how writers and creators reach their audiences.
About this role
Substack is looking for an experienced, founding Recruiting Lead to drive recruiting for our teams. As our company scales across almost all departments, we look forward to welcoming a full-time hands-on recruiter to not only hire top talent but also manage hiring plans, tools, and processes. The ideal Recruiting Lead is someone who appreciates autonomy, who is ready to try new things, has a proven track record, and has a bias for action.
Day to day, you will be working closely with our teams to source, interview, and hire exceptional talent with a notable focus on technical roles. You’ll track progress, debug pipelines, and strategize with leaders to build the next stage of team Substack. If you’re obsessed with candidate experience and can thrive in a fast-paced start-up environment, then this is the role for you.
This position will report directly to the VP Operations. Our cash compensation salary range for this role is $135,000-$160,000. Multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise, determine final offer amounts and may vary from the amounts listed above.
Responsibilities:
- Own, optimize and execute all recruiting processes from role kick-offs to debriefs to candidate offers. Ensure alignment with Substack’s values and goals
- Work closely with engineering and other managers to understand hiring needs and actively translate those into initiatives that attract world-class talent
- Develop creative sourcing strategies to maintain a robust and diverse pipeline of candidates
- Drive the entire interview and offer process, including crafting job descriptions, designing structured interview plans, conducting reference checks, and making salary recommendations based on market research
- Analyze and report on recruiting metrics and pipeline activity to provide company leaders with actionable insights
- Ensure a fast, engaging and effective candidate experience. Spot problem areas and opportunities for improvement
- Guide managers in how to recruit, screen, and close candidates successfully. Inform how we eventually scale our Talent team
Requirements:
- You have 8+ years of full cycle recruiting experience with technical talent and other functions within a growing organization
- Startup experience at a hyper growth company
- You navigate ambiguity, forge the clarity you need, and adapt quickly to new priorities
- You are a confident, efficient, and welcoming communicator. You love to connect with people and can persuade, influence, and build trust at all levels
- You have experience with recruiting metrics and using data to guide decisions and strategy
- You have a feel for the current hiring market and understand employment laws and compliance
- You have knowledge of different sourcing tools and methodologies, as well as experience with Greenhouse or a similar ATS
- You have your own connection to Substack’s mission and are game to work from Substack’s SF HQ at least 2-3 days per week
Substack is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or transgender status), age, national origin, veteran or disability status. We’re seeking people passionate about enabling independent expression and building a better business model for creators. If you want to see what media, communities, and content can become when unmoored from advertising models, and you have the skills and experience to contribute, we’d love to meet you.
What We Do
Substack lets writers connect with their audience on their own terms and earn money doing it. We make it simple for writers to publish to an email list that they own, get discovered on the web, and charge for subscriptions.
More than 500,000 people pay to subscribe to writers across the Substack network, and the top writers make millions of dollars a year. Substack’s model depends on the success of writers using Substack – we only make money when they do.
“Substack makes it dead simple to start a newsletter and get paid for it.” – Judd Legum, author of Popular Information
"Substack gives me a way to connect with my audience on my own terms.” – Lyz Lenz, author of God Land and Men Yell At Me
Make something that matters
Great writing is valuable. It respects readers' time, their intelligence, and their trust. It helps us make sense of and change the culture we live in. At Substack, we're building a business model that enables great writing to thrive. Learn more about our opportunity and mission.
We are a small but growing team, and there is more to build than we could ever imagine. That’s why we need you.
We aim to take pragmatic approaches to problem solving while shipping high-quality products that allow the writing on Substack to take the spotlight.
Every person at the company participates in customer support. We do this to build empathy with our users and enable us to build better products.
We believe that a diverse team will help us build a product that best serves the needs of a wildly diverse ecosystem of writers. So whatever your background or perspective, we’d welcome your input to help build the best possible version of Substack.
