Technical Recruiting Lead

Playground is working to make excellent child care accessible to all. Playground has built best-in-class software to manage all aspects of running a child care business. Playground has raised millions of dollars in funding, has several statewide contracts, and is working with thousands of schools across the country. Our founders were recently recognized by Forbes as 30 Under 30, and our work has been recognized nationwide.

Playground is at an inflection point, growing rapidly, and we are looking to expand our team by building a world-class technical recruiting function. Playground is comprised of a team of owners who are not afraid to dive into large, complex projects.

As Playground’s first in-house Technical Recruiter, you will own full-cycle recruiting for engineering, product, and technical roles while building the processes, playbooks, and systems needed to scale our technical hiring 3× over the next year. You will play a crucial role in shaping Playground’s technical team — identifying and hiring builders who can design systems from scratch, not just operate existing ones.

We’re looking for self-starters who thrive in a fast-paced, high-ownership environment and are excited to define a function from the ground up, balancing hands-on recruiting with strategic process-building.

• Own end-to-end recruiting for engineering, product, and technical leadership roles.

• Source, engage, and close top technical talent in competitive markets.

• Build repeatable recruiting processes, playbooks, evaluation rubrics, and interview loops.

• Partner with leadership on headcount planning, role design, and technical team growth strategy.

• Screen candidates for technical depth and “builder vs. operator” signals before technical interviews.

• Ensure a diverse and inclusive candidate pipeline across all technical roles.

• Track recruiting metrics such as time-to-fill, source of hire, conversion rates, and quality of hire.

• Continuously improve the candidate experience and recruiting operations.

• 5+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting experience, ideally in high-growth startups or SaaS/tech companies.

• Proven ability to source and close top technical talent in competitive markets.

• Strong understanding of technical roles, including engineering, product, and technical leadership.

• Strategic thinker with hands-on execution skills — able to design processes and run searches independently.

• Excellent communication, organization, and collaboration skills.

• Comfort working in a fast-paced, high-growth environment with multiple priorities.

Ideal candidates will have experience building or scaling a technical recruiting function, managing multiple concurrent searches, and partnering with leadership to define org design and hiring strategies. Familiarity with engineering evaluation, builder vs. operator assessment, and recruiting tools (Greenhouse, Gem, HireEZ, etc.) is preferred.

The annual salary range for this position is $120,000 - $140,000, subject to standard withholding and applicable taxes. Job level and actual compensation will be determined by factors including individual qualifications, prior experience, potential impact, and market demands. The listed range is a guideline and may be adjusted based on specific circumstances.

• Competitive salary + equity

• 3 weeks of PTO

• Health, vision, and dental benefits

• $1200/year education stipend

• Free lunch daily

• New Macbook

• Collaborative and supportive work culture with a high level of autonomy and room for growth

• Help accelerate our mission to make excellent child care accessible to all!

If you’re a scrappy, mission-driven recruiter excited to build Playground’s technical hiring function from the ground up, apply now. The Playground Team is fully in-office in Union Square, NYC. Please ensure you are open to a fully in-person role before applying.

Check out: https://www.tryplayground.com/about to learn more about our journey and co-founders Dan, Josh, and Sasha.