The Story! Hi 👋🏼 I'm Josh https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshbourke/, Technical Recruiting Manager at Ashby. I've been at Ashby since March 2025, and it's been quite the whirlwind!
I joined as the first dedicated Technical Recruiter, and since then have watched everything go up and to the right, whether that be revenue, hiring goals, or team size. I now lead the Tech Recruiting team, which has grown to 6 people spread across North America + Europe, and we've doubled the size of the engineering team since I joined. As you may have guessed by the fact that I'm hiring for this role, we're not slowing down anytime soon!
I’m still new enough to remember all the things that impressed me most when I joined. Here are a few highlights: - How involved the recruiting team is in shaping the product. We're not only impacting the product indirectly by hiring the incredible talent that works here, but also by getting to give direct product feedback as an internal resource for our eng, product + design teams as they design new features make recruiters' lives easier.
- A whole new level of hiring manager involvement in recruiting. As in: hiring managers scheduling onsite loops themselves (with a little help from our pretty awesome product), writing some of the best job descriptions I’ve ever seen, and playing the role of recruiter from end to end creating an exceptional candidate experience. - The highly intentional engineering culture truly is a magnet for exceptional engineering talent.
- Getting to test all the most cutting-edge Ashby features before anyone else and exploring how they can be used in creative ways. Joining us means being part of a talented team, tackling the challenges of our stage, and contributing to our team and product growth. We value humility, continuous improvement and a dedication to excellence (more here https://ashbyhq.com/blog/culture/ashbys-operating-principles).
If you are passionate about bringing your unique strengths to the team and building a culture of success, we would love to hear from you. The Role Ashby is seeking a Technical Recruiter with a proven track record of discovering and hiring amazing technical talent. I’m looking for someone with breadth across technical hiring beyond just engineering (think Engineering plus some combination of Product Design, Product Management, IT, Security, QA, and Data).
We’re prioritizing a relationship builder who can partner with a wide range of stakeholders, manage multiple searches at once, and create a repeatable yet flexible process that works across the organization. You’ll need to know how to adjust your approach and manage your time to be successful across different recruiting scopes. Here are a few examples of what might fall on your plate: - Coaching first-time hiring managers on how to build an exceptional recruitment process from the ground up.
- Deep market mapping and analysis to predict where the next wave of top talent is currently being cultivated. - Partnering directly with the VP/ founder level, where you need to extract key information in a limited amount of time. - Balancing periods of managing multiple roles in different domains with times where you are deep-diving into a single position.
Please don’t expect to walk into perfect. Though we’re doing a lot of things well, the Tech Recruiting function is barely a year old, which means we are still figuring out how to operate optimally and at scale. But if you’re someone who is excited by the chance to build, we have a great foundation and every tailwind you could ask for.
If you’ve used Ashby before, that’s great! I’d love to dive into how you’re getting the most out of the product today. If not, I promise it’s not a blocker; in fact, none of the recruiters I’ve hired so far had used Ashby as their day-to-day ATS before joining.
To be qualified for this role, you must have the following: - Proven track record as an expert “Engineering” Recruiter in a product-led company with some exposure to other technical roles such as Product Design, Product Management, IT, Security, QA, and Data - Ideally, have been focused on technical hiring from within a SaaS company for a significant portion of your career - You've owned hiring for staff+ technical roles. We're heavily weighted to senior+ engineering talent, so we need someone comfortable working on more senior searches - You’ve operated with autonomy and are used to leading searches end-to-end. We value competency over tenure, but you have a foundation of proven experience that allows you to establish instant credibility with technical leadership - You’ve worked somewhere with a very high talent bar and understand the subtle indicators that separate 'good' from 'great' technical talent - Data-driven mindset, able to optimize your workflows, balancing diversity, quality, and volume.
- Demonstrated experience in creating innovative sourcing strategies that differentiate the talent pipelines from the inbound attraction and referrals that we have traditionally used. If you need someone else to do any of the following, then this role is probably not for you: - Boolean search and talent mapping activities - Requisition qualification with senior leaders - High volumes of outreach and screening calls - Prioritization of your workload You may want to apply if you’re excited about: - Developing processes that focus on the highest quality of hire as we scale. - Strategizing creative ways to accelerate hiring, as well as getting your hands dirty finding and evaluating candidates.
- Scaling a recruiting function by x’s, not %. We’re looking to 2x–5x our hiring, not increase it by 20%. Ideally, you’ve been through a similar startup journey or have seen what it takes to increase hiring by an order of magnitude.
- Being part of a documentation-first culture where "the best idea wins." This means being able to communicate concisely and effectively through long-form writing - a skillset I don’t see as prevalent on many recruiting teams! - Staying at the forefront of the recruiting industry. You want to have an impact on the TA space, so you're excited about being an internal tester for our product teams, a resource for sales and marketing, and demoing Ashby features to prospective customers.
- Storytelling through data. At Ashby, we have an incredible analytics suite; you’re excited to dig deep to discover unexpected insights into what makes a great hire and how we can improve our process. Why you shouldn't apply: - You’re a hiring generalist.
While I value versatility, this role requires extensive experience in technical hiring across Product, Engineering, Design, and adjacent technical functions. - You want heavy candidate contact after the initial stages. We run a hiring-manager-led process, meaning they handle the deep relationship building with candidates.
You’ll be the strategic, guiding hand behind the scenes. - The majority of your career has been in high-volume or early to mid-stage career hiring. We hire frustratingly patiently https://www.ashbyhq.com/blog/culture/ashbys-operating-principles#5---be-frustratingly-patient-about-hiring and almost exclusively focus on senior+ talent.
- You struggle with autonomy. Everyone says they don't want to be micromanaged (who does!) but I find many people actually crave a certain level of direction + structure. In this role, I'm going to give you areas to own and a lot of freedom; some people can find that paralyzing.
- You're coming in with a playbook. Having a perspective on how things "should" be done is valuable, but first-principles thinking and creativity are what we actually need here. What signal am I looking for?
Not every great recruiter is a great fit for every role. I want to share some of the unorthodox things that I think make a recruiter great. Hopefully, this gives you a sense of what I look for in a teammate: - Strong recruiting instincts: The best recruiters I’ve seen can drive urgency the moment they find an exceptional candidate.
They’re ready to risk their reputation and move any obstacle to give us the best chance to hire them. The tough part is that you have to be right, and that’s where excellent judgment comes in. You need to balance a reliable recruiting system with the agility to treat unique situations with the nuance they deserve.
- High standards for themselves: Some people have a mental block where they simply can't bring themselves to submit poor work. They hold themselves to a very high standard, and those standards trickle down into doing the little things exceptionally well. - Spikiness and self-awareness: I’d rather have someone exceptional in one area than someone who is just good across the board.
I like people who recognize that doubling down on their strengths will set them apart more than trying to round out every weakness. - Left and right-brain thinkers: I’m greedy and I want to see people who can use both sides. I love recruiters who approach experimentation with scientific rigor and love to slice and dice pass-through rate data daily.
Equally, I want to see creativity in how we uncover new sources of talent, how we attract candidates, or how we utilize a tool in an unexpected way. - Embodying the power of incremental gains: Obsessed with compounding and always thinking about where to make small improvements to your workflow. Right now, I see this showing up most often in how people experiment with new AI tooling.
- Curiosity about the recruiting + startup landscape: Recruiting, especially technical recruiting, is a dynamic landscape that shifts quickly. If you don't have a finger on the pulse of the broader startup ecosystem, it’s hard to have a complete picture of what is happening on the field. Being curious about the world and staying up to date (whether through newsletters, podcasts, or your own social circles) allows you to show up as a true subject matter expert.
- Sharpness and intellectual humility: You’re a natural thought-sparring partner who embodies “strong views, loosely held.” You’re quick enough to spot the real issue and start solving it while everyone else is still talking about what’s wrong Instructions: Take your time with your application; you do not need to be first to apply or in the first 100 to get this job. The earliest closing date for applications is Thursday, April 6th at 12:00pm PT. We will review EVERY application and speak to the shortlist we make based on the applications.
There are no prizes for being first and no advantages to be gained by reaching out, being referred or knowing someone here, so please don't message anyone at Ashby. Here's some resume feedback we've created from past Recruiter hiring processes that we've given to applicants we have screened out, based on reviewing hundreds of Recruiter/Sourcer resumes. I hope you find this useful in tailoring your application!
1. Resumes showed minimal experience as a Full Lifecycle Recruiter, recruiting for technical roles. We will only hire someone with deep technical hiring experience.
2. Role descriptions on resumes focusing on projects or leadership rather than delivery of hires for technical roles. Projects and leadership are great, but I needed to see the evidence of you doing the Recruiting work.
3. Resumes showed no or minimal experience of hiring in a Product led Engineering environment. As per the job description, we were looking for SaaS experience ideally.
Though I believe there are excellent recruiters in many environments, I need to be able to clearly see how your experience matches with Ashby's current stage of growth. 4. Resumes didn't articulate the impact that the applicant had in past roles.
The JD stated "Data-driven mindset, able to optimize your workflows" and data can show this impact. 5. Answers to the application questions.
These are not "nice to haves" for us, your application answers are the primary thing we assess to determine fit. Each question had context provided or real meaning for us, beyond what we would see in your resume. 6.
Resumes had a general lack of specifics. "Recruited a variety of roles" doesn't tell the reader that you've handled Software Engineering recruiting. Likewise, a company name alone doesn't help the reader know it's Product led organization.
On that last point, a little blurb about the company is really helpful for anyone reading the resume and helps them avoid mistakes by thinking that a company isn't from "X" sector. BENEFITS - Competitive salary and equity. - 10-year exercise window for stock options.
You shouldn’t feel pressure to purchase stock options if you leave Ashby —do it when you feel financially comfortable. - Unlimited PTO with four weeks recommended per year. Expect “Vacation?” in our one-on-one agenda until you start taking it 😅.
- Twelve weeks of fully paid family leave in the US. We plan to expand this to employees in other countries as situations arise. - Generous equipment, software, and office furniture budget.
Get what you need to be happy and productive! - $100/month education budget with more expensive items (like conferences) covered with manager approval. - If you’re in the US, top-notch health insurance for you and your dependents with all premiums covered by us.
Ashby’s success hinges on hiring great people and creating an environment where we can be happy, feel challenged, and do our best work. We’re being deliberate about building that environment from the ground up. I hope that excites you enough to apply.
INTERVIEW PROCESS At Ashby, our team and interview process want to help you show your best self. We’ll dive into past projects and simulate working together via talking through past projects and conducting a short but realistic assignment. Our interview process is 4 rounds: 1.
30-minute introduction call to discuss Ashby and your past work with https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-hall-bb420a9/Josh https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshbourke/, so expect a traditional recruiting screen. 2. A take-home assignment that will ask you to create a hiring strategy for a role, as well as an example of a tailored outreach to a specific candidate that we will provide you.
3. 60-minute deeper dive into your Recruiting experience that will follow on from your assignment submission with Abhik https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhikpramanik/ (VP, Engineering + Co-Founder). 4.
A virtual onsite loop: 2.5 hours: 1. (60 mins) Meeting with Jim https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm/ (VP, People) to share more about the current state of recruiting at Ashby 2. (30 mins) A sourcing-focused interview with Eric https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericromesburg/ 3.
(30 mins) Meeting with one of our recruiting managers + one of our recruiters to dive deeper into stakeholder management. 4. (30 mins) Meeting with one of our engineering leaders ABOUT ASHBY We’re building the next generation of enterprise software and we’re starting with a suite of products that help talent leaders, recruiters, and hiring managers run their hiring process significantly better.
We are well-funded, have incredible product market fit, and are backed by great investors, including Y Combinator, Elad Gil and Lachy Groom. Ashby provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities.