ABOUT BASETEN
Baseten powers mission-critical inference for the world's most dynamic AI companies, like Cursor, Notion, OpenEvidence, Abridge, Clay, Gamma and Writer. By uniting applied AI research, flexible infrastructure, and seamless developer tooling, we enable companies operating at the frontier of AI to bring cutting-edge models into production. We're growing quickly and recently raised our $300M Series E, backed by investors including BOND, IVP, Spark Capital, Greylock, and Conviction. Join us and help build the platform engineers turn to to ship AI products.
THE ROLE
We're hiring an Executive Recruiter to own leadership hiring across Baseten — partnering directly with our CEO, executive team, and functional leaders to bring in the VP and C-suite talent that will define how we scale.
Leadership hires are among the highest-leverage decisions a company makes, and at this stage of growth, we need someone who can operate as a true strategic partner — not just a search executor. You'll shape how we define and evaluate leadership, build rigorous and confidential search processes from scratch, and close exceptional candidates who could work anywhere.
This is a senior individual contributor role with outsized company impact. You'll reduce our dependence on external search firms, build Baseten's internal executive recruiting capability, and set the standard for how leadership hiring works here.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Own end-to-end executive searches. Lead VP- and C-suite hiring across Engineering, GTM, Finance, Product, and Operations — from intake and role scoping through offer close. You'll run 6–10 active searches at any given time with full accountability for outcomes.
- Partner directly with the CEO and executive team. Serve as the primary recruiting advisor for our most critical hires — shaping role definitions, structuring scorecards, advising on leveling, and driving alignment across decision-makers before a search ever goes live.
- Build and own executive talent pipelines. Proactively source, map, and cultivate relationships with senior leaders across AI infrastructure, cloud, and enterprise SaaS — before we have open roles, not after.
- Conduct high-signal executive assessments. Run structured screens that go deep on leadership behaviors, operating cadence, functional depth, and values alignment — and develop frameworks that help our teams evaluate consistently.
- Navigate complex, confidential searches. Handle sensitive situations — backfill searches, competing internal candidates, re-leveling — with discretion, sound judgment, and clear communication to stakeholders.
- Manage offer strategy and close. Lead the full compensation conversation for senior roles, partnering with People and Finance to build compelling packages and navigate complex negotiations with poise.
- Deliver market and talent intelligence. Provide the executive team with real-time insight on leadership talent availability, competitor moves, compensation benchmarks, and organizational trends that inform our hiring and people strategy.
- Build the executive recruiting function. Establish the processes, templates, tools, and norms that make Baseten's executive search practice repeatable and excellent — reducing reliance on retained search firms over time.
REQUIREMENTS
- An experienced executive search professional. You have 8+ years in recruiting, with at least 4 years focused exclusively on VP- and C-suite searches — either in-house at a high-growth tech company, at a retained search firm, or both. You've closed complex leadership hires, not just moved them through a funnel.
- A trusted partner to senior leaders. You know how to earn the confidence of a CEO or CFO — not by being agreeable, but by being honest, prepared, and consistently right. You push back when the brief is wrong and bring structure to ambiguous situations.
- A world-class sourcer and networker. You find people who aren't on job boards and build relationships years before you need them. You know how to get a cold email read by a sitting VP of Engineering or a Chief Revenue Officer.
- Discreet and high-judgment. You understand that executive searches require a different kind of care. You handle sensitive information with maturity, manage competing stakeholder interests without drama, and know when to escalate and when to absorb.
- Rigorous and structured. You use scorecards, structured interviews, and clear evaluation criteria — not gut feel. You're data-aware, and you hold yourself and hiring teams accountable to a high and consistent bar.
- Comfortable at a high-growth startup. You've operated in a fast-moving environment where the org chart changes quickly and you sometimes don't have all the information you'd like. You thrive in that ambiguity rather than retreating from it.
BENEFITS
- Competitive compensation, including meaningful equity.
- 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents
- Flexible PTO policy including company wide Winter Break (our offices are closed from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day!)
- Paid parental leave
- Fertility and family-building stipend through Carrot
- Company-facilitated 401(k)
- Exposure to a variety of ML startups, offering unparalleled learning and networking opportunities.
Apply now to embark on a rewarding journey in shaping the future of AI! If you are a motivated individual with a passion for machine learning and a desire to be part of a collaborative and forward-thinking team, we would love to hear from you.
At Baseten, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, where applicable).