Contrario

ABOUT THE COMPANY Contrario is the AI Recruiting Platform powered by expert recruiters. Trusted by teams at every stage for their critical hires. The platform helps companies at every stage hire faster by combining expert recruiters with AI agents that take on the operational work. We work with 250+ venture-backed companies including Wispr Flow, Listen Labs, and Slash, and a network of 500+ boutique recruiting agencies and recruiters (many formerly at Stripe, Ramp, and Palantir). In under 6 months, the company has reached $6M in annualized revenue and paid out over $1M to recruiters. We’ve raised $2.3M from Y Combinator, Nexus VP, and angels from Hudson River Trading, Stanford, DoorDash, and OpenAI. We are scaling aggressively and aiming for: $20M+ annualized revenue by the end of the year 1,000+ boutique recruiters and 500+ roles on platform Our team comes from Stanford, Wispr Flow, Giga, BCG, NASA, SAIL, Berkeley, and Northwestern. ABOUT THE ROLE We are hiring an Applied AI Engineer to help build the core infrastructure powering Contrario’s marketplace. You will work directly with the founders to design and ship ML matching systems, recruiter routing algorithms, search infrastructure, and AI-powered workflows that determine how talent flows across hundreds of startups. This is a founding engineering role with extremely high ownership. You will: Ship production systems used by hundreds of recruiters and startups Build the core intelligence layer of the marketplace Define the technical architecture and engineering culture Work directly with the founders on product and technical decisions The systems you build will determine who gets hired at some of the fastest-growing startups in the world. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Build ML-driven marketplace systems Develop ranking and retrieval systems that match recruiters, candidates, and roles using embeddings, structured signals, and marketplace data. Design search and data infrastructure Build systems that query and rank candidates, recruiters, and roles across large datasets. Develop AI-native workflows Ship automation tools that help recruiters source candidates faster and help companies evaluate talent more efficiently. Ship full-stack product features Design and implement features across the entire stack — from database schema and APIs to user-facing interfaces. Own core marketplace infrastructure Work on systems that power recruiter routing, candidate evaluation pipelines, and marketplace coordination. Move extremely fast Launch features quickly, gather feedback from real users, and iterate rapidly. REQUIREMENTS Must-Have Strong full-stack engineering ability Experience building production systems using TypeScript and modern web frameworks (Next.js / React). Comfort working with AI systems Experience integrating or building systems using: LLM APIs embeddings vector search retrieval pipelines Backend and data systems knowledge Experience designing APIs and working with relational databases. Product-minded engineer You care about UX and building systems that users actually love. High ownership mindset You can take ambiguous problems and turn them into working systems without heavy direction. Startup velocity You ship quickly and are comfortable working in fast-moving environments. Nice-to-Have Experience building: Search or recommendation systems Marketplace products AI-native developer workflows Experience with: Supabase / Postgres Vercel deployments LLM-powered product features TECH STACK Frontend Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind Backend TypeScript APIs Database Supabase (Postgres) Infrastructure Vercel AI / Data LLMs, embeddings, retrieval pipelines

ABOUT THE COMPANY Contrario is the AI Recruiting Platform powered by expert recruiters. Trusted by teams at every stage for their critical hires. The platform helps companies at every stage hire faster by combining expert recruiters with AI agents that take on the operational work. We work with 250+ venture-backed companies including Wispr Flow, Listen Labs, and Slash, and a network of 500+ boutique recruiting agencies and recruiters (many formerly at Stripe, Ramp, and Palantir). In under 6 months, the company has reached $6M in annualized revenue and paid out over $1M to recruiters. We’ve raised $2.3M from Y Combinator, Nexus VP, and angels from Hudson River Trading, Stanford, DoorDash, and OpenAI. We are scaling aggressively and aiming for: $20M+ annualized revenue by the end of the year 1,000+ boutique recruiters and 500+ roles on platform Our team comes from Stanford, Wispr Flow, Giga, BCG, NASA, SAIL, Berkeley, and Northwestern. ABOUT THE ROLE We are hiring a Founding GTM to build Contrario's growth function from scratch with 0-3 years of experience. You will work directly with Arya, our CEO to shape how the world discovers, understands, and engages with Contrario on both sides of the marketplace. That means recruiters who want to join, and companies that need to hire. This is a 0-to-1 role with extremely high ownership. You will: Own the narrative, positioning, and brand of Contrario Build the growth programs and lifecycle loops that compound over time Drive outbound strategy and demand generation across both sides of the marketplace Lead launches and events end-to-end We've laid some groundwork: case studies, early distribution, and a public company launch, but the function isn't built. You're the person who builds it. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Narrative, positioning, and brand Own how Contrario is understood by recruiters, customers, and the market. Arya's LinkedIn and X presence is one of our highest-leverage distribution channels and you'll own the strategy behind it: cadence, narrative arcs, how launches and milestones land publicly. You'll write the copy that lives on our website, define our messaging hierarchy, and do the positioning work every time we ship something new. Growth programs and lifecycle Build the referral programs on both sides of the marketplace — recruiter and customer — and own reactivation and win-back campaigns that keep the network alive. Run lifecycle marketing end-to-end: recruiter nurture, customer nurture, activation, re-engagement. These are the compounding loops that turn a placement-driven business into something that grows itself. Outbound and demand generation Own the messaging strategy behind our outbound — angles and sequence copy for recruiter and customer acquisition, targeting logic, campaign iteration. Run paid acquisition across LinkedIn, Meta, and Google and own the performance metrics. Move between writing a cold sequence and analyzing CAC in the same week. Launches and events When something big happens — a product ships, a fundraise closes, a PR moment surfaces — you own how it lands. Cross-channel coordination, copy, creative direction, timing. You'll also own our events strategy: SaaStr, TechWeek, recruiter dinners, conference follow-up. Events are high-leverage for us and we want to show up deliberately. REQUIREMENTS Must-Have Sharp writer - you can draft founder content, website copy, outbound sequences, and campaign messaging, and it all sounds like it came from the same place. Narrative + performance thinker - you understand both brand and demand generation, and don't treat them as separate motions. You can think in story arcs and optimize funnels in the same breath. High ownership mindset - you can take an ambiguous brief and turn it into a running motion without heavy direction. You don't need a playbook; you'll write it. Startup velocity - you move fast, figure things out, and are energized by building something from scratch. Nice-to-Have Experience in growth, mar

ABOUT THE COMPANY Contrario is the AI Recruiting Platform powered by expert recruiters. Trusted by teams at every stage for their critical hires. The platform helps companies at every stage hire faster by combining expert recruiters with AI agents that take on the operational work. We work with 250+ venture-backed companies including Wispr Flow, Listen Labs, and Slash, and a network of 500+ boutique recruiting agencies and recruiters (many formerly at Stripe, Ramp, and Palantir). In under 6 months, the company has reached $6M in annualized revenue and paid out over $1M to recruiters. We’ve raised $2.3M from Y Combinator, Nexus VP, and angels from Hudson River Trading, Stanford, DoorDash, and OpenAI. We are scaling aggressively and aiming for: $20M+ annualized revenue by the end of the year 1,000+ boutique recruiters and 500+ roles on platform Our team comes from Stanford, Wispr Flow, Giga, BCG, NASA, SAIL, Berkeley, and Northwestern. ABOUT THE ROLE We’re hiring Talent Operators to join our team! As a Talent Operator, you are the engine of our marketplace. You will run full-cycle recruiting for our partners while actively stress-testing Contrario’s internal AI and tooling. You’ll be on the front lines, mastering the recruiting landscape before transitioning into broader operational or leadership roles. Once you master the recruitment landscape, we’ll increase your scope based on where you spike best. This could be account management, working with our recruiter network, or scaling internal systems. This is a role for someone who loves to win, thrives in fast-paced environments, and wants to see their direct impact on a company’s bottom line every single day. Compensation Base is $80k–$110k, and total comp (OTE) is ~$140k-$170k+ (earnings are uncapped) Earnings-based compensation is directly tied to revenue generated off of successful placements. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES We view the Talent Operator role as a proving ground for future leaders at Contrario. As an early team member, your path is based on where you "spike" and what you're passionate about: Account Management: Own the end-to-end relationship with our partner companies and recruiters. Recruitment Management: Scale and lead a team of Talent Operators as we grow. Marketplace Operations: Drive the supply and demand strategy for our marketplace. We are committed to investing in your growth. In exchange, we ask for high throughput, sharp judgment, and a "founder" mindset. Some of your key areas include: Master the Funnel: Source, screen, and manage candidates across multiple high-growth startup pipelines. Product Feedback Loop: Be the primary "power user" of Contrario’s AI features, providing direct feedback to our engineering team to help shape the product. Relationship Management: Act as a bridge between candidates and the companies we serve. Build the Playbook: Help us refine our internal operations and recruiting systems as we scale from 200 to 1,000+ customers. About You 0-2 years in operations, recruiting, or other high-signal backgrounds (consulting, IB, etc.) High agency and output-driven execution Comfortable managing high-volume, fast-moving workloads Low ego and highly coachable Based in or relocating to San Francisco