Lead Technical Recruiter

Why This Role Matters

People are the single most important thing we have to get right to succeed as a company. Every hire we make either accelerates or slows down our mission to get critical medicines to patients faster.

We hold an extremely high bar and run a rigorous process. Every person you bring in should be capable of outsized impact: someone who raises the level of the team around them, ships things that would not have happened without them, and moves the company forward in a way that is disproportionate to a single headcount.

About the Role

As Lead Tech Recruiter, you will be at the forefront of attracting and securing top technical talent for our data science, engineering, and product teams. Formation Bio is an AI-native pharma company, and this role is built for someone who thinks that way too. You will develop and execute recruiting strategies that reflect how AI is changing both the work our teams do and the way we find, evaluate, and win the people who do it.

You will own sourcing, screening, and interviewing for mission-critical roles, act as a strategic thought partner to hiring managers and leadership, and continuously push our recruiting process to be smarter, faster, and more rigorous through the intelligent use of AI tools.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage your own requisition load end-to-end, from sourcing through offer, holding every hire to a high bar.
• Partner with hiring managers and leadership to discuss headcount, prioritize requisitions, and shape hiring strategy for critical technical roles.
• Act as a true business partner to directors, VPs, and CTOs, advising on market trends, salary benchmarks, and best practices in technical and AI talent recruiting.
• Bring an AI-native mindset to every part of the role: use AI tools (Claude Code, Codex, and similar) to source candidates, calibrate evaluation, streamline workflows, and continuously raise the quality and speed of our process.
• Stay genuinely obsessed with AI and technology, tracking where the field is moving so we know exactly who the best people are and how to reach and win them.
• Have a perspective on and interest in developing employer branding strategies that position Formation Bio as the place builders come to solve the hardest problems in drug development.
• Act as a thought leader in the technical talent market: identify and participate in events, partnerships, and non-obvious channels to find candidates others miss.
• Use data and recruiting metrics to identify where our process can improve, and drive those improvements yourself rather than waiting to be asked.
• Organize and participate in events relevant to our target candidate pools to build a pipeline of exceptional technical talent.

Qualifications

• At least 5 years of technical recruiting experience, with at least 3 in-house at a tech startup, with bonus points for life sciences, health technology, or AI-focused companies.
• A demonstrated obsession with AI and technology, not just as a nice-to-have but as a lens you bring to how you source, evaluate, and think about talent.
• Fluency using AI tools (Claude Code, Codex, or similar) to make recruiting materially faster and more effective, with real examples of how you've done this.
• Experience filling roles across levels, from senior engineers to management, with a track record of hiring people who had outsized impact after joining.
• Experience as a genuine strategic partner to directors, VPs, and CTOs.
• Strong project management skills and a track record of delivering process improvements that measurably raised the bar for hiring quality.
• Demonstrated expertise in non-standard, creative sourcing strategies for hard-to-find technical talent.
• Strong alignment with how we work: curiosity, high ownership, and a bias toward efficiency and impact.
• Ability to build trust quickly with both hiring managers and candidates, and to operate with little direction while staying closely connected to the team.

What We're Really Looking For

Someone who does not need to be told that AI is changing recruiting. Someone who is already using it, already thinking about what's next, and already holds themselves to a bar as high as the one we hold candidates to. You should read this job description and feel like it was already how you think.

Total Compensation Range: $154,500 - $202,000