
Recruiting Programs Manager at Vapi (San Francisco, CA)
Vapi· San Francisco, CA· $160k–$200k·
Role details
Salary
$160k–$200k
Work type
Hybrid
Employment
Full-Time
Equity
Yes
Job description
Vapi (/ˈVɑːpi/):
- Voice AI that resolves, not transfers
- Powering 1 billion calls for companies like Amazon Ring, Intuit, ServiceTitan, and New York Life
- Trusted by 1 million developers building the future of voice agents
- Backed by Peak XV, Bessemer, Kleiner Perkins, M12, Y Combinator, and more with $72M raised
- Try talking to Vapi now! vapi.ai
VAPI (/ˈVⱭːPI/):
- Voice AI that resolves, not transfers
- Powering 1 billion calls for companies like Amazon Ring, Intuit, ServiceTitan, and New York Life
- Trusted by 1 million developers building the future of voice agents
- Backed by Peak XV, Bessemer, Kleiner Perkins, M12, Y Combinator, and more with $72M raised
- Try talking to Vapi now! vapi.ai
WHY WE’RE HIRING THIS ROLE
- We're competing directly with Anthropic, OpenAI, and other high-profile AI companies for the same talent. At that level of competition, employer brand and a candidate-facing presence are part of how we win offers, not a nice-to-have.
- Today this work happens informally, absorbed by our Talent leaders on top of their day jobs. We're building the capability in-house with a dedicated owner instead of outsourcing it to an agency, or letting it not happen at all.
- You'll own every candidate-facing program at Vapi: employer brand and careers content, technical events and community, the referral program, university and early-career pipeline, and our talent community. You'll report directly to our Head of Talent.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
- 30 Day: Go deep on how we hire today. Meet hiring managers, Recruiting, and Marketing's events lead; audit our careers site, Glassdoor/Comparably presence, referral program, and event footprint; baseline the numbers (cost-per-hire, referral %, sourced-hire %, time-to-fill, offer acceptance).
- 60 Day: Ship the first wins. Relaunch the referral program with clear incentives, campaigns, and tracking toward 25–30% of hires via referral; stand up the shared event calendar with Marketing (and the monthly dedupe sync); publish your first wave of careers-site and “life at Vapi” content.
- 90 Day: Run your first programs end-to-end. Host a recruiting-focused technical event (hackathon, meetup, or campus session); launch the talent community and nurture motion (newsletter, team spotlights, silver-medalist re-engagement); present a 12-month program roadmap with targets against your baseline.
WHO YOU ARE
- You've built recruiting programs, employer brand, or talent community from scratch, ideally at a fast-growing startup competing for technical talent.
- You're an events operator: you can run a hackathon, engineering meetup, or campus info session end-to-end, on time and on budget.
- You think in recruiting metrics: cost-per-hire, referral %, sourced-hire %, time-to-fill, and offer acceptance are how you measure your own work.
- You know the difference between marketing to customers and marketing to candidates, and you can partner tightly with a Marketing team without duplicating it.
- You write well. Careers pages, newsletters, event copy, and team spotlights will all carry your voice.
- You're a builder who's comfortable being the first and only owner of this function, going from zero to working programs fast.
HOW WE WORK
- Build something worthy of love
- Craft matters. We aim to build products and experiences customers genuinely love, not just tolerate.
- Commit and follow through
- We finish what we start and build trust by being people others can count on.
- Why not today?
- We value urgency and momentum. The fastest path to customer value usually wins.
- Seek raw input
- We go directly to customers, data, and teammates instead of relying on summaries or assumptions.
- It’s our problem
- We operate as one team. We share credit, own mistakes together, and support each other when things get hard.
- Be direct and kind
- We give feedback clearly, respectfully, and without delay.
WHY VAPI
- Generational impact: Build the human interface for every business
- Ownership culture: 70% of the company are previous founders
- Kind team: The founders, Jordan and Nikhil, are Canadians
- Tier-1 Investors: YC, KP seed, Bessemer Series A
WHAT WE OFFER
- Real stake: We offer a competitive salary and excellent equity ownership
- Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision plans
- Team love: We love hanging out, and we do quarterly off-sites
- Flexible time off: take what you need
- More: catered meals, transportation, gym, and a $10k annual L&D budget
Why work at Vapi
- High-Impact, Fast-Growing: Vapi is at the center of the booming voice AI space, processing billions of calls and serving iconic companies like Amazon. Employees have a direct impact on a platform that is reshaping customer service.
- Engineering Culture: The company is API-first and developer-centric, founded by engineers from the University of Waterloo and Y Combinator.
- Remote/Hybrid Policy: The company appears to have a hybrid model, with roles listed in New York City (NYC) and likely San Francisco, but also offers a degree of flexibility.
- Notable Perks/Culture: The company is still in a high-growth phase (around 100 employees), offering the opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI infrastructure with a strong focus on engineering excellence and deployment support. The team includes a "Forward Deployed" engineer role, indicating a culture of deep customer partnership.