--- title: 'Technical Recruiter at Periodic Labs' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/technical-recruiter-periodic-labs-menlo-park-04dyj1a17h1w' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-07' --- # Technical Recruiter at Periodic Labs - **Company:** Periodic Labs - **Location:** Menlo Park, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-08-20 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/periodic-labs/a9b28b1c-8a7f-456d-bea5-f2cb787c4eba ## Job description We’re looking for a senior, versatile recruiter to join our lean team. You’ll partner closely with hiring managers and company leadership to own searches from kickoff through close. This is a hands-on role for someone who is independent, proactive, and enjoys operating with a high degree of ownership in a fast-moving environment. ## What You'll Do - Partner with hiring managers and executives to define hiring strategies and run searches end-to-end. - Source, assess, and close candidates across technical and non-technical roles. - Build strong relationships with candidates and guide them through a high-quality hiring experience. - Continuously improve our recruiting processes and jump in wherever needed. You Will Thrive in This Role If You Have - Significant experience owning full-cycle recruiting with minimal oversight. - A track record of closing candidates against strong competing offers. - Strong judgment, clear communication, and the ability to build trust with candidates, hiring managers, and executives. - A proactive mindset - you identify what needs to be done and take initiative without being asked. - Experience recruiting in the semiconductor industry is a plus. ## MECHANICS Minimum experience: 5 years Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or similar experience Location: Menlo Park, CA (Soon: San Francisco, too) Compensation: $175,000-$275,000 base + equity ## About Periodic Labs ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Periodic Labs is building AI scientists and autonomous laboratories to accelerate scientific discovery in the physical sciences, starting with materials design and semiconductor research. - **Entity Type**: Private (seed-stage, $300M total funding raised in 2025) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA (primary) and Menlo Park, California, USA (dual locations) [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/periodic-labs), [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/periodic-labs) - **Founded**: 2025 [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/periodic-labs) - **Founders**: Ekin Dogus Cubuk (Co-Founder) and other undisclosed founding team members with backgrounds at OpenAI, DeepMind, and Google [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/periodic-labs), [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/) ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: Physical sciences R&D, artificial intelligence, autonomous laboratory systems - **Target customers**: B2B – enterprises in semiconductor manufacturing, materials science, energy, and other deep-tech sectors requiring experimental research - **Mission or purpose statement**: “Our goal is to create an AI scientist” that can autonomously hypothesize, run experiments, and learn from results to discover new materials and accelerate technological progress [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/) ## Products & Services - **AI Scientist**: A suite of AI models trained to generate hypotheses, design experiments, and interpret results across physical science domains. - **Autonomous Laboratories**: Fully automated, high-throughput experimental platforms that produce large volumes of high-quality data (including negative results) to train AI models. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/) - **Custom Agents for Industry**: Tailored AI agents for engineers and researchers, e.g., helping a semiconductor manufacturer analyze heat dissipation data to accelerate iteration. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/) ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private seed-stage company) - **Key Metric**: Total funding raised – $300M in a single seed round (2025) [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/periodic-labs) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: a16z, Felicis, DST, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture arm), Accel, Emerson Collective, Fellows Fund, Coatue; individual backers include Jeff Bezos, Elad Gil, Eric Schmidt, Jeff Dean. Also collaborating with academic advisors from Stanford, Northwestern, and more. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/), [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/periodic-labs) - **Growth Signals**: 40 employees as of mid-2026, with monthly headcount growth of +19.6% and 25 active job postings (+47.1% quarterly growth) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/periodic-labs) ## Competitive Advantages - **Proprietary data generation**: Autonomous labs produce massive, unique datasets (including valuable negative results) that do not exist in public literature, creating a data moat. - **Founding team pedigree**: Core team co-created ChatGPT, DeepMind’s GNoME, OpenAI’s Operator (Agent), MatterGen, and scaled autonomous physics labs – rare concentration of AI + science talent. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/) - **End-to-end integration**: AI models, simulation, and physical experimentation are all in-house, enabling rapid closed-loop learning. ## Strategic Focus - **Scale autonomous labs**: Expand capacity to generate experimental data across multiple physical science domains. - **Target high-impact problems**: Superconductor discovery, semiconductor heat dissipation, and other materials challenges that can unlock Moore’s Law, advanced energy grids, and space travel. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/) - **Develop the first generation of AI scientists**: Train models that can operate independently of human input across the entire scientific method. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: “From bits to atoms” – a deep-tech startup blending frontier AI with hands-on lab work. Emphasis on rapid iteration and real-world impact. - **Work policy**: In-office preferred; primary offices in Menlo Park and San Francisco, CA. Most roles are on-site. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/periodic-labs) - **Notable perks**: Work alongside world-class AI researchers and experimental scientists; access to cutting-edge automated lab equipment; early-stage equity and high-growth trajectory. - **Engineering culture**: 34% of employees are in technical roles; talent sourced from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta, xAI, and Stanford – strong peer learning environment. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/periodic-labs) ## Sources 1. [periodic.com](https://periodic.com/) 2. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/periodic-labs) 3. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/periodic-labs) 4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/periodic-labs) 5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/periodic-labs](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/periodic-labs) ## Other roles at Periodic Labs - [Computational Scientist, Differentiable Physics](https://feeny.ai/job/computational-scientist-differentiable-physics-periodic-labs-menlo-park-0y6vkjnce8d0) — Menlo Park, CA - [Research Scientist/Research Engineer, Materials](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-research-engineer-materials-periodic-labs-menlo-park-gx5csg53tr95) — Menlo Park, CA - [Business Operations, Product & Science](https://feeny.ai/job/business-operations-product-science-periodic-labs-menlo-park-bqebn8py4dnh) — Menlo Park, CA - [Process Technician, Thin Films](https://feeny.ai/job/process-technician-thin-films-periodic-labs-menlo-park-v0m9kw9t9506) — Menlo Park, CA - [Research Engineer, Lab Automation](https://feeny.ai/job/research-engineer-lab-automation-periodic-labs-menlo-park-x22bb9y5rh0q) — Menlo Park, CA - [Research Engineer, Midtraining](https://feeny.ai/job/research-engineer-midtraining-periodic-labs-menlo-park-0xmve48my4pp) — Menlo Park, CA - [Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-periodic-labs-menlo-park-4rk1qv8jx0ps) — Menlo Park, CA - [Research Engineer, Semiconductor](https://feeny.ai/job/research-engineer-semiconductor-periodic-labs-menlo-park-7pcqbzy21h6n) — Menlo Park, CA - [Instrumentation & Controls (Technician/Electrician)](https://feeny.ai/job/instrumentation-controls-technician-electrician-periodic-labs-menlo-park-4k691hbr206e) — Menlo Park, CA - [Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Technician - contract to hire](https://feeny.ai/job/environmental-health-safety-ehs-technician-contract-to-hire-periodic-labs-menlo-nagm3qjvz6b3) — Menlo Park, CA