Recruiting Coordinator (Founding Talent Operations)

Arena is the platform for evaluating how AI models perform in the real world. Founded by researchers from UC Berkeley's SkyLab, we're on a mission to measure and advance the frontier of AI for real-world use, and to build the foundation for everyone to understand, shape, and benefit from it.

Tens of millions of people use Arena each month to evaluate how frontier systems handle the work they actually do. The preferences they share power the most transparent, rigorous, and human-centered evaluations in AI. Leading AI labs, enterprises, and independent researchers rely on our work and open datasets to understand how models behave in real workflows: agentic coding, creative generation, professional productivity, and beyond. We go beyond leaderboards and decompose what human experience reveals about AI, so models advance toward the work people actually do.

We're a team of researchers, academics, builders, and creatives from UC Berkeley, Google, Stanford, and DeepMind. We seek truth, move fast, and value craftsmanship, curiosity, and impact over hierarchy. We're building a company where thoughtful, curious people from all backgrounds can do their best work together, in an office culture that radiates excellence, energy, and focus.

We are hiring our first Recruiting Coordinator to serve as the operational engine of Arena’s Talent team.

This is not a traditional, passive scheduling job. At Arena, talent acquisition is a core competitive advantage. You will be the orchestrator of our candidate pipeline, the architect of a white-glove candidate experience, and a foundational builder of our recruiting operations.

You will work shoulder-to-shoulder with our Founders, Head of Talent, and executive leadership to attract and convert elite AI researchers, software engineers, and business leaders. If you are an exceptionally high-agency operator who thrives in fast-paced environments, loves solving complex operational puzzles, and is excited to build scalable talent systems from the ground up, we want to talk to you. This role is based in San Francisco and is in-office. Interviews and on-sites happen here, and you will be the person making them run.

• Orchestrate High-Stakes Logistics: Own end-to-end interview coordination across complex, multi-stage pipelines (technical challenges, deep-dive research panels, founder/executive interviews, and debriefs) with absolute precision.

• Deliver an Elite Candidate Experience: Serve as the primary, high-touch liaison for candidates. You’ll ensure world-class researchers and engineers experience a seamless, transparent, and memorable interview process.

• Interface with Executive Leadership: Partner directly with Arena’s founders and executive team to optimize their hiring bandwidth, protect their calendars, and hold hiring teams accountable to rapid feedback loops.

• Build Founding Talent Operations: Help design, automate, and scale our talent tech stack (e.g., ATS workflows in Ashby/Greenhouse, scheduling automation, candidate communications, and pipeline analytics).

• High-Agency Problem Solving: Intervene in real-time when schedules break or urgent priorities collide. You’ll operate with sound judgment, finding immediate solutions without waiting for step-by-step instructions.

• Maintain Operational Rigor: Champion data integrity across all recruiting systems, tracking key pipeline metrics (conversion rates, time-to-schedule, candidate velocity) to uncover bottlenecks.

• Unapologetically High-Agency: You don't wait for playbooks; you write them. You take extreme ownership of outcomes and proactively solve problems before they escalate.

• Executive Presence & Crisp Communication: You write and communicate clearly, concisely, and with high polish. You are comfortable challenging and aligning senior leaders to keep hiring velocity high.

• Systems & Operations Minded: You see scheduling not just as a set of calendar invites, but as a workflow optimization problem. You look for ways to eliminate friction and automate manual steps.

• Obsessed with Detail & Precision: You have an allergic reaction to typos, mismatched time zones, broken links, and dropped handoffs.

• 1–3+ years of experience in recruiting coordination, executive administration, or talent operations within a fast-paced technology company, high-growth startup, or top-tier search firm.

• Tech-Savvy: Highly proficient in modern tool stacks (e.g., Ashby / Greenhouse, Google Workspace, Slack, Notion, Prelude).

Bonus Points If You:

• Have prior experience at an early-stage / Series A–B venture-backed startup.

• Have a keen interest in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and enterprise autonomy.

• Have experience building or iterating on interview rubrics, onboarding workflows, or talent analytics dashboards.

• We offer competitive compensation and equity aligned to the markets where our team members are based. The base salary range will depend on the candidate’s permanent work location.

• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and additional support programs.

• The opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI with a small, mission-driven team

• A culture that values transparency, trust, and community impact

Come help build the space where anyone can explore and help shape the future of AI.

Arena Intelligence provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities.