Founding Recruiter & People Operations

Orchard
San Francisco, CA
On-siteCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Aimed at mid-level recruiting and people operations professionals who build talent engines in fast-growing tech startups. Candidates should thrive in a culture prioritizing hands-on field engagement and rapid scaling.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with dual expertise in recruiting and HR operations, as the role combines both
    — “You will personally recruit critical hires while building a durable talent engine”
  • Individuals experienced in scaling organizations from small to large teams
    — “Experience helping an organization scale from 10's of employees to 100+”

Things to consider

  • Requires in-office presence in San Francisco, with no remote flexibility
    — “Full-time role, five days a week at our San Francisco office”
  • Monthly fieldwork commitments may affect work-life balance
    — “Every team member spends at least a few days in the fields with our farmers each month”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in creating scalable recruiting processes and employer branding
    — “Build repeatable sourcing channels and an exceptional recruiting brand”
  • Showcase ability to improve onboarding and candidate retention strategies
    — “Create and own an exceptional candidate experience”
  • Demonstrate track record of closing technical talent in high-performance environments
    — “A track record of personally recruiting and closing exceptional technical talent”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · CompanyLevel · Mid

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • led full-cycle recruiting
  • built repeatable sourcing channels
  • onboarded employees
Typical background
3-7+ years of experience in recruiting

Skills & requirements

Required

RecruitingPeople OperationsOnboardingHR SystemsCulture Building

Preferred

Benefits AdministrationCompliance

Stack & domain

RecruitingPeople OperationsHR SystemsBenefitsComplianceCultureCommunicationProblem-solvingCollaborationAgricultureAI TechnologyFarm-management

About the role

Original posting from Orchard via Ashby

At Orchard, we’re securing America’s food supply by building the AI Farmer that automates our nation’s farms. We are the industry leader, growing rapidly, and backed by more than $25 million from leading investors, including Quiet Capital, Shine Capital, and General Catalyst.

Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars in crop value are lost because critical farming decisions are made using incomplete and imprecise data. We’re building the technology to change that.

Our AI-powered camera systems mount to tractors and scan millions of trees, vines, and plants, capturing precise data on yield estimates, fruit size, crop health, disease, and more. We train edge vision AI models that analyze every plant and determine exactly what interventions and treatments it needs. That intelligence flows into FruitScope OS, our farm-management platform, where growers can understand their crops, make better decisions, and direct operations in the field.

Today, Orchard’s technology is trusted by some of our nation’s largest farms. They use our products to grow higher-quality crops while reducing chemical use and operating costs, helping them farm more profitably and sustainably than ever before.

OUR CULTURE:

  • Unshakeable Resilience – Our customers feed millions of people, and our customers depend on us. We are ultra-hardworking, never give up, and we do whatever it takes.
  • Always Keep Moving – We move fast, waste no time, and have an extreme bias towards action. Progress compounds every day, and our impact is measured in decades.
  • Improve Everything – At 1% success, we save millions of pounds of food from going to waste. If we are 100% successful we will impact the lives of billions of people across the world.
  • Farmers First – Every team member spends at least a few days in the fields with our farmers each month.
  • No Job Beneath Us – We’re low ego, own every outcome, and are all working towards the same goal.

THE ROLE:

Orchard is entering its most ambitious period of growth yet. The quality and pace of our hiring will determine how quickly we can serve more farmers, and the systems we build now will shape the company for years.

You will be Orchard’s first dedicated recruiting and people hire. Reporting directly to our CEO, you will personally recruit critical hires while building a durable talent engine: sourcing, interview design, closing, onboarding, HR systems, benefits, compliance, and culture.

This is a builder role. You will spend roughly 2/3-rds of your time recruiting and 1/3-rd building and running our internal people operations. You should be equally comfortable sourcing an exceptional engineer, improving an onboarding process, handling a benefits question in our HRIS, and preparing Orchard for our next stage of growth.

WHAT YOU’LL OWN

  • Lead full-cycle recruiting for critical technical and operations roles.
  • Build repeatable sourcing channels and an exceptional recruiting brand.
  • Create and own an exceptional candidate experience.
  • Partner with leaders to define roles precisely, calibrate talent bars, move candidates quickly, and close exceptional hires.
  • Own the employee lifecycle, including new hire onboarding, HRIS, benefits, leave administration, and day-to-day people operations.
  • Maintain practical, compliant employment policies.
  • Protect and strengthen Orchard’s culture as the company scales.

WHAT WE LOOK FOR

  • 3-7+ years of experience recruiting, with real ownership in a fast-growing startup or high-performance environment.
  • A track record of personally recruiting and closing exceptional technical talent.
  • Experience helping an organization scale from 10's of employees to 100+.
  • Strong sourcing instincts and the creativity to reach candidates who are not actively applying.
  • Strong operating rigor across recruiting funnels, headcount plans, and people systems.
  • Comfort owning all processes around creating a stellar work environment for our team.
  • Hands-on experience with HRIS, benefits, onboarding, and other core people operations.

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

  • Full-time role, five days a week at our San Francisco office.
  • Medical, dental, and vision coverage with 100% of employee premiums covered.
  • The opportunity to build Orchard’s Recruiting and People function from the ground up.
  • Our team is close-knit and highly driven. You’ll work directly with our CEO and every functional leader.
  • We move fast, and sometimes this means staying late or working weekends.
  • We’re deeply motivated by the impact we’re making – every system we build and deploy means less food that goes to waste, and more people who are fed.

Source: Orchard careers (Ashby)

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