Senior Recruiter (Contract)

Contract: 6 months, conversion possible
Location: Santa Monica (On Site)

Rate: $14,400 x month (Flat Fee)

40+ hrs/week · Start: ASAP

About Plug

Plug is an online marketplace built exclusively for electric vehicles, where consumers, dealers, and commercial partners trade in, sell, and auction used EVs. Consumers can get an instant cash offer in minutes, backed by data-driven pricing, battery state-of-health analysis, with pickup, payment, and title transfer handled end-to-end. Every vehicle Plug acquires is liquidated through a competitive wholesale auction, where franchise and independent dealers across the United States bid in real time on inventory sourced directly from consumers, dealers, and commercial partners. The result is a single platform that gives sellers a fast, fair exit and gives dealers a dedicated channel for sourcing used EV inventory. Founded in 2023 and led by former Tesla executives, Plug has facilitated nearly $100M in EV sales since launch and is backed by a $20M Series A from Lightspeed Venture Partners. Plug is and is building the AI-native transaction rails behind the used EV market's exponential growth. Visit to learn more plugmotors.com.

The Role

You will be the first full-time recruiter at Plug. We have a brand new ATS (Ashby) that has been configured from a foundational standpoint, but we’re ready for you to help us drive it forward. No scorecard library, no hiring manager playbook, you're starting from the beginning. That's not a gap we're apologizing for; it's the job.

For the first 60 days, roughly half your time will be building the function: ATS setup, scorecards, process design, and getting hiring managers to interview with consistency and care. After that, it shifts to mostly execution but the infrastructure you built has to hold under volume. You need to be genuinely good at both, and energized by both.

This is a 6-month contract engagement with real potential to convert full-time. If you're Los Angeles-based, great. If you're the right person and based elsewhere, we're open to it. Pacific time hours are a must.

What You'll Do

• Building out the recruiting function: ATS (Ashby), scorecards, job description templates, sourcing workflows, pipeline reporting, and the hiring manager playbook all of it

• Owning full-cycle recruiting across all functions GTM, product, engineering, and operations from sourcing through close.

• Partnering with hiring managers before reqs open: defining the role, designing the interview process, and calibrating on what "great" looks like before the first screen

• Driving proactive sourcing through LinkedIn, referrals, communities, and channels that aren't obvious, not just posting and waiting.

• Running structured, candidate-first interview loops that reflect our bar for talent and protect candidate experience at every touchpoint.

• Tracking your own pipeline data and conversion metrics and using them to make decisions, not just report them.

• Coaching hiring managers on structured interviewing and evidence-based debrief decisions.

• Managing 10–15 open reqs simultaneously without sacrificing quality or speed

• Ability to lead through four (4) key milestones for the team.

What You Bring

Qualifications we require:

• 7–10 years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with meaningful time at a startup or high-growth tech company preferably Series A through C

• You have been the first or one of the first two recruiters at a company. You've set up an ATS from scratch, written job descriptions where none existed, and built hiring manager habits in a team that had none. This is non-negotiable.

• Strong proactive sourcing skills. You find people who aren't looking and your outreach converts because it's genuine, not templated

• Track record of meaningful hiring manager partnership, including pushing back when a role isn't ready to open

• Data fluency: you know your conversion rates, time-to-fill by function, and source-of-hire quality and you use them to improve, not just report

• Comfort operating in ambiguity without a playbook; you write the playbook

Strong pluses:

• Experience recruiting across both technical and non-technical functions

• Familiarity with Ashby

• Background in marketplace, mobility, EV, or climate tech

• Experience designing and facilitating hiring manager training on structured interviewing

Why Plug

• You'll own a piece of the biggest infrastructure opportunity in automotive.

• You'll work on a platform built exclusively for EVs, with nothing adapted from legacy automotive.

• You'll be part of an AI-native company. We're rethinking how work gets done at a fundamental level.

• You'll work directly with operators who have scaled multi-billion dollar businesses in automotive, EV, and marketplaces.

• You'll have real ownership, high autonomy, and a direct line to company outcomes.

Engagement Details

• Duration: 6-month contract, with strong possibility of full-time conversion based on business needs and mutual fit

• Rate: flat fee $14,400 (1099)

• Hours: ~40 hrs/week (PST Hours)

• Location: Santa Monica, CA

• Preferred Start: We're moving quickly ideally within 2–3 weeks of offer

OUR HIRING PROCESS

We respect your time. Our process runs about 2 weeks:

1. Recruiter screen with Head of People (30 min)

2. Take-home exercise: design a 30-day recruiting plan for a sample role (1–2 hours)

3. Panel conversations with 2–3 hiring managers (90 min total)

4. Reference checks and offer