Lead Technical Recruiter
Detroit, MI (in-person)
About Grounded
Grounded is a 25-person Detroit-based startup building modular electric platforms for specialty vehicles. We take cab chassis from OEMs like Ford and Harbinger and build configurable vehicle systems on top, serving mobile healthcare, RVs, command centers, food and beverage, pet care, and more. Our customers include Colgate, Nokia, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and Portland PD. We've raised ~$5M in VC funding and are shipping vehicles in market today.
We also build our own software: a mobile app, fleet dashboard, and onboard computer system that lets customers monitor and control vehicle systems remotely. We design, fabricate, and assemble everything in-house at our facility in Corktown.
The Role
We're hiring our first in-house recruiter. Grounded is scaling fast — production has to roughly triple this year, and nearly every team is hiring: manufacturing engineers, technicians, mechanical and software engineers, sales, and operations. Today the founders run recruiting themselves. That doesn't scale.
You'll own recruiting end to end, embedded with the team in Detroit: partnering with the founders and technical leads to define roles, building pipeline, running a fast and human process, and closing candidates who have other offers. The hard part of this job is the technical and build-side searches — production, quality, and engineering talent. Those are the hires that take real judgment; the non-technical roles will take care of themselves once you have a process.
You'll also build the recruiting function itself — the systems, the metrics, the employer brand — and set the bar for how hiring operates as we grow.
What you'd actually do
Own full-cycle recruiting across manufacturing, engineering, software, field ops, and generalist roles — from first outreach to signed offer
Partner with hiring managers to define roles: write job descriptions that attract the right people and design interview loops that actually evaluate them well
Build and manage top-of-funnel pipeline through sourcing, events, referrals, and creative channels
Run a fast, human-centered recruiting process that delivers a best-in-class candidate experience
Create the systems and workflows for scale: ATS hygiene (we run Ashby), scorecards, candidate tracking, calibration loops
Track and report pipeline and hiring metrics — funnel conversion, time-to-fill, offer acceptance rate — to keep individual searches and overall hiring on track
Partner with the founders on headcount planning: what we hire, in what order, and what it costs
Help shape our employer brand online and offline, and translate it into sharper outbound and sourcing messaging
What we're looking for
5+ years of in-house technical recruiting experience (agency background is fine if you've also worked in-house)
Strong track record hiring hard-to-fill roles on both the engineering and the build side — manufacturing engineers, technicians, production and quality talent, alongside design, systems, and software engineers
Demonstrated ability to close hard candidates, including comp negotiation — you've won people who had other offers, and you know how to make an equity story land with someone who has never held equity before
Comfortable building pipeline and process from scratch, with minimal existing recruiting infrastructure to lean on
Excellent sourcing and candidate assessment skills
Clear, compelling communicator — written and verbal — who builds real relationships with both candidates and hiring managers
Highly organized and self-directed; thrives in fast-moving, low-structure environments
Motivated by mission and able to connect with candidates beyond just comp and perks
Nice-to-haves
Experience hiring in automotive, EV, or industrial manufacturing
Recruiting at an early-stage startup
Comfort recruiting into the Midwest manufacturing talent market
Compensation
Competitive base salary + meaningful equity in Grounded + comprehensive health insurance
Why this role is different
Most recruiting jobs hand you a req list and an ATS someone else configured. Here you build the entire function from zero — and the company along with it. At 25 people, every hire changes what Grounded is, and you'll make those calls directly with the founders. You'll pitch candidates on something real: the people you close will be building vehicles on our shop floor within the month, and you'll have a front-row seat to the rebuilding of American vehicle manufacturing.