Y Combinator has a small ~12 person team that makes the software that runs YC. Hardly any investors write software, but YC was started by programmers so it's natural for us to solve our problems that way. We believe our software is a key competitive advantage and we are investing aggressively in new software products.

As a member of the software team, you'll get full access to the YC program, just like founders do. You'll learn the ins and outs of how YC works, and you'll get to follow and learn from hundreds of companies. You'll meet some of the most successful people in the startup world and get exposed to the best startup ideas. And of course, if you ever want to start your own company, you’ll learn a lot about that from working at YC.

This is a hybrid role that blends hands-on technical recruiting with building and operating high-impact hiring programs for thousands of YC startups. About 50% of your time will be spent driving a smooth, high-quality recruiting pipeline for YC’s own internal software team. The other 50% will be spent designing, running, and improving the events, playbooks, and operational programs that help YC startups hire themselves.

If you’re the kind of person who loves both recruiting and building scalable programs, and you want to work directly with founders while shaping how thousands of startups hire, this is a uniquely high-leverage role.

About the Team & Product

Y Combinator runs Work at a Startup (workatastartup.com) — a free hiring platform that connects exceptional candidates with YC startups. In the past few years alone, it has helped 1,000+ people find roles at companies like Stripe, Instacart, Brex, Whatnot, and more.

YC also trains more than a thousand companies a year on how to hire well through:

• Our semi-annual How to Hire Conference
• 1:1 hiring audits and pitch practices
• Dozens of job seeker events including expos, tech talks, and niche seminars

These efforts serve as the top-of-funnel engine feeding talent into the YC ecosystem — and this role helps run and scale all of it.

What You’ll Do (50% Recruiting)

Technical Recruiting

• Source, screen, and engage technical candidates for YC’s internal software team
• Maintain strong pipelines and run structured, consistent interview processes
• Coordinate across YC teams to ensure programming is polished, professional, and reflects YC’s standards
• Aim to hire 4-5 engineers annually, using Work at a Startup and other YC-specific recruiting tools

What You’ll Do (50% Events & Operations)

Program & Event Management

• Own YC’s job seeker programming: Monthly Hiring Meetup, Tech Talks, Career Expos, and more
• Develop and iterate on our internal playbooks for all recruiting-related events
• Run high-quality in-person events on campus that help founders and candidates connect
• Analyze engagement and event performance to understand what’s working and what needs improvement
• Grow our candidate ecosystem by building partnerships and relationships with universities, communities, and talent pools

What We’re Looking For

Must-Haves

• 3+ years of technical recruiting experience, including sourcing, pipeline management, and evaluation of technical talent
• Experience designing or improving recruiting processes and rubrics
• Experience leading cross-functional projects or events where multiple stakeholders need tight coordination
• A goal-oriented, analytical mindset with a track record of executing projects with measurable outcomes

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience planning and executing in-person or virtual events
• Light design ability (Figma, Sketch, or similar)
• Experience in or enthusiasm for the startup ecosystem

Who Thrives Here

• Operators who take real pride in their craft and love building repeatable, high-quality programs
• People who enjoy recruiting but also want to expand into product, events, and broader ecosystem building
• People who exercise excellent judgment and can handle sensitive information with care
• Individuals excited about startups — many people in this role have founded companies, worked at them, or plan to

Location & Benefits

Location: This is an in-person role at YC's campus in Dogpatch, San Francisco. This is where our users (founders, partners, and employees) are five days a week, so it’s optimal for you to be here with them. You must live in the SF Bay Area or be willing to relocate. We offer generous relocation support for those who want to move to SF to work here.

Compensation: $90K to $160K base salary, depending on experience.

Benefits: Our full benefits package includes medical, vision, and dental plans, infertility benefit, STD/LTD, life insurance, commuter benefits, flexible spending account, health savings account, 401(k) + 4% matching, generous parental leave, paid holidays, and flexible paid time off policy.

Work Authorization: Y Combinator is willing to sponsor certain employment visas in accordance with company policy.

The YC internal software is mostly written in Ruby on Rails and React. It runs on AWS and PostgreSQL. Previous experience developing web apps will be helpful, but we don't care if you've used React or Rails specifically.

Note: Hacker News is written in Lisp, but Hacker News is run by a separate team.