Operations & Events, Work at a Startup

Note: For this role, we are asking you to record a video about your past experience with startups, programs and content — share whatever you think is relevant for success in this role. Please aim for no more than 2 minutes, and share the private Youtube URL in your application/message.

This is a hybrid role that blends building and operating high-impact hiring programs for thousands of YC startups and some minor hands-on talent sourcing. About 90% will be spent designing, running, and improving the events, playbooks, and operational programs & content that help YC startups hire themselves. About 10% of your time will be spent driving a smooth, high-quality recruiting pipeline for YC’s own internal software team.

TL;DR

• Minimum 2+ years of experience, ideally in an operations role, and extra points if there’s an interest talent/startup team building
• Prior evidence managing a operations pipeline, from sourcing to hire (ideally evidenced by 5+ past hires)
• Prior evidence running events and programs, including university recruiting programs, meetups or other recruiting-related events

If you’re the kind of person who enjoys building teams through recruiting work AND loves 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. Think of it as a marketplace, in which we need to:

• Train thousands of companies a year on how to hire well, through programming, content, product documentation and more
• Grow the online candidate pool through content, programming, social experimentation and product ideation
• Run repeatable events — job expos, tech talks, and more — for in-person hiring and community building

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 (90% 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 You’ll Do (10% 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 We’re Looking For

Must-Haves

• Experience running programs and projects, with an eye for ongoing improvement and repeatability
• Past content creation experience — blog posts (professional or personal), video content, and social
• 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

• Technical recruiting experience including sourcing, pipeline management, and evaluation of technical talent
• 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.