Founding Operations

About Contrario

Contrario (YC W25) is building the modern, AI-powered recruiting marketplace — connecting elite startup recruiters with fast-growing companies through AI-powered matching and operational tools. We’ve raised $2.5M from Y Combinator and Nexus Venture Partners and angels from Hudson River Trading, Stanford, and OpenAI. Our customers include 50+ YC and venture-backed startups across engineering and GTM roles.

The Role

We’re hiring our second full-time operator to help build the foundation of our marketplace. You’ll work directly with our CEO and Chief of Staff to own recruiter success, improve activation and engagement, and systemize operations that keep the marketplace running efficiently.

You’ll be deeply involved in everything from recruiter onboarding and analytics to product feedback, candidate quality control, and GTM experiments. This is a true zero-to-one generalist role with a path to grow into Head of Marketplace as we scale.

Responsibilities

• Manage recruiter onboarding, success, and engagement across our platform.
• Analyze recruiter and job health metrics, identify bottlenecks, and implement process improvements.
• Design and run engagement systems (leaderboards, personalized notes, incentives) to boost recruiter activity.
• Collaborate with engineering to track feature usage and optimize product adoption.
• Shadow and later run intake calls with customers and recruiters.
• Standardize candidate quality and recruiter playbooks.
• Support GTM efforts — case studies, growth campaigns, and founder events.

Who You Are

• 1–3 years of experience in recruiting, operations, or a fast-paced startup (Paraform or similar background is a plus).
• Analytical and proactive — you notice inefficiencies and fix them fast.
• Exceptional communicator with strong writing and relationship-building skills.
• Excited to work directly with founders and take ownership of big problems early.

Why Join

• Competitive salary + meaningful early equity.
• Equinox membership and free office lunches/dinners.
• Work directly with YC founders building one of the fastest-growing AI-powered marketplaces in recruiting.
• High autonomy, fast growth, and a clear path to a leadership role.