Technical Recruiting Intern

About Octane Recruiting

Octane Recruiting is a boutique technical recruiting firm placing senior engineers and technical talent at VC backed startups in NYC and San Francisco. We work directly with founders and talent teams at some of the most exciting companies being built right now. We don't do volume for the sake of volume, we do quality at scale. Every candidate we send gets a personal screen before they ever reach a client.

We're growing fast, our clients are some of the most ambitious founders in tech, and we're just getting started.

The Role

We're hiring a Technical Recruiting Intern to embed directly into Octane's pipeline operation and own candidate sourcing from day one. You will be getting the right candidates into the funnel and learning how to move them through the process. You'll work directly with the founder on live searches across engineering, product, operations, design, sales, marketing, and beyond — and leave with real output you can point to.

You don't need prior experience to hit the ground running here. We will personally train you on every tool, every strategy, and every part of the recruiting process from day one. The systems are already built and proven, your job is to execute them.

What You'll Do

• Source candidates daily across LinkedIn, Juicebox AI, GitHub, and other platforms based on active role requirements
• Send outreach using proven, pre-approved copy — precision and consistency are the whole job
• Log every response and candidate interaction so the pipeline stays clean and nothing gets missed
• Hit a daily outreach target across all active searches
• Keep pipelines organized and up to date across every role at all times
• Learn and actively use AI-powered recruiting tools as a core part of your daily workflow
• Comfort with AI tools is required and will be developed throughout the internship

What You'll Gain

Direct exposure to how a real recruiting business operates at the startup stage. You'll be trained on the full tool stack - Juicebox AI, LinkedIn Recruiter, Github and more, and learn how to evaluate talent across every major function in a startup environment.

Beyond the day-to-day, you'll be building something that's entirely yours. Every engineer you source, every founder you connect with, every candidate you bring into the funnel becomes part of your own personal network. By the end of this internship you will have direct relationships with some of the best engineers, operators, and founders in NYC and SF - people you can reach out to for career opportunities, future clients, or business ventures for the rest of your life.

This internship is genuinely what you make of it. The ceiling is yours to set. You'll leave with real skills, a real network, real output, and real money, not a certificate of participation.

Compensation

$18/hr base, paid bi-weekly, plus a performance-based placement fee on every candidate you contribute to placing. The more you source, the more you earn. There is no cap.

Students who have completed this internship have taken home an average of $4,000/month — with top performers earning as high as $8,000+/month.

• Performance upside: earn a meaningful share of revenue on every placement you contribute to. Completely uncapped.
• End of internship bonus: interns who meet on-target earnings by the end of their term are eligible for an additional flat-rate bonus.

Who You Are

We're looking for someone who shows up every day ready to learn, ready to build, and ready to grow. A strong internship at Octane doesn't just pad your resume — it gives you real skills, real relationships, and a real story to tell. Our goal is not just to have you execute tasks. It's to give you the foundation to become a builder in your own right, whether that means a career in recruiting, launching your own venture, or walking into your next opportunity with a network and a skill set that most people your age simply don't have.

• A self-starter who takes ownership from day one and moves without needing to be pushed
• Someone who shows up every day genuinely excited to learn and get better at their craft
• Comfortable in a fast-moving environment where things change quickly and speed is a competitive advantage
• A natural communicator — the way you write feels like a real person, not a template
• Open to learning and using AI tools as a core part of how you work every single day
• Focused on outcomes — you care about what you build here because you know it follows you everywhere you go next

Minimum Requirements

• Currently enrolled in an accredited college or university pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Psychology, Human Resources, Business, Communications, Engineering, or any related STEM or technical discipline
• Available to work full-time 40 hours per week for a minimum of 10 weeks
• Comfortable learning and working with AI-powered tools — prior experience helpful but not required, we will train you
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Highly organized with sharp attention to detail
• Access to a laptop and reliable internet connection
• No prior recruiting experience required — we will train the right person from the ground up

Don't Apply If You're Not Excited About

• Placing talent across every major function in a startup — engineering, product, operations, design, sales, marketing, and beyond
• Learning and using AI tools every single day as a core part of how you work
• Working directly with a founder who moves fast and expects the same
• Earning performance-based upside that scales with your output — not a fixed ceiling
• Building a personal talent network that belongs to you long after this internship ends

Octane Recruiting is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of the candidates we place and the companies we serve.