Job Description

Who we are

Foundation models have transformed text and images, but structured data - the largest and most consequential data modality in the world - has remained untouched. Tables power every clinical trial, every financial model, every scientific experiment, every business decision. No one has built a foundation model that truly understands them.

Until now. What LLMs did for language, we're doing for tables. The next modality shift in AI is happening - and we're hiring the team that makes it.

Momentum: We pioneered tabular foundation models and are now the world-leading organization in structured data ML. Our TabPFN v2 model was published in Nature and set a new state-of-the-art for tabular machine learning. Since its release, we've scaled model capabilities more than 20x, reached 3M+ downloads, 6,000+ GitHub stars, and are seeing accelerating adoption across research and industry - from detecting lung disease with Oxford Cancer Analytics to preventing train failures with Hitachi to improving clinical trial decisions with BostonGene

The hardest work is in front of us. We're scaling tabular foundation models to handle millions of rows, thousands of features, real-time inference, and entirely new data modalities - while building the infrastructure to deploy them in production across some of the most demanding industries on earth. These are open problems no one else is working on at this level.

Our team: We’re a small, highly selective team of 20+ engineers, researchers and GTM specialists, selected from over 5,000 applicants, with backgrounds spanning Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, G-Research, Jane Street, Goldman Sachs, and CERN, led by Frank Hutter, Noah Hollmann and Sauraj Gambhir and advised by world-leading AI researchers such as Bernhard Schölkopf and Turing Award winner Yann LeCun. We ship fast, create top-tier research, and hold each other to an extremely high bar.

What’s Next: In 2025, we raised €9m pre-seed led by Balderton Capital, backed by leaders from Hugging Face, DeepMind, and Black Forest Labs. The next phase of growth is here which makes this an optimal time to join.

Your Responsibilities

• Source scarce ML research and infra talent globally, exploring mainstream and niche talent pools

• Position Prior Labs compellingly against other foundation model labs such as OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, and Mistral

• Navigate multi-hub hiring across Freiburg, Berlin, and New York (visas, comp bands, notice periods)

• Screen technical depth quickly without burning founder time

• Run efficient, structured interview loops with clear rubrics and fast debriefs

• Manage, negotiate and close offers

• Manage the pipeline operationally in the ATS with clean stages and weekly metrics

The experience we are looking for

• 5+ years in-house technical recruiting at a deep-tech, AI/ML, or research-led startup (seed to Series B)

• Track record closing ML researchers or research engineers against top tier frontier labs (e.g. OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, Mistral)

• Hands-on hiring across at least two of: Germany, wider EU, and the US (NYC)

The knowledge we expect you to already know

• Fluency in the ML talent landscape: top labs, conferences, and what distinguishes a strong research vs. engineering vs infrastructure profile

• Modern ATS architecture (Ashby or equivalent): stage design, rejection taxonomy, funnel reporting

The skills you should bring to the role

• Outbound sourcing on LinkedIn, GitHub, Google Scholar, and arXiv with high reply rates on cold outreach

• Designing and running structured interview loops with rubrics, calibrated debriefs, and fast time-to-offer

• Offer negotiation and closing: offer storytelling, competing-offer handling, founder-assisted closes

The behaviours we want you to bring everyday to the office

• High agency and ownership and operates as a full stack recruiter

• Direct and commercially honest with both candidates and hiring managers

• Detail-obsessed on pipeline hygiene and weekly metrics; treats the ATS as a source of truth

Location: 5 days a week based in our Berlin Office (near Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße U-Bahn Station)

Benefits

• Competitive Salary A benchmarked and defined band that we can share with you during the interview process

• Tools & environment You'll have access to modern tools to help you be as productive as possible! (We use Apple, GSuite, Notion and Claude!)

• Offsites Annual company-wide offsites to bring the whole team together (last ones were in the Alps 🏔️ and the Cote d'Azur 🏝️)

• Benefits Comprehensive benefits package aligned to the location and office that you are joining us in. In Freiburg, key benefits include 30 days of paid vacation + public holidays plus including transportation, and fitness!

Life at Prior Labs

We're a small, ambitious team solving one of the hardest problems in AI, and we're just getting started. You'll work closely with world-class researchers and builders who care deeply about the quality of their craft, the impact of their work, and the people they work with.

We move fast, we think rigorously, and we take the time to do things right. If you're excited by hard problems, motivated by real-world impact, and want to be part of building something that matters, we'd love to hear from you.

Our Commitments

We believe the best products and teams come from a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. That's why we welcome applications from people of all identities and walks of life, especially anyone who's ever felt discouraged by "not checking every box."

We're committed to creating a safe, inclusive environment and providing equal opportunities regardless of gender, sexual orientation, origin, disability, or any other trait that makes you who you are.

We care about how your data is handled. Read our Recruiting Privacy Notice to see exactly what we collect, why, and how long we keep it.