Experience behind the search.
Our founder brings more than seven years in technical recruitment and more than 150 placements made before founding Corellia Talent. His previous placement markets include London, New York and San Francisco. These are personal career facts, not the new company’s placement totals.
What we recruit for in New York
We recruit across engineering, AI, research and technical leadership. Start with the outcome and responsibilities, then choose the title and level that describe the work.
Explore the roles in detail
- Software engineering
- Product, full-stack, frontend, backend, forward deployed, platform, infrastructure and site reliability engineers, from junior through principal.
- Founding engineers
- Founding engineers, founding product engineers, founding full-stack engineers, founding AI engineers and technical leads.
- AI and machine learning
- AI engineers, machine learning engineers, applied AI specialists, ML infrastructure engineers, MLOps engineers and data engineers.
- Research
- Research engineers, research scientists and applied scientists within technology businesses.
- Technical leadership
- Technical leads, engineering managers, Heads and Directors of Engineering, VPs of Engineering, CTOs, Heads of AI or ML and Heads of Research.
For several hires, we help plan the mix and order of recruitment so that responsibilities and support are clear. Explore engineering team builds.
Evidence beyond a familiar company name.
Our founder placed ICPC World Finalists into a Series A startup in New York. He also placed a former founder who had raised $4.5 million for their own startup into a seed-stage New York business. These placements were part of his recruitment career before Corellia Talent.
These accounts describe our founder’s personal placement experience before Corellia Talent. Names are kept confidential; no Corellia client endorsement is implied.
Explore our founder’s placement experienceHiring for ownership in a New York startup
A New York startup brief should explain the decisions the person will own as clearly as the technologies they will use. A first engineering hire may work directly with founders across product and delivery. A specialist joining an established team may have a narrower remit but need deeper expertise. Funding stage helps describe the context, but does not settle the scope.
Specify whether the role requires New York office attendance, a hybrid pattern or remote work. Explain time-zone overlap with founders, customers and other engineers, and discuss the full compensation package early. Those conditions affect who can realistically consider the role. We establish them before approaching candidates rather than treating them as details to resolve at the offer stage.
Look beyond a company name or competition result
The strongest evidence is what someone actually did and how they explain their decisions. Ask a candidate to describe a system they built, a difficult trade-off, an approach that failed and the contribution of other people. Explore what they would do differently in your environment. The aim is to connect their experience to the work you need done.
A founder moving into another startup should be able to explain what they want to own and how they will work with another founder’s direction. A competition background can open a useful technical discussion, but it does not establish product judgment, collaboration or motivation. our founder’s historical New York placements provide context for these conversations, not a shortcut around them.
Separate the founding hire from the leadership hire
A founding engineer and a Head of Engineering are different briefs unless you deliberately combine their responsibilities. Start with the work: shipping a product, setting architecture, managing engineers, hiring a team or coordinating delivery. Decide which responsibilities remain with the founder.
If you need a hands-on builder, explain how much of the role involves customer conversations and product decisions. If you need a leader, define their authority and reporting relationships. A candidate should be able to see what success means and which decisions they can make without asking the founder each time.
Make the brief specific.
A seed-stage builder and a specialist joining a Series A team may need different kinds of ownership and support. We define the decisions each person will make, the technical environment around them and how their experience relates to the product. Prior fundraising or competition success is context to explore, not a shortcut around assessing the work.
- What will this person own at the company’s current stage?
- What are the New York office, time-zone and working-pattern requirements?
- How will candidates understand the compensation, equity and interview process?
Agree the first six months’ outcomes, the decisions this person can make and the support they will receive. Set assessment criteria before interviews begin so each conversation explores relevant evidence rather than repeating the same questions.
Local context without assumptions
New York has university-to-startup pathways as well as established technology employers. Cornell Tech’s Runway program supports technical founders; it is one example of that ecosystem, not a source of candidates we claim to represent.
Read about Cornell Tech’s Runway program. A background from any institution still needs to be assessed against the actual role.
Salary, equity and bonus in New York
Compare the actual role, seniority and company context in USD. Our salary guide brings together selected public employer advertisements and links to the sources behind them.
How to interpret salary, equity and bonus evidence
Advertised ranges are not market averages, accepted offers or recommended packages. Some listings span different responsibilities or levels. An undisclosed bonus or equity amount is not zero, and the overall spread across a city is not a typical salary for one role.
Separate cash salary, any bonus conditions and equity terms. For equity, ask about the grant percentage, vesting and the basis of any valuation. Use the compensation planner to explore your own assumptions; its scenarios are not forecasts or guaranteed proceeds. Do not transfer US benchmarks to London.
Open the compensation planner · Inspect the employer sources
How a search works
Every search is led by a senior specialist, from brief to start date. You have one accountable contact for introductions, feedback and offer discussions.
- Agree the brief. Define outcomes, technical expectations, working arrangements, compensation and trade-offs.
- Research and speak with candidates. Explore relevant work, motivation and the questions that still need answering.
- Make considered introductions. Explain the evidence and context behind the match. A candidate’s CV is never sent without naming the company and getting their agreement.
- Support interviews and the decision. Share feedback, clarify expectations and keep unresolved questions visible through the offer.
Choose the engagement
Contingent, exclusive and retained search are available for permanent, contract and interim recruitment. We agree scope, fees and responsibilities before work begins.
- Contingent: a success-based search, with a fee payable when you hire an introduced candidate under the agreed terms.
- Exclusive: one recruitment relationship for an agreed period and a clear point of accountability.
- Retained: a committed engagement with agreed scope, milestones and staged payments.
Questions about hiring in New York
What changes between a seed and Series A engineering hire?
The important difference is the work and support around the person, not the funding label alone. A seed-stage hire may need to shape the product and work across the stack; a Series A hire may join a more defined discipline. Agree which decisions belong to this hire and assess evidence against that scope rather than assuming every startup at the same stage needs the same profile.
How do you assess an engineer with founder or competition experience?
Ask what the person actually built, which decisions they owned and how they explain difficult trade-offs. Explore motivation for joining another team and how they work with other people. our founder’s New York placements before founding Corellia Talent include ICPC World Finalists and a former founder who raised $4.5 million. Those achievements provide context for assessment, not a substitute for it.
Can we discuss a New York search during US working hours?
Yes. Calls are available into US working hours; the booking calendar shows the available times. You can also call or email our team directly with the role, team stage and timing. We usually reply within the hour, seven days a week, though this isn't guaranteed.
Do you recruit founding engineers in New York?
Yes. We recruit founding engineers, founding product and full-stack engineers, founding AI engineers and technical leads. We define the outcomes, decisions and support attached to the role before approaching candidates.
Do you recruit researchers and AI specialists in New York?
Yes. We cover AI and machine learning engineers, applied AI specialists, research engineers, research scientists and applied scientists. Research recruitment focuses on technology businesses, not laboratory or pharmaceutical roles.
Can you help hire a Head of Engineering or CTO in New York?
Yes. Technical leadership searches cover engineering managers, Heads and Directors of Engineering, VPs of Engineering and CTOs, as well as Heads of AI, ML and Research. We agree the decisions, team responsibilities and authority attached to the role.
Do you offer contract and interim recruitment in New York?
Yes. We offer permanent, contract and interim recruitment. The engagement structure, scope, responsibilities and commercial terms are agreed before the search starts.
Do you only work with venture-backed companies?
No. Our founder’s recruitment experience is mainly with venture-backed technology businesses, but funding is not a requirement. We work with startups and scaleups from the first technical hire to established teams, including pre-seed through Series E.
Does Corellia Talent have an office in New York?
New York is a market we serve, not an office location we claim. Calls are available into US working hours, subject to the booking calendar.
A direct relationship with us.
You work with a senior specialist throughout the search. We usually reply within the hour, seven days a week, though this isn't guaranteed.
This page describes a market we serve. It does not represent a local office.
Read a practical hiring guide