Founding Recruiter & People Lead

Location: New York, NY (in-person, hybrid)

Compensation: $125K–$150K + Equity

Passage Health is a fast-growing Series A startup on a mission to improve the quality and accessibility of autism care through technology. The diagnosis rate for autism has surged over the past decade to 1 in 31 children. Yet families still face waitlists of up to a year for care, as providers struggle to meet demand with outdated systems and manual workflows.

We’re building the platform that powers autism care providers’ entire business—from clinical documentation to operations to billing—modernizing how care is delivered and scaling access across a $460B market.

Over the past year, Passage has grown more than 3x year over year, driven by strong customer demand and expanding partnerships across the autism care ecosystem. As we continue to scale, we’re focused on building durable foundations across the company, including the systems, processes, and decision-making needed to support long-term growth.

We are hiring a Founding Recruiter & Talent Lead to be the architect of how Passage hires, develops, and retains the team that will define our next chapter. As Passage’s first dedicated People hire, you will own the full aperture of talent at the company — from recruiting and onboarding through performance management.

This role is predominately recruiter, but also part culture-builder, and part trusted advisor to the leadership team. In the near term, you will be hands-on with hiring across functions — software engineering, product , GTM, and operations. Over time, you will help to build out the people function: standing up performance reviews, leveling and compensation frameworks, manager enablement, and the offsites and team-building moments that turn a group of strong individuals into a great team.

You will report to our Head of Finance, partner closely with the CEO and leadership team, and shape Passage’s identity as a place where exceptional people do the best work of their careers.

• →Lead full-cycle recruiting across Passage — sourcing, screening, closing — spanning software engineering,product GTM, and operations roles
• →Build and evolve our hiring process — scorecards, interview loops, and candidate experience — to consistently bring in exceptional talent
• →Build the foundations of talent management: onboarding, performance reviews, career frameworks, and feedback rituals that scale with the company
• →Design and run the people initiatives that create culture at Passage — offsites, all-hands moments, recognition, and the day-to-day rhythms that make this a place people love to work
• →Build out the foundations of the employee experience, including the Passage employee handbook
• →Serve as a trusted advisor to managers and employees on everything from career growth to sensitive personnel matters
• →Manage HR operations and compliance in partnership with Finance

We see two profiles that could be a strong fit:

People generalist with recruiting chops — operating in a People/HR role today where hands-on engineering recruiting is a meaningful part of the job.

Recruiter ready to expand scope — a full-cycle recruiter today, with technical recruiting experience hiring software engineers, looking to grow beyond recruiting into the full people function.

Across either profile:

• 3-6+ years of experience in recruiting and/or people operations, ideally with some time in-house at a high-growth start-up
• Demonstrated track record hiring software engineers — ideally still active or recent (within the last year or two) — and an appetite to broaden into product, GTM, and operations hiring
• Strong instincts for talent: you can quickly assess fit, calibrate against a bar, and close candidates against well-resourced competitors
• A genuine interest in culture as a craft — the rituals, traditions, offsites, and small moments that make a team feel like a team
• High ownership mindset and comfort operating independently in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment
• Excellent judgment, discretion, and emotional intelligence; people trust you with hard conversations
• Willingness to work in person at our NYC office 4 days a week

• As an early employee, you will have the opportunity to make a tremendous impact on the company and our users.
• Make an impact on families and providers nationwide
• Preference for working in a collaborative, fast-paced environment that offers new challenges and opportunities for growth
• Competitive salary and equity compensation.
• Healthcare, dental, and vision benefits.

Passage Health is an equal opportunity employer and encourages all applicants from every background and life experience without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status.