Cassidy N.

Working on a core bottleneck in AI safety: how do you get the right people into the right roles, at scale? Building the talent mobilization function from the ground up — figuring out what infrastructure actually needs to exist, what doesn't, and in what order to build it. Work spans program strategy, stakeholder research, and systems design, with the goal of creating something a full team can inherit and scale.

Joined as the 3rd research recruiting hire, focused on sourcing. Became a full-cycle recruiter by the end of my first week—that's how fast things were moving! Supported research teams across Alignment Science, Interpretability, Finetuning, and Responsible Scaling Policy during hypergrowth (300→~2,000). Partnered with 11+ research leaders to consistently outpace hiring goals that increased quarter over quarter. The hardest part wasn't recruiting mechanics—it was becoming fluent in AI safety fast enough to be useful. I had to dump everything I knew about traditional recruiting and absorb what this nascent field actually required: understanding alignment research, interpretability work, and responsible scaling well enough to know what mattered and who could do it. In practice, this meant constant context switching, building bespoke evaluation processes for candidates, and prioritizing while everything was on fire. The role felt more like project management that also happened to include hiring.

Joined as Cash App's first technical sourcer and built the sourcing function from scratch. Getting to build teams for a company democratizing financial services felt like closing a loop: bringing in people who understood what it's like to be locked out, to build products for everyone else who'd been locked out too. Hired and mentored five sourcers as we scaled, establishing processes that consistently delivered 70%+ underrepresented candidates across engineering, ML, product, and leadership roles. My approach: meet candidates where they are, sourcing from nontraditional communities, rewrote job descriptions to focus on impact over credentials, and taught hiring managers how to evaluate potential instead of pedigree.

Led sourcing for the entire ML function and mentored multiple recruiting coordinators through their transitions to sourcing roles.

Started as a recruiting coordinator and raised my hand to learn sourcing for technical roles in ML, infrastructure, and security. I was drawn to Pinterest's mission of being a positive place on the internet to inspire creativity—something I believe is deeply important. This is where I developed my commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, realizing that who gets invited to build a product fundamentally shapes what it becomes and who it serves.

Brief stint as a talent consultant embedded on a product team—learned what it's like when recruiting expertise directly shapes product development. (Left Pinterest for 7 months in 2019 to consult at Glassdoor on a B2B recruiting product, but returned when I realized I wanted to be more on the ground with people—directly connecting underrepresented talent to opportunities was more meaningful to me than product work)

My first role in tech as a first-generation professional—and honestly, my foundation for everything that followed. As the office coordinator (really: everyone's best friend), I got to see how a company actually works from the inside out. I managed the daily rhythm of the office, wore multiple hats, supported executives, and most importantly, connected with people across every function. This is where I learned that the best part of any company isn't the product or the tech stack—it's the people building it. That realization shaped everything I'd do next!