Senior Hiring Specialist 

About Buffer

We create social media and brand-building software for small businesses, creators, and individuals. Our mission is to provide essential tools to help small businesses get off the ground and grow. Through exceptional customer service and uplifting content, we help our customers believe they can succeed and do good along the way.

Buffer is a fully distributed team, and we’ve always aimed to do things a little differently at Buffer. Since the early days, we’ve focused on building one of the most unique and fulfilling workplaces by rethinking a lot of traditional practices. We also default to transparency, so you can read all about our metrics, and our successes and failures along the way on our Transparency Dashboard.

We're united by Buffer's values, and we hire and work from all over the world. We strive to create a diverse and inclusive work environment, and we are building a culture where underrepresented groups are welcome and can flourish. Please note that we do travel to work together in person once or twice per year, and those events are highly encouraged to build deeper connections among our small team.

As you get to know Buffer and consider joining the journey, feel free to read more from Kirsti and Sabreen as they share their first experiences with Buffer, as well as from Hailley, who captured why she still calls Buffer home after 8+ years.

About the Role

Hiring is one of the most important things we do as a company. We’re looking for a Senior Hiring Specialist to own our hiring process and help us find values-aligned future Bufferoos who bring new, relevant experience to our team.

We are proud of the hiring and onboarding systems we've built over the years; we believe in being transparent, kind, and human, even at scale. Because of these beliefs, hiring takes a huge amount of time and effort for our small team. We are looking for someone to help us maintain these commitments, while improving our systems and results. This is especially necessary in the age of LLMs. We’re seeing increasing numbers of low-effort applications that are created with AI. This is an expected part of the forward march of these technologies, so we need to keep innovating to stay protected as a company, while staying committed to our values.

We’re also looking to build a secondary hiring process, which is commonly known as the Talent Pool approach. This role will create this system largely from scratch to slowly build up a pipeline of highly qualified and values-aligned people who are interested in joining Buffer at some point in the future. This will be a new way for us to grow our team; we had an Engineering Talent Pool in the past, but we are looking to create a much more robust system.

This is not a recruiter role, however some experience with hiring is likely needed. This role will be the go-to-teammate for all things hiring, starting from “we need more help in this area” through teammate onboarding. You will be a member of our People team, reporting to our Chief of Staff Caro, and working closely with our Senior People Operations Specialist Jenna, and VP of Finance and Operations, Jenny.

This role will also help tell the story of Buffer as a place to work. We’re widely known for some of our quirkiest and most headline-worthy cultural elements, like eliminating negotiation and sharing salaries transparently, or working a 4-day workweek. We’re looking to round-out our story-telling, to help shape potential candidates’ understanding of life at Buffer beyond these more familiar elements.

We see lots of room to innovate in how we find great teammates who will stay and shape the Buffer product and culture for years to come. This role will own these pathways into joining the Buffer team.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and evolve Buffer's primary hiring process:

  • Support our hiring managers during the more "traditional" hiring processes

  • Be the expert in our hiring tool(s)

  • Consult on job application language and process

  • Help screen applications

  • Create and maintain internal documentation around our hiring processes

• Build and maintain a Talent Pool for Buffer:

  • Create and facilitate a process for Buffer to meet and get to know potential future teammates outside of the traditional hiring process. (We’ll start with Engineering roles and grow from there.)

  • Maintain close, regular connection with these folks so that we can quickly start a hiring conversation when the time is right

  • Stay connected to team leads to understand their upcoming and future hiring needs

  • Build relationships in Buffer's Discord Community to stay close to our most connected customers and fans

• Own and innovate on Buffer’s onboarding process:

  • Oversee the onboarding experience, partnering closely with hiring managers along the way

  • Manage timelines and coordinate the logistics that support new teammates from offer through their first 90 days

  • Rebuild and strengthen our buddy system to ensure every new teammate feels welcomed, supported and connected

  • Provide guidance, resources, and light coaching to both new teammates and their buddies

• Build on Buffer's Employer Branding:

  • Work closely with Buffer’s Marketing & Content Team to keep our Journey page fresh, create content, and tell Buffer stories on our Socials and Open blog

  • Evangelize Buffer as a workplace by occasionally speaking on podcasts and at conferences

  • Lead some Transparency-focused projects, such as launching a public handbook

  • Manage our Glassdoor presence

• Be one of the faces of Buffer Hiring:

  • Reply to inbound hiring emails

  • Engage with Buffer’s community on Socials and in Discord

  • Start outbound hiring conversations when we come across a talented, values-aligned person who might not otherwise know about Buffer

• Oversee the Applicant Experience:

  • Track hiring data and report it (internally to start, and eventually publicly!)

  • Consistently improve the experience that applicants and candidates have with Buffer

Helpful Skills and Experience

• You have years of experience in SaaS, with a strong background in some combination of: HR/Recruiting, Community Management, Social Media Management, Marketing, and/or Customer Service - skills that help you connect with people and understand the broader candidate journey. In other words, you’ve managed high volumes of inbound communication and maintained relationships with a special few. (You’ve likely been doing this for 7+ years, but this is just a guideline; depth matters more than a specific number here.)

• You’re a master with words; you have a passion for finding just the right way of giving good news, or letting someone down with great care.

• You have been closely involved in many hiring processes as a recruiter, interviewer, hiring manager, and/or onboarding support role.

• You’re intimately familiar with Buffer’s brand: you’ve participated in our community, read our blog, and/or followed us on Socials for a while.

• You’re a builder, and you love tinkering to improve a process or system.

• You can execute with excellence in a highly operational role. Nothing slips through the cracks when you’re in charge.

• You’re a Creator; you believe in the power of transparency and story-telling, and you have a history of sharing about your work, your life, and generally ‘building in public.’

• You’re already an Ashby expert! (Or if not, you’re a quick study.)

Hiring process

1. Application. When submitting your application and resume, take your time. This is your chance to make a strong first impression.

2. Take-home exercise. We'll send you 30-minute asynchronous assignment to help us understand how you show up for customers.

3. Hiring manager interview. Chat with Caro, the hiring manager for this role and Buffer's Chief of Staff. This is an opportunity for both sides to get to know each other.

4. Role interview. Meet a few of the top collaborators for this role, our Senior People Operations Specialist, Jenna, and a member of our community team, Sabreen or Hailley.

5. Interview with Senior Leadership. At this stage, you’ll have a chance to discuss your experience and ambitions for a future role at Buffer with our VP of Finance and Operations, Jenny, and our CEO, Joel. This is a great chance for you to gain a deeper understanding of Buffer's strategy, and work processes.

6. Paid Collaboration Day. This is an experimental stage for us where you would work alongside our People and Marketing teams on real situations for one working day. The goal is to see how it feels to work together, both for us and for you. You'll meet several Bufferoos, participate in a collaboration kickoff, get invited to a Slack channel, and collaborate directly on a small project or brainstorm. This hands-on experience will give us both a clear sense of how you'll fit at Buffer.

7. Offer. We'll be thrilled to discuss final details and make an offer to our top candidate!

At Buffer, we value diversity of experience, and we understand that comes in many forms. We’re dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team. So, if your experience is close to what we’re looking for, please consider applying.

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