Expression of Interest: Recruitment Manager / Recruiter
We're looking for either a Recruiter or Recruitment Manager to lead recruitment for our flagship Tarbell Fellowship, manage hiring for all Tarbell team roles, and develop outreach strategies that market our programs to world-class journalists. This role will oversee our growth from 6 to 20+ core team members over the next two years while building scalable recruitment systems.
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Compensation:
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Recruitment Manager: $90,000 - $125,000 in the US; £60,000 - £75,000 in the UK.
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Recruiter: $70,000 - $100,000 in the US; £45,000 - £65,000 in the UK
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Location: London/SF preferred. Open to other journalism hubs (e.g. New York & Washington DC)
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Reporting to: Cillian Crosson (Executive Director)
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Deadline: Express interest here by 13 July (11:59pm Pacific Time).
About the Tarbell Center
The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism supports journalism that helps society navigate the emergence of increasingly advanced AI.
Our programmes include:
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Tarbell Fellowship: Our flagship programme provides early career journalists with training, a stipend of $50,000-$70,000, and a 9-month placement at a major newsroom. 2025 placements include Bloomberg, MIT Tech Review, The Verge, The Information, TIME, LA Times, South China Morning Post, and many others.
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Journalists-in-residence: We provide senior writers with funding to pursue longer investigations, explore entrepreneurial projects, and educate themselves on artificial intelligence.
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Tarbell Grants: We provide awards of $1k-$15k for impactful reporting on artificial intelligence and its impacts. We’ve funded journalists writing for WIRED, The New Yorker, and other top outlets.
We aim to support 10,000 AI stories by 2030 and scale to an organisation of similar size and prestige to the Pulitzer Center.
About the role
As Recruitment Manager / Recruiter, you'll be responsible for attracting exceptional talent to Tarbell's programs and building our team. You'll manage complex recruitment processes, develop compelling marketing campaigns, and help establish Tarbell as the leading destination for AI journalism talent globally.
In this role you'll:
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Lead the annual Tarbell Fellowship recruitment process, managing everything from marketing and outreach to application review coordination and candidate selection support. You'll help grow our applicant pool while maintaining our high standards for fellow selection.
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Manage recruitment for all Tarbell team positions, working closely with hiring managers to attract top talent, streamline hiring processes, and ensure excellent candidate experience throughout.
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Develop and execute marketing campaigns to promote the Tarbell Fellowship, grants, residencies, and other programs across multiple channels. You'll build awareness of our programs among target audiences and drive high-quality applications.
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Build Tarbell's talent brand within journalism and AI communities, positioning us as the premier organization for journalists interested in AI coverage and ensuring we attract the best candidates to all our programs.
Responsibilities
You'll own talent acquisition and program marketing across all Tarbell initiatives, balancing strategic planning with hands-on execution.
Ranked by impact on the overall mission, this might include:
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Tarbell Fellowship recruitment management (40%): You'll oversee the entire fellowship recruitment cycle, from initial marketing through final selection support. This includes developing recruitment strategies, managing application systems, coordinating review processes, facilitating interviews, and supporting the fellowship team's selection process. You'll work to grow our applicant pool from 1,200+ to 3,000+ high-quality candidates.
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Program marketing and outreach (30%): You'll develop and execute comprehensive marketing campaigns for the fellowship, grants, and other programs. This includes social media strategy, content creation, partnership marketing, conference presence, and targeted outreach to journalism schools and newsrooms. You'll track campaign effectiveness and optimize for maximum reach and quality.
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Internal talent acquisition (20%): You'll manage recruitment for all Tarbell team positions, from initial job posting through offer negotiation. This includes developing job descriptions, sourcing candidates, screening applications, coordinating interviews, and ensuring smooth onboarding. You'll work closely with hiring managers to understand their needs and deliver exceptional candidates, while they lead the final evaluation and selection.
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Talent brand building (10%): You'll develop initiatives to strengthen Tarbell's reputation as an employer and program provider within the journalism community. This includes alumni engagement, industry relationship building, and thought leadership content that positions Tarbell as the leading organization in AI journalism.
Who might be a good fit
We're looking for someone with experience in talent acquisition and recruitment.
You might be a particularly good fit for this role if you are:
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Experienced in recruitment and talent acquisition. For the Recruitment Manager position, we expect 3-5+ years of experience managing recruitment processes, ideally including high-volume settings like fellowships, internships, or fast-growing startups. For Recruiter: At least 1-2 years of operations experience with strong project management skills.
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A skilled marketer with multi-channel experience. You can develop and execute marketing campaigns across digital channels, especially LinkedIn. You understand how to reach and engage specific target audiences, track campaign performance, and optimize for results.
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Highly organized and process-oriented. You can manage complex, multi-stage recruitment processes with hundreds of candidates while maintaining excellent candidate experience. You're comfortable with recruitment software, applicant tracking systems, and process optimization.
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An excellent communicator. You can craft compelling messaging for different audiences, conduct engaging interviews, and represent Tarbell professionally to prospective candidates and external partners.
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Detail-oriented with strong project management skills. You can juggle multiple recruitment cycles, deadlines, and stakeholders simultaneously while ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
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Passionate about Tarbell’s mission. You have a strong understanding of advanced AI and its potential impacts on society, believe in the importance of independent journalism on this topic, and are excited about supporting the next generation of AI journalists.
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Bonus points for:
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A strong understanding of advanced AI, or the ability to learn this quickly.
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Familiarity with tech journalism and AI reporting, or a willingness to get up to speed quickly.
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Experience leading teams. We’re excited to hire someone with the ability to lead a recruitment and outreach team at Tarbell within 2 years.
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We encourage speculative applications; we expect many strong candidates will not meet all of the criteria listed.
Location
Our team is international and we're open to candidates in London, San Francisco, New York, or Washington DC.
We have a particular preference for candidates based in London or San Francisco, or willing to relocate. We can sponsor UK work authorization for eligible candidates and London-based staff will be expected to work from our East London office 3 days per week. Unfortunately, we are not yet in a position to provide US work permits.
We require all staff to spend 1 week every quarter on site, typically in London or San Francisco. Additionally, occasional travel may be required (approximately 1 week per quarter).
Benefits
Our benefits include:
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33 days of paid holiday in total (including national holidays).
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$4,500 annual budget for equipment and office space.
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$2,000-$5,000 annual budget for personal development and productivity.
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Standard pension (UK) or 401(k) (US), with 3% contribution from employer.
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Competitive health benefits for staff based in the US.
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A work environment that supports you to grow and challenges you to do your best work.
Tarbell is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. The emergence of increasingly advanced AI poses a risk to everyone. Grappling with this technology will require the participation of all of society and is undermined by discriminatory hiring practices which pit factions of humanity against one another.
We do not discriminate against qualified employees or applicants based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, sexual preference, marital status, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law or local ordinance. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.
Operating Values
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Focus is good: Do fewer things. When it matters, do them to a world-class standard.
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Hire the best, then invest: We hire people in the top 10% and then help them get to the top 1%.
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Freedom & responsibility: We trust people to own their work and outcomes, pairing autonomy with accountability.
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Radical candour: We provide direct feedback that is kind and clear, honest and sincere (even when it’s difficult).
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Safe to speak, safe to fail: We create an environment where people feel safe to speak up, take risks, and make mistakes without fear of blame. Feedback is about learning, not punishment
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Truthful & transparent: We believe in being truthful & transparent, even when it's difficult or disadvantageous to do so.
Application Process
If you’re interested in the role, please fill out this form by 13 July.
If we run a formal hiring round, we'll email everyone who filled it out and invite them to do any additional steps to apply for the role. This would like be:
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Round 1: Application / expression of interest
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Round 2: A 3-5 hour work task. We'll compensate candidates $60 / hour for time spent on work tasks.
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Round 3: A 60-minute interview with a member of the Tarbell team..
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Round 4: A 2 day work trial with our team (in-person in London strongly preferred). We'll offer a $1,000 total stipend for the two-day trial, plus reimbursement of travel and accommodation costs.