Job Description

The way companies innovate is broken. The systems built to create and protect ideas can’t keep up with the pace of change. Today, 90% of S&P 500 company value is intangible (e.g., in intellectual property) - yet R&D and IP teams spend half their time buried in manual work, sifting through patents and paperwork instead of pushing the frontier forward. The tools of creating and protecting are stuck in the past. We’re here to fix that.

Ankar is building the R&D tools for the AI era and defining what applied research will look like in the next 20 years. We’re building infrastructure and product experiences our customers rely on every day. You’ll translate messy, ambiguous problems into clean, dependable software—and you’ll do it at the cutting-edge of AI.

We’re at an inflection point:

• We’ve raised >$24M to date from Tier-1 VCs like Atomico, Index Ventures, Norrsken, Daphni, and angels like the Founder of Hugging Face, CEO from Datadog, and Leaders from DeepMind and OpenAI.

• We’re already working with the world’s most innovative companies including Fortune 500 company L’Oréal and global law firm Vorys

• Expanding our world-class team with alumni from Palantir, Amazon, and BCG to tackle the $1T+ innovation market. We’re just getting started.

What You'll Do

• Own the end-to-end recruitment lifecycle for Engineering, primarily Software Engineers and Product Managers - from sourcing and screening through interview management, offer negotiation and closing.

• Build and maintain strong talent pipelines through proactive sourcing, referrals, communities and creative outreach strategies.

• Partner closely with hiring managers to understand hiring needs, define candidate profiles and run efficient, high-quality interview processes.

• Deliver an exceptional candidate experience throughout, building strong relationships and effectively positioning Ankar to top talent

Requirements:

• 6+ years building hiring systems in high-growth environments recruiting for Software Engineering roles

• Track record of hiring in ambiguous, zero-to-one contexts (early-stage startups, new market expansions, or building new functions within larger companies)

Culture at Ankar:

Culture at Ankar is how we think, build, and operate. We’re building a generational company that redefines how the world’s best R&D teams create and protect ideas.

• Contrarian - we think from first principles: We think deeply, question assumptions, and build from first principles. The best ideas come from clarity and rigour.

• Creative - we build with taste: We’re building the R&D tools for the AI era and shaping what applied research looks like over the next 20 years. We care about precision, quality, and systems that last.

• Competitive - we play to win: We move with urgency and set a very high bar for ourselves and each other. Every win raises the bar. Every challenge sharpens us.

What we put behind our people

Building at the frontier takes exceptional people. We invest accordingly.

• Health Insurance : Full private health & dental coverage for you and your dependents.

• Pension: Flexible pension scheme with up to 5% employer matching on qualifying earnings.

• Food on us: Team lunches twice a week, plus dinner when working late in the office.

• Cycle to work: Green Commute initiative scheme (up to £3k) to help you get a new bike tax-free.

• Way we work: We combine deep, in-person collaboration (3 days/week in our Shoreditch office) with flexibility and trust. What matters is ownership, impact, and results, not where you work from.