Talent Acquisition Specialist

CI is Connecticut’s strategic venture capital arm and one of the most active early-stage investors on the eastern seaboard. CI has a portfolio of 250+ companies across 5 equity funds and a 1 venture debt fund. We have $550 million in assets under management, and our venture portfolio employs 4,000 jobs. In a typical year, we deploy $50 million and write between 60-80 checks.

We review 750 companies per year and invite over 100 founders in to pitch us each year. We add 30 new companies to our portfolio annually, and we also invest as an LP in Connecticut-based venture capital funds. Connecticut Innovations
- Venture Capital for Biotech, IT, and More Connecticut Innovations

We measure success through both financial returns and economic impact, including job creation. Over the past decade, CI has generated more than $400 million in returns and cumulatively, our portfolio companies have raised over $8 billion.

• Fiscal 2026 was our best year on record. We generated $76.1 million in cash proceeds from all investment activities. Most of those proceeds came from our strong New Haven bioscience sector. In FY26 actuals, we invested $59.3 million into 75 early-stage companies and venture funds, and those deals pulled an additional $1.2 billion of outside capital into the state.
• As of July 2026, CI earned the #1 spot in New England for portfolio exit value and ranked among top 5 East Coast venture firms investing at the Series B stage or earlier.
  Over the past 365 days, CI generated more than $125 million in cash returns
  .

Our culture is vibrant, diverse, collaborative, and inclusive. We embrace perspective and have mission alignment on our impact to Connecticut's innovation ecosystem.

We are a talent and people advisory team embedded within a venture capital organization, providing hands-on support to CI portfolio companies at no cost to them. Our work gives founders access to recruiting and human capital expertise that many early-stage companies would not otherwise have the resources to build internally or afford external support. Talent Acquisition
- Connecticut Innovations Connecticut Innovations

Depending on what a company needs, we may help think through organizational structure, benchmark compensation, design an interview process, build an employer brand, select an applicant tracking system, create an internship program, lead recruiting for a critical role, or develop a broader strategy for attracting and retaining talent.

Our Venture Team introduces us to companies across the portfolio, and from there we work directly with founders and leadership teams to understand the business, define the challenge, and determine how we can have the greatest impact.

You may spend one week helping an advanced manufacturing company identify a specialized process engineer, the next supporting a therapeutics company searching for a translational development leader, and the next advising a software founder on how to attract a chief revenue officer. Our venture portfolio, across 250+ companies, has 150+ open roles at any point in time, so this is high volume recruiting support.

You will not be expected to arrive as an expert in every industry we invest in. You will be expected to be curious enough to learn quickly, ask thoughtful questions, understand what makes someone exceptional in a particular field, and translate that understanding into a strong search strategy.

You will also serve as a trusted advisor to founders who may be building their teams for the first time. Early-stage companies make hiring decisions with limited resources and significant implications for their future growth. Our job is to help founders make those decisions thoughtfully — whether that means refining a role, recalibrating compensation, expanding the candidate profile, improving an interview process, or occasionally reconsidering whether a particular hire is the right priority for the company at that moment.

We are looking for an ambitious, entrepreneurial recruiter who enjoys learning, building relationships, and solving problems that do not always have an obvious answer. In return, we are excited to invest in someone who wants significant exposure to founders, venture capital, emerging companies, and the broader Connecticut innovation ecosystem.

• Lead full-cycle searches across the CI portfolio, from initial intake and market mapping through interviews, references, offer development, and close. Searches may span technical,…