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Published on
June 17, 2025
5 min read
OpenAI New Hiring Strategy Faces ‘Unprecedented Pressure to Grow’, Says New Recruiting Head
OpenAI’s new hiring strategy is now in focus as the company is trying to hire the best people in AI. According to CNBC, Joaquin Quiñonero Candela, the new head of recruiting at OpenAI, said the company is under “unprecedented pressure to grow.” He posted on LinkedIn, “Recruiting has never been more important.” He compared the situation to a rocket at “MaxQ,” which means it’s under maximum pressure.
Candela officially joined OpenAI as the new recruiting head in June 2025. Before this, he worked as the head of preparedness, helping the company build safe AI systems. Now, his job is to bring in the right people to help the company grow faster and smarter.
A Race to Hire the Best AI Talent
OpenAI is growing very fast, and it’s also facing tough competition from other tech companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Anthropic, and more. All of these companies are trying to hire the same top-level AI engineers, researchers, and product experts.
In his post, Candela said OpenAI has grown almost 10 times bigger in just the last two and a half years. Right now, the company has over 330 job openings in different areas such as engineering, legal, sales, and product.
“We’re in uncharted waters,” he wrote, which means this is a new and difficult situation with no clear path. OpenAI wants to build a team that shares its mission to create safe and helpful AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). OpenAI’s hiring roadmap is focused not just on skills but also on finding people who care about AI safety and the company’s values.
As part of its OpenAI hiring drive, the company is also bringing in experienced leaders. Last month, it hired Instacart’s CEO, Fidji Simo, as the Head of Applications. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said she will help the company grow even faster. Earlier, OpenAI also bought Jony Ive’s AI hardware startup for $6.4 billion and brought in Sarah Friar as its Chief Financial Officer.
What OpenAI Is Doing to Handle This Growth
To keep up with the speed of AI development, OpenAI is hiring quickly. But they’re not just looking for talent; they want people who are the right fit. That’s what makes OpenAI’s new hiring strategy so important.
Joaquin Quiñonero Candela has years of experience in AI. He has a PhD in machine learning and worked at Facebook for over nine years, where he led projects focused on Responsible AI. In his new role at OpenAI, he praised the recruiting team for helping the company grow so much already.
In his post, he also asked some big questions like, “How should we use AGI for recruiting? Whom should we hire in a post-AGI world?” This shows that OpenAI is thinking ahead and trying to stay ready for the future.
He added, “I care immensely about culture and about people.” That means he wants to make sure the people hired believe in OpenAI’s mission and values, not just in building smart AI.
