Associate Recruiter - APAC

About Us

Our mission is to reinvent the way people learn, starting with language.

Learning a language can change a life by opening doors to new cultures, careers, and communities. Two billion people around the world are actively trying to learn a language, but the best way to learn (one-on-one tutoring) is hard to access at scale and hasn’t been meaningfully improved in decades. Speak is building a human-level, AI-powered tutor in your pocket: a conversation-first experience that lets learners actually speak, get instant feedback, and progress through carefully designed lessons. The result is a complete path from beginner to confident speaker across multiple languages.

Speak first launched in South Korea in 2019, where Speak has now become the number one language learning app, and we now serve learners across many markets and 15+ languages. Speak is one of the world’s leading AI companies, with over $150m raised in venture investment from OpenAI, Accel, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and more, with a distributed team across San Francisco, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, and Ljubljana.

As an Associate APAC Recruiter at Speak, you’ll play a vital role in both the day-to-day execution and long-term scalability of our hiring function. This role blends coordination, sourcing, and recruiting operations: supporting not just interview logistics, but also building candidate pipelines, managing external job boards, and helping shape the systems that power our recruiting efforts. You’ll work closely with our recruiting team, hiring managers, and cross-functional teams to deliver a thoughtful, inclusive, and efficient hiring process.

This is a full-time opportunity in Seoul to grow your career in recruiting while helping build the infrastructure that enables Speak to attract and hire top talent in APAC (Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and more!).

What You’Ll Be Doing

• Schedule and coordinate interviews across APAC and global time zones with precision
• Act as the primary point of contact for candidates, ensuring a professional, responsive, and welcoming experience
• Manage job postings and inbound applications across external hiring platforms (Wanted, Wantedly, etc.)
• Source candidates proactively through LinkedIn and other channels; run outbound sequences and build targeted talent pools
• Support recruiting operations projects: refine workflows, standardize documentation, and implement scalable systems
• Assist with employer brand initiatives and other ad hoc recruiting projects, including candidate experience improvements and recruiting events

What We’Re Looking For

• Prior experience as a recruiting coordinator, talent sourcer, or similar role (internship or contract experience is welcome)
• Excellent communication skills in both Korean and English (written and spoken)
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage complex calendars across different timezones and fast-moving pipelines
• Familiarity with HR or recruiting tools such as Ashby, GreetingHR, Flex, or LinkedIn Recruiter
• A process-oriented mindset with a drive to improve workflows, documentation, and systems

Nice To Have

• Passion for creating exceptional candidate experience
• Strong interest in AI/education technology
• Proficiency in additional languages (especially Japanese or Mandarin)
• Experience in start-up or high-growth environments is a plus

Why Work At Speak

1. Join a fantastic, tight-knit team at the right time: we're growing very quickly, we've most recently raised our Series C from some of the top investors in the valley, and we've achieved product-market fit in our initial markets. You'd join at a magical time when a single person could significantly change the course of the company.
2. Do your life's work with people you’ll love working with: we care strongly about our craft and want every person at Speak to feel like they're growing every day. We believe in the idea that working with people you both enjoy and have respect for makes everything better. We hire thoughtfully and only work with people we admire deeply.
3. Global in nature: We're live in over 40 countries and launching in a number of new markets soon. We have dedicated offices in San Francisco, Ljubljana, Seoul, and Tokyo, and you’ll have the opportunity to talk to users in each of these regions on a regular basis as well as travel.
4. Impact people's lives in a major way: Learning a language is one of the single most life-changing skills one can learn, and right now 99% of people never achieve their goal because the process is broken. We’re helping millions of people achieve their goals and improve their lives.

Speak does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.