How we hire at Linear
Linear is small and profitable, and we intend to keep it that way. Every person who joins shapes how the product gets built, how decisions get made, and what the day-to-day feels like. We hire slowly, and we’re selective.
We’d rather explain how our process works than leave you guessing. This post covers what we look for, what the stages are, and what you can expect from us along the way.
Our perspective on hiring
Hiring well matters more than hiring fast. We’re happy to take our time, and believe each person who joins the team should raise the bar for the next one.
We value slope over credentials. Someone growing fast and thinking clearly will often outperform someone with more years and logos on their resume.
The best talker in the room isn’t always the best doer. Interviews favor people who present well under pressure, not necessarily people who are capable of great work. It’s one reason work trials are part of the process here. They give both sides better signal than another round of curated conversations.
We’re a remote team, distributed across time zones with relatively little process overhead. That’s by design, because we think the best builders want clear ownership and a lot of room to do the most meaningful work of their careers.
What we look for
The specifics vary by role, but the strongest candidates at Linear tend to share a few attributes:
Craft. You care about doing work well and have built real depth in your domain. You notice details that matter. You know the difference between extra effort and meaningful quality. This shows up differently depending on the role, but you can usually tell when someone has it.
Judgment. You can reason through tradeoffs, work with incomplete information, and make sound decisions without waiting for a script. At Linear we don’t use OKRs or run A/B tests. Decisions get made with taste, customer insight, and direct judgment. In interviews, we’re listening for how you think through a real problem rather than how polished the answer sounds.
Ownership. You take responsibility for a problem from beginning to end. At Linear, teams are small. You shape direction, make decisions, talk to users when needed, and communicate progress. It’s a full-stack way of working, and it requires someone who doesn’t need a lot of process to stay oriented.
Clarity. You can explain your thinking simply and directly. You respect other people’s time. You don’t hide weak ideas behind complexity.
Fit with how we work. You’re drawn to small teams, clear ownership, high standards, and focus. Linear tends to be a good place for people who want to build something rather than manage something.
What the process looks like
The exact sequence varies by role, but most processes follow the same general shape.
Application review. Applications go through our Careers page. Our Talent team reviews every one. We also proactively source candidates and welcome referrals. If you were referred by someone or were reached out to directly by our team, the process from there is the same.
Early conversations. If there’s a potential fit, we set up an initial conversation with a recruiter, hiring manager, or both. This is where we start to understand your background, what you’re looking for, and whether the role makes sense on both sides. We discuss compensation on the first recruiter call so neither side is surprised later. We’re also happy to answer questions about how Linear works day to day.
Team interviews. Next come a small number of focused conversations with people you’d work with. The content depends on the role. An engineer might talk through coding, architecture, and design decisions. A designer might walk through past product work and the tradeoffs behind it. A go-to-market candidate might discuss positioning, judgment calls, or how they’d approach a real scenario with customers. We’re trying to understand how you think and approach problems.
Work trial. For all roles, the final stage is a paid work trial. A 2-5 day project designed to approximate the kind of work you’d actually do here. You work with a small project team, get access to our internal tools, and deliver something real. They let us see how you approach the work, and they give you a concrete sense of how Linear operates. If you reach this stage, we’ll share a detailed guide and make sure expectations are clear.
Decision and offer. After the work trial, each member of the project team submits feedback independently before debriefing together. We start with a blind vote, then discuss. The hiring manager makes the final call, though we strongly prefer unanimous decisions. If we make an offer, we’ll walk through compensation, equity, and logistics directly and give you time to decide.
What you can expect from us
We keep the process tight. Most roles have three to four interview conversations before the work trial stage. We don’t add rounds for the sake of consensus. Most processes run four to six weeks from first conversation to offer, though this varies by role and scheduling.
All work trials are paid. We communicate the daily rate in advance and are flexible on scheduling. We know candidates are balancing other work and personal commitments.
Candidates who invest real time in our process deserve honesty in return. That means feedback if we don’t move forward after interviews, even if the conversation is hard. At the offer stage, we’re direct about business performance and what your equity could realistically be worth. A lot of companies are vague or overly optimistic about that. We’d rather you have an accurate picture.
We communicate directly throughout. If there’s a delay or a change, we’ll let you know rather than go quiet.
A note on fit
Linear isn’t trying to be the right place for everyone. People who thrive here want a lot of surface area and not a lot of overhead. In practice, that means fewer meetings, less check-in points, and more autonomy than most companies offer. That sounds liberating, and it often is, but it also means there’s fewer feedback loops people traditionally rely on.
If you want to know whether your work is landing, you have to develop your own read on it and go seek out the people whose opinion matters. Some people find that energizing, while others find it disorienting. Both reactions are reasonable, but only one of them describes someone who’s going to do their best work here.