The Power of Hiring Intent Data

When a company posts a job, that posting comes with a timestamp, and the timestamp is the interesting part. A new "VP of Sales" role usually means budget just got approved and a decision-maker seat is about to be filled. A first "Data Engineer" opening means someone is standing up a data platform right now. Three "Account Executive" listings in one week means a team is scaling its go-to-market this quarter.

People call this hiring intent data, and it's one of the more useful buying signals around because it's timed. A role that shows up today is a window that's open today. Six weeks later the tool has been picked and the problem is quietly solved.

This is not about finding jobs. This is about finding companies that are actively investing in growth and need solutions. The timing is critical. A company posting its first senior engineering role might be months away from needing a full-blown MLOps platform, but they are actively hiring, indicating a budget and a need for talent acquisition tools now.

You don't need an expensive intent-data subscription to see it. Three of the biggest applicant tracking systems (ATS) — Greenhouse, Lever, and Ashby — serve their customers' job boards as public, unauthenticated JSON endpoints. If you can make an HTTP request, you can build your own "who's hiring" feed.

Accessing the APIs

These ATS platforms expose their job listings through APIs that are generally accessible without authentication. This means you can fetch the data directly using standard HTTP GET requests. The structure of the data can vary slightly between platforms, but the core information – job title, location, department, and critically, the posting date – is usually present.

The key to identifying companies that have just started hiring lies in the timestamp associated with each job posting. By monitoring these timestamps, you can pinpoint when a new role was created and made public. This allows for a granular understanding of a company's immediate needs.

Greenhouse API

Greenhouse is a widely adopted ATS. Its public job board API typically follows a predictable pattern. While the exact URL can vary based on the company's subdomain, a common structure looks like:

https://boards.greenhouse.io/company/[companyname]/jobs/api/v1/listing

When you make a GET request to this endpoint, you will receive a JSON response containing a list of all open positions. Each job object within the response will include details such as the job ID, title, location, and importantly, a creation date or timestamp. Filtering these results by date allows you to identify newly posted roles.

For example, if you are looking for companies that posted a new "Product Manager" role in the last 24 hours, you would fetch the job listings for your target companies and then filter the JSON output based on the date field of each job object.

Lever API

Lever is another popular ATS, and its API structure is similarly accessible. The public API endpoint for Lever job listings often appears as:

https://api.lever.co/v0/postings/[companyname]

Similar to Greenhouse, a GET request to this URL returns a JSON array of job postings. Each posting includes fields like `id`, `text`, `categories` (which often contain location and department), and `createdAt`. The `createdAt` field is crucial for identifying recent hiring activity. By comparing this timestamp against the current date, you can determine which companies have recently opened new positions.

This direct access is invaluable for sales teams, recruiters, and market intelligence professionals. Instead of relying on delayed or aggregated data, you get a real-time snapshot of a company's immediate hiring priorities.

Ashby API

Ashby, while perhaps less ubiquitous than Greenhouse or Lever, is gaining traction, especially among high-growth startups. Its API for public job postings can be accessed via URLs like:

https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/api/v1/positions

When querying Ashby, you might need to pass parameters to filter by company if you are not directly accessing a specific company's job board page. However, the general approach remains the same: fetch the JSON data and parse the `publishedAt` or a similar timestamp field. Ashby's API often provides rich data, including department, team, and specific role requirements, which can further refine hiring intent signals.

The surprising detail here is not that these APIs exist, but how consistently they are overlooked as a direct source of actionable intelligence. Many companies treat these job boards as mere corporate pages rather than dynamic data feeds ripe for programmatic consumption.

Building Your Hiring Feed

To leverage this data effectively, you'll need to script your data retrieval. This involves:

  1. Identifying Target Companies: Compile a list of companies you are interested in.
  2. Constructing API URLs: For each company, determine the correct API endpoint for Greenhouse, Lever, or Ashby. This often requires inspecting their careers page source code or using common patterns.
  3. Making HTTP Requests: Use a programming language (Python, JavaScript, etc.) with an HTTP client library to fetch the JSON data from each endpoint.
  4. Parsing and Filtering: Process the JSON response. Extract the job title, location, department, and the `createdAt` or `publishedAt` timestamp. Filter these results to identify roles posted within your desired timeframe (e.g., last 24 hours, last 3 days).
  5. Storing and Alerting: Store the identified new postings in a database or spreadsheet. Set up alerts for new roles that match specific criteria (e.g., a first-time "Head of Marketing" role, or multiple "Software Engineer" roles posted simultaneously).

Think of this process less like traditional market research and more like setting up a real-time news alert for business development opportunities. You are not waiting for a report; you are actively monitoring the pulse of a company's growth trajectory.

The first role posted by a company in a new department, like "Customer Success Manager," is a strong signal that they are not only launching a new product or service but are actively preparing to support it. This indicates a need for related tools and services, from CRM add-ons to customer support software.

Implications and Use Cases

The ability to track companies that have just started hiring offers significant advantages:

  • Sales & Business Development: Identify prospects who have recently received budget approval and are actively investing in expansion. Target them with solutions that address their immediate scaling needs.
  • Recruiting & Talent Acquisition: Understand market demand and identify companies that are actively seeking specific talent, allowing for proactive outreach.
  • Market Research: Gauge industry growth trends and identify emerging players or departments within established companies.

What nobody has addressed yet is the long-term maintenance of these scraping scripts. As ATS platforms update their APIs or change their public-facing structures, these scripts will inevitably break, requiring ongoing developer effort to maintain.

By tapping into these public APIs, you bypass the need for expensive data providers and gain a direct, real-time view into a company's growth stage. This data is not just about job openings; it's a proxy for active investment, scaling efforts, and immediate business needs.