If we make an offer, we will need an answer within a week. Is that workable?

How to answer

The recruiter is asking two things: whether you are serious, and whether another process will collide with their date. Answer both now, while the deadline costs them nothing to shape.

Take it in this order.

1. Say yes with its condition attached. “A week can work, and I’d like to be able to say yes inside it. Here’s what I’d need in hand when the clock starts.” An unconditional yes here is the promise you break later.
2. Name what you need to decide. The written offer with level, base, equity (type, vesting, value), sign-on and start date; a talk with your future manager; and answers on travel, time on customer sites and your first engagement. Have those talks before the offer. Know your answer to “what would stop you saying yes”.
3. Pin the start of the clock. “Does the week start from the written offer or the verbal, and does a counter on terms pause it?” A week that ends before the paperwork arrives is not a week.
4. Give your real calendar. Say where your other processes stand, in stages, not adjectives. If one lands after their date, say so and ask what sets theirs: another candidate or a team start date. Then give the slower company your date and ask if they can move.
5. If you need more, ask once with a date and a reason. “I’d need until Friday the following week, because my final round elsewhere is that Tuesday.” An open-ended “a bit more time” invites a no. If the date is firm, you are weighing a real offer against one that may not come; know which you’d take.

The trap is agreeing now and negotiating later: an extension asked for after the offer lands reads as shopping it.