Recruiter, Leadership And Specialized Searches

The Role

We are looking for a Leadership Recruiter, where you'll partner directly with executives and senior leaders to identify and hire exceptional leadership talent across the company. You'll operate as an internal executive search partner, owning searches from profile development and deep market research and mapping through candidate engagement, assessment, and close. You'll develop a strong point of view on where the best talent sits, identify both obvious and non-obvious candidate pools, and use market intelligence to help leadership continuously calibrate what great looks like. Responsibilities include:

• Own end-to-end searches for leadership roles across the company, with a focus on Director, VP, and executive-level hiring.
• Partner directly with executives and hiring leaders to translate business needs into clear leadership profiles, competencies, and search strategies.
• Lead the research and market-mapping strategy for each search, developing a comprehensive view of the relevant talent landscape before and throughout execution.
• Build detailed target-company ecosystems, identifying companies based on stage, scale, business model, functional maturity, growth trajectory, and other factors relevant to the search.
• Map leadership teams and organizational structures within target companies to identify the individuals who own the relevant scope, as well as high-potential leaders operating one level below.
• Use research to identify non-obvious and adjacent talent pools, rather than relying solely on obvious competitors, titles, or previously known candidates.
• Develop and continuously refine hypotheses around where the strongest talent is likely to sit, using candidate conversations and market intelligence to improve the search.
• Translate research into actionable market insights for hiring executives, including talent availability, compensation, organizational structures, candidate patterns, and potential tradeoffs.
• Proactively identify and engage passive leadership candidates through thoughtful, highly personalized outreach and relationship building.
• Conduct substantive candidate conversations that assess leadership trajectory, scope, impact, motivations, and alignment with the opportunity.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to hiring executives throughout the search, providing market intelligence, candidate calibration, and recommendations rather than simply facilitating the process.
• Design and drive disciplined search processes, including kickoff, research strategy, market mapping, candidate development, interview strategy, references, compensation discussions, and closing.
• Maintain a high bar for candidate experience and discretion, particularly for confidential or highly sensitive searches.
• Build long-term relationships with exceptional leaders who may become relevant to the company over time.

What we look for

• 6+ years of recruiting, executive search, or executive talent research experience, with meaningful exposure to leadership hiring.

• Experience in one or both of the following environments:

• Executive search, ideally supporting venture-backed, growth-stage, or technology companies; or

• In-house leadership/executive recruiting within a high-growth technology company.

• Exceptional research and market-mapping capabilities, with demonstrated experience building leadership talent markets from scratch.

• Ability to develop sophisticated target-company strategies based on company stage, scale, business model, growth trajectory, organizational maturity, and functional relevance.

• Experience researching organizational structures and identifying the actual scope and reporting relationships of executives and senior leaders-not simply searching by title.

• Ability to synthesize large amounts of market information into a clear point of view and communicate that perspective to senior stakeholders.

• Strong investigative instincts and intellectual curiosity; you enjoy figuring out where talent sits and finding people who aren't immediately obvious.

• Demonstrated experience owning or materially contributing to searches for Director, VP, and/or C-level leaders.

• Strong candidate assessment skills and the ability to distinguish scope, trajectory, and leadership impact from title or company pedigree.

• Experience partnering directly with executives and senior hiring leaders.

• Strong judgment and discretion when handling confidential searches and sensitive organizational information.

• A highly proactive approach: you systematically build the market rather than waiting for candidates to appear.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.