Arena Recruiter 2026

The Arena – Recruiter

Location: Remote | DC-Metro, Northern Virginia, Maryland, or Delaware required

Employment Type: Full-time, salaried, 

The Company & Mission:

The Arena is a small (currently three-person, growing) recruiting firm focused exclusively on defense-tech and national security talent. We partner with venture-backed defense-tech startups on a mission to modernize how the U.S. builds and buys defense technology. We're still very much building our process as we go, and we're looking for someone who wants to help build it, not just execute against a playbook.

What This Role is All About:

We're looking to bring on a full-time Recruiter to join our team. This is full-cycle recruiting — you'll own sourcing, screening, interview coordination, and closing across a mix of technical and go-to-market roles for our client base, with real room to grow into more strategic and process-ownership responsibilities as you prove yourself.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Manage full-cycle recruiting for a portfolio of open roles across multiple clients — sourcing, screening, presenting candidates, and helping drive offers to close


• Work primarily on technical roles (largely software engineering — full-stack, front-end, back-end, some hardware-adjacent) alongside go-to-market roles (sales, business development)


• Navigate roles that often require candidates to hold an active security clearance, given our clients build technology for defense and intelligence end users


• Build and manage candidate pipelines directly in our systems (RecruitCRM, Slack) and stay in close communication with the team on req status and priorities


• As you grow into the role, contribute to process, tooling, and how we operate as a team — not just execute against what already exists


• Represent Arena and our clients professionally to candidates operating in a competitive, fast-moving talent market

What You Bring:

• Real full-cycle recruiting experience — agency, corporate, or a mix


• A low-ego, high-ownership mentality — someone who wants to build process, not just follow one


• Genuine comfort operating in ambiguity; we're a small, still-being-built shop, not an established TA org


• Comfort and fluency with AI-assisted recruiting tools and workflows


• Strong communication and relationship-building skills with both candidates and hiring stakeholders


• Currently based in the DC-Metro, Northern Virginia, Maryland, or Delaware region

Bonus Points:

• Experience recruiting for defense-tech, national security, or other cleared-adjacent environments


• Prior experience in a startup or small-team setting

Benefits:

• Base salary + commission structure (details discussed during the process)