Lead Technical Recruiter

About You

In the spirit of Default to Transparency: we’ll be extremely picky about who we hire for this role. We care less about titles held and more about what you’ve accomplished, and how you achieved it. Below are some of the skills, behaviors and experiences you have to be successful.

• Significant, senior-level full-cycle technical recruiting experience . You’ve had ownership of hiring strategy beyond your own reqs or for complex pipelines. Ideally this is across various engineering disciplines including Applied AI, Software Engineering, Infrastructure, and Security.

• Strategic operational and systems thinking. You have strong operational instincts that connect recruiting to business outcomes, along with a solid systems mindset to create efficient, future-looking talent plans (comp analysis, competitive positioning, org-level market mapping) and process, not just fills reqs. This also means you anticipate problems before they surface.

• Trust building with senior leaders and TA peers. You’re savvy at building strong relationships with peers and key leaders that enables you to partner and influence on complex hiring scenarios, and build alignment around a recommendation rather than just presenting one.

• High AI fluency, ready to lead with it . Our team is on the leading end of AI fluency and usage. Ideally, yours is on par or better. That said, learning mindset, excitement around AI, and a solid understanding of usage fundamentals is more important. At minimum, you should be using AI as a core part of how you work.

• Driving results without a title . You know how to drive results regardless of if you own the work directly or if it's been delegated. That means knowing how to mentor and coach peers and holding stakeholders accountable.

• Strong opinions loosely held. As a subject matter expert, you hold strong opinions based on data, experience, and desired outcomes, but you know how/when to flex when presented with additional details, context, or ideas.

• Resourceful with ambiguity . You know how to connect the dots and don’t feel stalled when you have limited information. You know how to create plans that are good enough to move forward vs. the perfect solution, and are comfortable pivoting quickly. You’re tied to outcomes, not projects.

• Champion for diversity hiring & inclusive interview practices . You know how to advocate for and build diverse talent pools, and can shape process at the team/department level, not just your own interviews.

Things You’ll Do

• Advise hiring managers, directors, and executives on talent strategy and complex technical hiring decisions.

• Drive talent intelligence and market mapping that informs acquisition strategy for an entire department or vertical.

• Use AI to design repeatable workflows, improve recruiting outputs, and increase team efficiency.

• Build future-looking recruiting plans, including compensation analysis and competitive positioning recommendations.

• Partner across recruiting, operations, and hiring teams to solve process bottlenecks and improve hiring effectiveness.

• Lead AI transformation, process improvement, and high-impact projects that improve candidate experience, stakeholder satisfaction, and recruiting systems at scale.

• Mentor teammates through hands-on problem-solving and help raise the overall capability of the technical recruiting team.

• Lead talent brand initiatives for your vertical, from events to platform presence to targeted attraction campaigns, aligned to Zapier’s broader EVP.