Executive Search Sourcing Recruiter

Job Description

Derflan is actively seeking an experienced Recruiter II – Executive Search & Sourcing to join our team, supporting one of our large enterprise clients. This is an active opportunity based in Seattle, WA , requiring five days per week onsite.

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This role is designed for a true sourcing recruiter —someone who has built their recruiting career around identifying, engaging, and generating highly specialized talent for difficult-to-fill, senior-level searches.

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The successful candidate must be nimble, resourceful, and comfortable moving quickly between very different searches . You do not need to begin each search as a subject-matter expert. You do need to be able to rapidly learn a new role, understand what differentiates the strongest candidates, identify where that talent sits in the market, and confidently begin sourcing and engaging qualified professionals.

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This is not a traditional high-volume recruiting role . The focus is on candidate generation, strategic sourcing, speed, quality, and the ability to engage highly sought-after professionals.

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Title: Recruiter II – Executive Search & Sourcing

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Location: Seattle, WA – Onsite, 5 Days per Week

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Company: Derflan

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Annual Base Salary: $94,392 + Benefits

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Duration: 12 Months, with potential for extension

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Start Date: ASAP

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Schedule: Monday–Friday, 40 hours per week

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Job Overview:

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Derflan is seeking an experienced sourcing recruiter with a demonstrated track record of identifying and engaging high-level, highly specialized, and difficult-to-find professionals .

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The Recruiter II will own the front end of the recruiting process, from understanding the search strategy and target profile through market research, talent identification, candidate generation, outreach, engagement, and in-depth candidate assessment.

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A critical component of this role is the ability to ramp quickly on unfamiliar searches . Assignments may move from one highly specialized discipline to a completely different one. The recruiter must be comfortable quickly learning enough about a new function, industry, or candidate profile to understand the talent landscape and begin producing qualified candidates without an extended ramp-up period.

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The expectation is not that the recruiter will already be an expert in every discipline they support. Rather, they must know how to learn a search quickly —asking the right questions, understanding the critical qualifications, researching the market, identifying comparable talent, and translating that knowledge into an effective sourcing strategy.

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The professionals being recruited are highly sought-after and often considering several opportunities at once. Success requires much more than identifying someone with the right keywords or sending standard recruiting outreach. The recruiter must know how to engage sophisticated passive talent, build credibility quickly, and create genuine interest in the opportunity.

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Once a candidate is qualified, engaged, and interested in moving forward, the Recruiter II will transition the candidate to the full-cycle recruiting business partner for the next stage of the hiring process.

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Key Responsibilities:

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• Own candidate generation and sourcing strategy for highly specialized and difficult-to-fill searches.
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• Quickly ramp on new and unfamiliar roles, functions, and talent markets.
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• Ask targeted questions at the beginning of a search to understand the profile and what differentiates an exceptional candidate.
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• Translate complex and highly specific position requirements into actionable sourcing strategies.
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• Move confidently between different types of searches without needing to become a subject-matter expert before beginning candidate generation.
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• Conduct targeted market research and talent mapping to identify where relevant talent sits.
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• Identify and engage senior-level, executive, specialty, and other highly sought-after passive professionals.
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• Develop sourcing strategies that go beyond keyword matching, inbound applicants, and standard database searches.
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• Find professionals with very specific combinations of experience, expertise, and demonstrated accomplishments.
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• Conduct detailed candidate research before outreach and engagement.
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• Develop compelling and individualized outreach strategies.
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• Build credibility quickly with sophisticated professionals who may not be actively considering a career move.
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• Understand candidate motivations, career goals, competing opportunities, and potential barriers to considering a new position.
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• Effectively communicate the opportunity and generate genuine interest from passive talent .
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• Conduct extensive candidate interviews to evaluate experience, accomplishments, career progression, motivation, and alignment with the opportunity.
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• Ask probing follow-up questions that move beyond general responses to uncover a candidate's specific actions, results, and impact .
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• Evaluate candidates based on demonstrated accomplishments rather than relying solely on titles, companies, or surface-level qualifications.
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• Conduct pre-closing conversations to understand candidate interest, motivations, concerns, competing opportunities, and likelihood of moving forward.
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• Transition qualified, thoroughly assessed, and engaged candidates to the full-cycle recruiting business partner.
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• Provide detailed candidate assessments and relevant market intelligence to recruiting partners.
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• Maintain accurate candidate and sourcing activity within Greenhouse ATS .
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• Track outreach, engagement, interviews, candidate progression, and sourcing effectiveness.
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• Adapt sourcing strategies quickly when an initial approach is not producing the right talent.
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• Build and maintain pipelines of specialized talent for current and anticipated hiring needs.
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• Operate with urgency while maintaining the quality and depth required for sophisticated searches.
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Qualifications:

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• 3–5+ years of professional recruiting experience , with significant experience specifically focused on sourcing and candidate generation.
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• Demonstrated career experience as a sourcing recruiter or recruiter with substantial ownership of sourcing strategy.
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• Experience recruiting executive, senior-level, specialty, or other highly sophisticated and difficult-to-find professionals .
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• Proven ability to move between different types of searches and quickly learn unfamiliar roles and talent markets .
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• Demonstrated ability to take a new or complex search, identify the critical requirements, and begin developing qualified candidates without an extended ramp period.
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• Strong experience developing candidate pipelines for highly specific searches.
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• Advanced experience identifying and engaging passive talent.
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• Experience conducting market mapping, talent research, and targeted candidate identification.
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• Demonstrated ability to engage professionals who are not actively seeking a new opportunity.
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• Experience conducting detailed candidate interviews and assessments.
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• Ability to probe beyond general interview responses to uncover specific examples, results, and measurable impact .
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• Strong candidate engagement and relationship-building skills.
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• Experience conducting pre-closing conversations and assessing candidate motivation and competing opportunities.
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• Ability to effectively position opportunities to highly sought-after candidates.
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• Strong judgment and ability to assess candidate quality beyond keywords and resume qualifications.
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• Proficiency with Greenhouse ATS .
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• Experience with additional recruiting CRMs, sourcing platforms, talent intelligence tools, or candidate management systems is highly valued.
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• Exceptional research, organizational, and administrative skills.
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• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
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• Strong attention to detail and follow-through.
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• Ability to operate with both speed and accuracy .
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• Ability to work autonomously and take ownership of assigned searches.
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Preferred Qualifications:

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• Executive search or executive sourcing experience.
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• Experience working in a dedicated sourcing organization.
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• Experience sourcing across multiple functions or disciplines , rather than specializing exclusively in one talent category.
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• Experience supporting highly specialized professional, technical, healthcare, executive, or other niche searches.
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• Experience developing talent maps and competitive market intelligence.
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• Experience recruiting candidates who are actively being pursued by multiple organizations.
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• Experience working across multiple recruiting CRMs and sourcing platforms.
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• Strong track record of converting passive prospects into engaged candidates.
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• Experience partnering with full-cycle recruiters or recruiting business partners in a sourcing-to-handoff recruiting model.
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What Success Looks Like:

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Success in this role is not simply measured by the number of names identified or messages sent. The team is looking for a sourcing recruiter who can demonstrate the results and impact of their work.

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The successful Recruiter II will be able to receive a new and potentially unfamiliar search, quickly understand what matters, determine where the right talent is likely to sit, develop an effective sourcing strategy, and move into the market without hesitation .

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They will be able to:

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• Rapidly learn new roles and candidate profiles.
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• Move effectively between very different searches.
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• Identify qualified talent for highly specific and difficult-to-fill positions.
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• Explain exactly how they approached a challenging search and why.
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• Demonstrate how their sourcing strategy resulted in qualified candidate generation.
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• Adjust quickly when a sourcing strategy is not producing results.
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• Convert passive, highly sought-after prospects into interested candidates.
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• Conduct substantive candidate conversations that uncover specific experience, accomplishments, results, and impact.
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• Understand candidate motivations and competing opportunities before transitioning them forward.
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• Provide recruiting partners with well-qualified, thoroughly assessed, and genuinely engaged candidates.
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• Balance urgency, quality, and depth .
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• Consistently deliver measurable sourcing results.
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Who Will Be Successful in This Role:

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This opportunity is best suited for someone who genuinely enjoys being in the weeds of sourcing and whose career demonstrates a strong focus on candidate generation.

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You should be energized by receiving a difficult search, quickly learning what you need to know, figuring out where the right people are, finding professionals others may overlook, and determining how to get their attention.

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You should also be comfortable with change. One search may require you to learn a highly specialized talent market, while the next may involve an entirely different type of professional. The expectation is that you can learn, adapt, and execute quickly rather than waiting until you feel like an expert before moving forward .

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The strongest candidates will have specific examples of challenging searches they have owned and will be able to clearly explain:

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• What made the search difficult.
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• How quickly they ramped on an unfamiliar role or talent market.
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• What questions they asked to understand the target profile.
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• How they identified the appropriate talent pool.
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• What sourcing strategy they developed.
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• How they found and approached passive candidates.
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• How they generated candidate interest.
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• How they adjusted their strategy when something wasn't working.
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• How they assessed candidate quality.
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• What candidates they ultimately generated.
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• The specific results and impact of their work.
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General descriptions of sourcing responsibilities will not be enough. Candidates should be prepared to discuss specific searches, specific actions, measurable results, and impact .

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Interview Process:

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Candidates should be prepared for detailed behavioral and sourcing-focused interviews.

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Interviewers will be looking for specific examples rather than general descriptions of recruiting experience. Candidates should be prepared to walk through challenging searches using the STAR method , including the sourcing strategy they personally developed, actions they took, obstacles they encountered, results they achieved, and impact of their work.

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Candidates should also be prepared to discuss how they:

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• Quickly ramp on unfamiliar searches.
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• Find highly specialized passive talent.
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• Develop sourcing strategies for difficult searches.
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• Engage senior-level and highly sought-after professionals.
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• Generate interest in an opportunity.
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• Conduct in-depth candidate assessments.
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• Probe for specific results and impact during interviews.
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• Navigate candidates who are considering competing opportunities.
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• Conduct pre-closing conversations.
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• Measure the effectiveness and impact of their sourcing strategies.
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About Derflan:

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A boutique consulting firm, Derflan specializes in serving high-tech clients such as Microsoft, Accenture, Citrix, and Google. Our commitment to ongoi