Forward Deployed Recruiter - Hardware

Sxaler; Greater London; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Sxaler is redefining elite recruitment for mission-critical hardware and software teams. We place Forward Deployed Recruiters inside client environments, delivering fast, precise talent acquisition with minimal disruption.

Based in the United Kingdom, Sxaler partners with defence, robotics, semiconductors and related deep‑tech leaders to identify top talent, engage with credibility, and build robust hiring foundations that scale with ambitious growth.

Qualifications

• Excellent track record in hiring for defence, hardware, robotics or deep-tech.
• Clear opinions and ability to articulate rationale.
• Strong communication grounded in data and experience.
• Experience leveraging AI to improve sourcing and decision making.
• Thrives in ambiguity and builds order.
• Curiosity to continuously improve sourcing and processes.
• High emotional intelligence and stakeholder empathy.

Responsibilities

• Find and engage exceptional talent.
• Resolve hiring complexity in high-stakes environments.
• Embrace technology to improve speed and precision.
• Build talent foundations with lean processes and workflows.

Skills

Talent engagement

Hiring judgement

Data-driven sourcing

Communication

Ambiguity tolerance

Curiosity

Emotional intelligence

Job description

Sxaler operates on behalf of category-defining technology companies, combining exceptional recruiters with proprietary technology to identify, assess and hire top-percentile talent.

Our Forward Deployed Recruiters are embedded with our clients when hiring is p0, operating as one of them. Our stack makes us fast and precise, and our people bring a palate for hiring judgement and orchestration that cannot be fast-tracked. Our charter is maximum impact on hiring in mission-critical environments.

The Mission

You'll be deployed inside some of the highest-stakes hiring environments on Earth; we call them missions. Defence and dual-use systems, autonomy and robotics, novel silicon and photonics, advanced manufacturing — the companies building the physical hardware of the next decade, where the engineering is hard, the talent is scarce and the bar is uncompromising. You'll operate as an extension of their brand and ours, hiring world-class talent whilst building effective hiring foundations.

You will

• Find and engage exceptional talent. We headhunt the best — across electronics, embedded and firmware, RF, mechanical, systems, semiconductor and manufacturing engineering — and tap into our deep network.

• Resolve hiring complexity. Work in nascent environments for ambitious founders with high expectations, often against scarce, specialised talent pools and demanding security, clearance or supply-chain constraints.

• Embrace technology. Stand up systems to become faster and more precise. Generate hiring-health data to paint compelling insights into progress and performance.

• Build talent foundations. Introduce 'just enough' process, systems and workflows to succeed at pace.
  

We're looking for people who

• Have hired exceptional talent, ideally for defense, hardware, robotics, semiconductor, aerospace or deep-tech companies with a high bar.

• Have well-formed but loosely held opinions.

• Communicate with patience, supported by logic, data and experience.

• Have leant into AI to make themselves more effective.

• Thrive in ambiguity, bringing order where it's needed.

• Exercise curiosity to become smarter every day.

• Are emotionally intelligent.