Design Recruiter (Freelance)

Design Humans™; New York (NY); Remote; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working hours

Commission-based rewards

Opportunity to work within a designer community

Job summary

A designer-led recruiting studio is seeking Freelance Design Recruiters to join remotely on a contract basis. Ideal candidates will possess deep expertise in design craft and be experienced in navigating design hiring. Responsibilities include sourcing talent, conducting portfolio reviews, and collaborating with hiring managers. The position offers flexible time commitment, truly supports the design community, and is open to those transitioning into recruiting. Competitive commissions reward successful placements.

Qualifications

• Experience navigating design hiring trade-offs.
• Able to review portfolios and screen designers for craft and impact.
• Comfortable negotiating compensation and guiding candidates.

Responsibilities

• Own parts of the recruiting process end-to-end.
• Source and engage senior-level design talent.
• Partner with hiring managers to define roles and success criteria.
• Guide candidates through a clear, high-touch interview experience
• Calibrate compensation with clients and candidates, negotiate rates, and support closes
• Maintain strong talent pipelines and share market insights with clients and your network

Skills

Deep expertise in design craft

Strong commercial instincts

Experience in design recruiting

Ability to source and engage senior-level design talent

Strong communication skills

Job description

Design Humans ™️ is a designer-led recruiting studio that helps leaders build flexible, world-class design teams and connect designers with meaningful opportunities. Our work sits at the intersection of craft, talent, and business outcomes, and we care deeply about raising the bar for how design hiring is done.

About the Role

We’re looking for Freelance Design Recruiters to join us on a fully remote, contract basis.

Deep expertise in design craft and experience navigating design hiring tradeoffs is a must for this role.

👉 For some, that experience comes from specializing in design recruiting —supporting searches across creative disciplines, calibrating portfolios with hiring managers, and navigating compensation conversations as well as other search trade-offs.

👉 For others, that experience comes from working inside design teams —as a former design leader responsible for hiring decisions, or as a creative/design ops practitioner responsible for resourcing and budgets in a larger design org or design agency.

Either way, you bring a sharp eye for craft, strong commercial instincts, care deeply about supporting both hiring managers and designers, and operate comfortably within budgets, timelines, and stakeholder expectations.

What You'll Do

You’ll own meaningful parts of the recruiting process end-to-end:

• Source and engage senior-level design talent
• Review portfolios and screen designers for craft, thinking, and impact
• Partner with hiring managers to define level, scope, and success criteria
• Guide candidates through a clear, thoughtful, high-touch interview experience
• Calibrate compensation with clients and candidates, negotiate rates, and support successful closes
• Maintain strong talent pipelines and share insight on the evolving design hiring market with clients and your network

Why Design Recruiting

This is a unique opportunity to work inside a designer-founded recruiting studio, stay deeply connected to the design community and craft, and help create meaningful career opportunities for designers. You’ll also gain a front-row seat to the decision layer of design organizations — where talent, craft, and business strategy meet — and see how high-performing design teams are actually built across companies, industries, and stages of scale.

Open to Career Changers

No previous recruiting experience required if you bring a design lens, hiring fluency, and drive. We’ll teach you the craft of recruiting.

A Note on Fit

Recruiting isn’t for everyone. It’s a dynamic, relationship-driven role with real ownership and variability. For people energized by ambiguity, people, and performance-based upside, it can be incredibly rewarding. For those seeking predictability or a low-risk structure, this may not be the right path for you.

Pay Structure

Recruiting is a performance-driven practice. Successful placements are rewarded through commission, creating meaningful upside for those who enjoy ownership, momentum, and outcomes they directly influence.

Time Commitment

We're open to part-time and full-time recruiting freelancers.

About Our Team

We're a small, female-founded team of former design practitioners on a high-growth trajectory. Thriving here requires empathy, flexibility, hustle and the kind of resilient optimism that keeps you moving when hurdles inevitably come your way.

If this sounds exciting (we think is!), we’d love to chat. When you reach out, please share any relevant experience with design hiring and why design recruiting feels like the right next chapter.