Senior Recruiter, Full Cycle

Vaco by Highspring; California; Hybrid; USD 96,000 - 117,000; Full time

Job summary

Highspring LLC (d/b/a Vaco by Highspring) seeks an experienced Senior Recruiter to support a confidential organization in Menlo Park. The role is hands-on, full-cycle, and spans technical, engineering, operational, and corporate functions.

Hybrid work arrangement: four days onsite, one day remote; initial six-month contract with potential extensions. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience.
• Hands-on experience owning searches from intake to onboarding.
• Experience recruiting technical, engineering, operational, and corporate functions.
• Direct-sourcing capabilities including talent mapping and passive outreach.
• Ability to learn new talent markets quickly and build pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Independently manage multiple full-cycle searches from intake through offer and onboarding.
• Recruit across technical, engineering, operational, and corporate functions based on priorities.
• Develop sourcing strategies, talent maps, and targeted outreach for critical roles.
• Source, screen, assess, and engage passive candidates.
• Partner with hiring leaders to define requirements and adjust search strategies.
• Lead compensation and offer processes, including approvals and closing.

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

Direct sourcing

Talent mapping

Stakeholder management

Compensation discussions

Tech recruiting

Tools

Greenhouse

Lever

Job description

CONTRACT SENIOR RECRUITER, TECH & CORPORATE

Work Arrangement: 4 days onsite / 1 day remote

Engagement: Initial 6-month contract

Pay Rate: $70-$85/hour W-2, depending on experience. Rate is firm and cannot exceed the listed range.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

• Hands-on Senior Recruiter with strong full-cycle recruiting and direct-sourcing experience across specialized, difficult-to-fill positions.
• Strong experience recruiting technical, engineering, operational, and/or specialized corporate talent.
• Experience within technology, AI/ML, hardware, infrastructure, data centers, energy/power, construction, manufacturing, or other technically complex environments is preferred.
• Comfortable supporting a changing mix of hiring needs, including technical and engineering roles as well as Finance, Legal, Business Operations, and other corporate functions.
• Proven ability to learn unfamiliar talent markets quickly, identify where relevant talent exists, and personally build targeted passive-candidate pipelines.

IMPORTANT DETAILS

• This is not a remote opportunity. Candidates must be able to work onsite in Menlo Park four days per week.
• Initial six-month contract with potential for extension and/or conversion based on business needs. Extension or conversion is not guaranteed.
• Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship. Employment sponsorship is not available now or in the future.
• No C2C arrangements or third-party submissions will be considered.

ROLE OVERVIEW

We are seeking an experienced, hands-on Senior Recruiter to support a confidential organization in Menlo Park.

This is an individual-contributor, full-cycle recruiting role supporting a diverse and evolving mix of specialized technical, engineering, operational, and corporate hiring.

Current and anticipated hiring may span engineering, technology, AI/ML, infrastructure, data-center development, energy/power, construction, Finance, Legal, Business Operations, and other business-critical functions.

This person will independently own searches from intake and search strategy through direct sourcing, candidate assessment, interview management, stakeholder partnership, compensation discussions, offers, negotiations, closing, and onboarding coordination.

The ideal candidate is proactive, resourceful, detail-oriented, and highly hands-on. This person should personally go after hard-to-find talent rather than relying primarily on inbound applicants or outside agencies. They should be comfortable entering unfamiliar talent markets, conducting research, building pipelines from scratch, advising hiring managers, navigating ambiguity, and creating momentum without waiting for a fully developed playbook.

CORE QUALIFICATIONS

• 8+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, including independently managing multiple searches.
• Recent hands-on experience personally owning searches from intake and sourcing through accepted offer and onboarding coordination.
• Experience recruiting specialized, difficult-to-fill talent across technical, engineering, operational, and/or corporate functions.
• Strong direct-sourcing capabilities, including talent mapping, passive outreach, screening, assessment, and pipeline development.
• Proven ability to learn new talent markets and successfully recruit across different functions and disciplines.
• Experience recruiting senior-level and business-critical positions.
• Demonstrated ability to partner directly with senior business leaders and hiring managers.
• Ability to conduct intake discussions, calibrate candidate profiles, provide market feedback, and develop effective search strategies.
• Hands-on experience with compensation discussions, offers, negotiations, and candidate closing.
• Strong candidate-tracking and pipeline-management discipline, including accurate activity tracking, metrics, and status reporting.
• Ability to operate independently in a fast-moving environment with ambiguity and evolving priorities.
• Experience improving recruiting processes, workflows, reporting, or candidate experience.
• Experience within technology, AI/ML, hardware, infrastructure, data centers, energy/power, construction, manufacturing, or other technically complex environments is preferred.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Independently manage multiple full-cycle searches from intake through offer acceptance and onboarding coordination.
• Recruit across technical, engineering, operational, and corporate functions based on evolving business priorities.
• Develop sourcing strategies, talent maps, and targeted outreach for specialized and business-critical positions.
• Personally source, screen, assess, and engage passive candidates.
• Research unfamiliar talent markets and identify relevant companies, industries, and candidate populations.
• Partner with hiring leaders to define requirements, calibrate profiles, establish priorities, and adjust search strategies based on market feedback.
• Manage interview processes, feedback, candidate communication, and overall search momentum.Lead compensation and offer processes, including approvals, negotiations, and closing.
• Maintain accurate candidate records, recruiting pipelines, metrics, and status reporting.
• Help improve recruiting processes, reporting, candidate experience, and operating discipline as needs evolve.
• Coordinate effectively with HR, business leaders, and external search partners as needed.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• Success means being able to take a specialized or unfamiliar hiring need, understand the underlying business requirement, research the talent market, identify where the right candidates are likely to sit, personally build and engage the pipeline, advise the hiring manager, and drive the search through close.
• The successful recruiter will be comfortable moving between technical and engineering searches and corporate or operational hiring needs as business priorities change.
• They do not need to have recruited every discipline previously, but they should have a demonstrated track record of learning new talent markets quickly, proactively solving problems, and successfully recruiting specialized talent.

By submitting to this position, you are agreeing to be included in our talent pool for future hiring for similarly qualified positions.

Desired Skills and Experience

• 8+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, including independently managing multiple searches.
• Experience within AI or high-growth technology environments is required.
• Additional recruiting experience within energy, manufacturing, deep tech, or specialized high-tech startup environments is strongly preferred.
• Hands-on experience with Greenhouse, Lever, or comparable ATS platforms is also preferred.
• Recent hands-on experience personally owning searches from intake and sourcing through accepted offer and onboarding.
• Demonstrated experience recruiting AI/ML, engineering, technical, or similarly specialized talent.
• Strong direct-sourcing capabilities, including talent mapping, passive-candidate outreach, screening, assessment, and pipeline development.
• Experience recruiting across technical and corporate/operational functions, including senior-level and difficult-to-fill positions.
• Demonstrated ability to partner directly with senior business leaders and hiring managers.
• Hands-on experience with compensation discussions, offers, negotiations, and candidate closing.
• Strong ATS and pipeline-management experience, including candidate tracking, recruiting metrics, dashboards, and reporting.
• Ability to operate independently in a fast-moving environment with ambiguity and evolving priorities.

Equal Opportunity Notice

Highspring LLC (d/b/a Vaco by Highspring) and its parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries ("we," "our," or "Vaco by Highspring") are committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race (including but not limited to traits historically associated with race such as hair texture and hair style), color, sex (includes pregnancy or related conditions), religion or creed, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, status as a veteran, union membership, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, political affiliation, or any other protected characteristics as required by applicable law. The company is also committed to ensuring that persons who need them are provided with reasonable accommodations; if an accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact [e-mail].

Vaco by Highspring also wants all applicants to know their rights that workplace discrimination is illegal.

Representation Notice

By submitting to this position, you agree that you will be giving Vaco by Highspring the exclusive right to present your as a candidate for the foregoing employment opportunity. Additionally, you agree to be included in our talent pool for future hiring for similarly qualified positions. You further agree that you have represented information about yourself accurately and have not affirmatively misrepresented your qualifications. Lastly, you agree to maintain as confidential, to the fullest extent permitted by law, any information you learn from Vaco by Highspring about the position and you will limit disclosure of information about the position only to the extent necessary to perform any obligations in furtherance of your application.

In exchange, Vaco by Highspring agrees to exercise reasonable efforts to represent you through all solicitation, job screening and resume dispersal.

For residents of Ontario, Canada only: to the extent the position for employment is not with Highspring or not otherwise noted as vacant above, candidate should be informed that this role is to replace a presently employed person at Vaco by Highspring's client.

Privacy Notice

Vaco by Highspring respects your privacy and are committed to providing transparent notice of our policies.

• California residents may access Vaco by Highspring HR Notice at Collection for California Applicants and Employees here.
• Virginia residents may access our state specific policies here.
• Residents of all other states may access our policies here.
• Canadian residents may access our policies in English here and in French here.
• Residents of countries governed by GDPR and UK GDPR may access our policies here.

Additionally, submissions to this position are subject to the use of AI to perform preliminary candidate screenings, focused on ensuring minimum job requirements noted in the position are satisfied. More details about Vaco by Highspring's use of AI can be found here (https://www.highspring.com/ai-use-notices/). Further assessment of candidates beyond this initial phase will be conducted by recruiters and hiring managers. Vaco by Highspring does not know and cannot opine on if its client's use of AI products in hiring.

Pay Transparency Notice

Determining compensation for this role (and others) at Vaco by Highspring depends upon a wide array of factors including but not limited to:

the individual's skill sets, experience and training;

licensure and certification requirements;

office location and other geographic considerations; and

other business and organizational needs.

With that said, as required by local law, Vaco by Highspring believes that the following salary range referenced above reasonably estimates the base compensation for an individual hired into this position in geographies that require salary range disclosure. The individual may also be eligible for discretionary bonuses and/or participation in medical, dental, and vision benefits as well as the company's retirement plan (or similar retirement benefits).