Senior Recruiter

At Sift, we’re redefining how modern machines are built, tested, and operated. Our platform gives engineers real-time observability of high-frequency telemetry—eliminating bottlenecks and enabling faster, more reliable development.

Sift was born from our work at SpaceX on Dragon, Falcon, Starlink, and Starship—where scaling telemetry, debugging flight software, and ensuring mission reliability demanded new infrastructure. Founded by a SpaceX, Google, and Palantir team, Sift is built for mission-critical systems where precision and scalability are non-negotiable.

As our third recruiter at Sift, you’ll play a foundational role in scaling our high-performing team. You’ll be the driving force behind sourcing, engaging, and closing exceptional talent across technical and go-to-market functions—ensuring we hire the right people, faster.

In this role you’ll have the autonomy to design and execute sourcing strategies focused on the identification, engagement, and nurturing of top-tier technical, non-technical, and leadership talent for priority roles. You will build and manage talent pipelines, surface hard-to-find candidates, and ensure a world-class experience at every stage of the process. This is an opportunity to help build a fast growing start-up, gain exposure to every function of a growing company, and shape the foundation that will power Sift’s next phase of growth.

• Serve as a subject matter expert in current sourcing strategies- leveraging network-building, data-driven prospecting, and tooling to identify and engage top talent.

• Build and maintain pipelines of passive talent through platforms like LinkedIn Recruiter, Ashby ATS, AI tools, referral campaigns, and targeted outreach strategies.

• Manage multiple requisitions and pipelines simultaneously, assessing pipeline health, prioritizing efforts, and reallocating focus as business needs evolve.

• Develop dynamic talent maps and market insights to inform engagement strategies and workforce planning.

• 6+ years of years of experience sourcing top-tier talent for software engineering roles and other non-technical roles in a high-growth startup environment.

• Skilled at managing large volumes of concurrent pipelines with a sharp understanding of pipeline health, prioritization, and trade-offs between competing requisitions.

• In-depth understanding of technical skills, terminology, and industry trends, with the ability to provide strategic insights.

• Strong communication skills, with the ability to write crisp outreach and facilitate thoughtful candidate conversations.

• Operational excellence—organized, detail-oriented, and fluent in scheduling, coordination, and recruiting metrics.

• Experience recruiting at a startup or in an environment with a strong recruiting culture.

• Experience hiring for SaaS software engineering and SaaS sales roles.

• Executive search or recruiting experience for VP levels and above.

• Experience hiring talent in the Greater Los Angeles area.

• A proactive, low-ego teammate who leads with empathy, urgency, and a candidate-first mindset.

• A self-starter who’s eager to own outcomes and build systems from the ground up.

• Someone who thrives in high-trust, fast-paced environments and wants to leverage their experience and drive to be an instrumental part of scaling a high-performance company.

• A recruiting generalist with the ability to balance sourcing excellence with process improvement and stakeholder management.

Our team is based in El Segundo, CA. This role will be required to be onsite on Mondays and Thursdays and any other day of the week we are hosting candidates onsite. We’re open to relocating the right candidate to LA.

Salary range: $125,000 - $175,000 per year. Plus equity and benefits.