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 second Recruiter, you’ll be a high-impact builder—owning full-cycle searches across technical and go-to-market roles with a strong emphasis on proactive sourcing and network building. You’ll partner directly with engineering, product, sales, and leadership to shape role definitions, craft compelling narratives, and land exceptional talent.

This role is for a hands-on recruiter with strong business and product acumen—someone who quickly grasps what we build, who we serve, and why it matters, then turns that understanding into targeted pipelines and great hires.

• Own 5-8 priority reqs end-to-end: intake, market mapping, sourcing, screening, stakeholder alignment, offers, and closing.

• Build and run outbound programs (LinkedIn Recruiter, referrals, events, talent communities) that consistently produce high-quality pipelines.

• Partner with hiring managers and executives to refine scopes, rubrics, and processes; keep the bar high while moving fast.

• Use funnel data to prioritize outreach, improve conversion, and tighten SLAs across stages.

• Contribute to employer brand and candidate experience—crisp outreach, clear expectations, high-signal interviews.

• Drive process improvements (tooling, scorecards, debriefs, calibration) that scale as we grow.

• 8+ years of full-cycle recruiting in high-growth, high-bar environments; proven sourcing excellence (passive outreach is your superpower).

• A successful track record hiring both tech and non-tech roles (e.g., software, data, product, sales, marketing, operations) at strong startups/VC-backed companies or top-tier firms.

• High business/product acumen: you can quickly internalize Sift’s platform, customers (aerospace/defense/industrial), and role requirements—and translate that into precise targeting.

• Executive-ready communication: concise intake notes, crisp candidate messaging, and confident stakeholder management.

• Operational rigor: organized, metrics-minded, and comfortable iterating processes for speed and quality.

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

• A sourcing specialist with a proven ability to identify, engage, and convert hard-to-reach, high-caliber candidates in competitive talent markets.

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.