Senior Recruiter - Talent Acquisition Specialist

Contractual || Senior Recruiter

Instawork is on a mission to create meaningful economic opportunities for skilled hourly professionals in communities around the globe. Our AI-powered labor marketplace helps local businesses scale, and enables global technology companies to push the frontiers of robotics and AI. Backed by world-class investors like Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, Greylock, Y Combinator, and others, we’re looking for exceptional talent to reimagine the way the world works.

We are seeking an experienced and strategic Senior Recruiter to lead and execute full-cycle recruitment for mid-level to leadership-tier roles. This role requires a sophisticated approach to talent acquisition, focusing on headhunting, executive search, and building high-impact leadership pipelines. You will serve as a talent partner to business leaders, mentoring the wider People team while driving the evolution of our recruitment standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Plan and execute comprehensive search strategies for senior leadership and specialized mid-level positions.

• Move beyond bulk methods to leverage headhunting, professional networking, and passive candidate engagement.

• Lead the complete recruitment lifecycle—from conducting deep-dive intake sessions with leadership to managing complex offer negotiations.

• Act as a consultant to department heads to define organizational structures, manpower planning, and talent profiles.

• Leverage AI-based recruitment tools and data-driven insights to optimize hiring quality and reduce time-to-hire.

• Design and roll out strategic initiatives, including executive referral programs, to attract top-tier industry talent.

• Maintain executive-level dashboards and recruitment metrics to provide strategic updates to the leadership team.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• Experience: Minimum 4 years of experience in talent acquisition, with a proven track record of closing mid-level to senior leadership roles in both tech and non-tech.

• Search Expertise: Strong experience in niche sourcing and executive search methodologies; ability to engage with high-level professionals.

• Leadership: Demonstrated experience in managing or mentoring junior team members or interns.

• Tech Savvy: Hands-on experience with ATS platforms (e.g., Greenhouse) and modern recruitment tools; exposure to AI hiring automation is a significant plus.

• Communication: Exceptional negotiation and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at the C-suite level.

• Strategic Thinking: Ability to conceptualize and execute lucrative, high-quality referral and networking programs.

Why Join Us

• High-Impact Ownership: Lead strategic hiring decisions that directly shape the company’s leadership trajectory.

• Leadership Roadmap: Opportunity to build and scale a recruitment function within a high-growth environment.

• Direct Visibility: Work closely with the leadership team on talent strategy and organizational design.

• Total Rewards: Competitive compensation package, including modern perks like commute allowances and curated workspace meals.

Our Values 

• Empathy, Trust & Candor
  We put ourselves in the shoes of our colleagues and customers and don’t shy away from uncomfortable conversations, instead building trust through honest and direct feedback.

• Bias for Action
  We practice high-velocity decision-making, clear-eyed that we often operate with incomplete information. Growing quickly means it’s OK to be wrong, so long as we learn from our mistakes and course correct!

• Always Be Learning
  We’re a curious bunch, and with AI transforming our workplace we encourage everyone to learn from each other, compounding our knowledge and experience to help us change an entire industry.

• Act Like an Owner
  We work long, hard, and smart, building products that delight our users and drive growth. Your ability to impact Instawork is limited only by your courage and conviction, not your job description.

About Instawork

Founded in 2015, Instawork is the nation’s leading online labor marketplace for food services, hospitality, light industry, and logistics, connecting more than 7M skilled workers with local restaurants, hotels, warehouses, stadiums, and more. Our AI-powered platform serves thousands of businesses across more than 50 major markets in the United States and Canada. We're not just helping fill shifts, we're supporting local economies—and we're just getting started!

Instawork has been featured by CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press. Forbes included us on their Next Billion Dollar Startups list; RetailTech Breakthrough named us Workforce Hiring Solution of the Year for 2025; and Inc. 5000 recognized us as one of the country's top 10% fastest-growing companies two years in a row. But what matters most is our impact. We're solving real problems for real people, and we’re doing it at scale.

Join our team to help us build something that matters! We’re looking for superstars who want to help us shape the future of work. With hubs in San Francisco, Bangalore, and Chicago, city offices in New York, Phoenix, and Singapore, we're back to working together in-person five days a week because we believe the best ideas happen when great people collaborate face-to-face. We also value diverse perspectives and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds.

Ready to make an impact? Learn more at www.instawork.com/about.

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Experience Level

Senior Level