Lead Recruiter at Utility Profit in Austin, TX

Job description

• Utility Profit is looking for a Lead Recruiter who owns recruiting as a function and as a craft, reporting to the COO.
• You will manage our existing in-house recruiter and the retained search firms we already use and intend to keep using. You own the rest of hiring, the quality of those agency searches, and the plan that sits over all of it.
• This is not a job where you only oversee other people’s pipelines. You personally source, screen, interview, and close. You also build the plan of how we attract talent medium term, while retaining pipeline and backup especially for high-value seats where turnover would hurt the business.
• You will work directly with the executive team and hiring managers across Product, Engineering, Sales, Operations, and Marketing.

Responsibilities

• Do the recruiting
• Personally source, screen, interview, and close for priority roles. You are in LinkedIn, in networks, on the phone, and in the debrief — not only coordinating other people who do that.
• Build and run pipelines so we always know who is next, not only who is in process this week.
• Write and refine job recs with hiring managers. Keep them honest about the work, the bar, and the tradeoffs.
• Design interview plans and scorecards, train interviewers, and keep process tight from first outreach through accepted offer.
• Own candidate experience. High-bar people should feel the company is serious, fast, and clear.
• Lead the recruiter and our agencies
• Manage our in-house recruiter: priorities, bar, coaching, load, and what they own vs. what you keep.
• Own the retained-agency relationships. C-level searches and some VP-level searches stay with those firms. You brief them, hold them to the bar, decide when a search belongs with them, and make sure we are not paying for work we should do ourselves.
• Be the single owner of pipeline health across in-house and agency work, so leadership sees one picture, not three.
• Set the strategy and the plan
• Create realistic timelines and surface risk early. If a search is slipping, say so with a recommended change, not a status update.
• Own contingency planning for high-value roles. For seats we cannot afford to leave empty, keep a live backup plan: warm pipelines, succession options, agency backup where it earns its keep, and a clear trigger for when we activate it.
• Define how Utility Profit recruits: channels, SLAs, interviewer load, what “good” looks like, and which tools we actually use.
• Use Greenhouse (and related tools) so the data is real. Bring AI into sourcing, writing, and research the way the rest of the company does — to move faster without lowering the bar.

Requirements

• Hands-on recruiter. You have filled hard roles yourself — technical, leadership, or other high-bar seats — by sourcing, screening, and closing. Managing a recruiter and agencies does not mean you stop doing that work.
• Player-coach. You have managed at least one recruiter and/or retained search firms without becoming someone who only runs other people’s work. You can coach, re-prioritize, and still carry searches yourself.
• Planning and contingency. You have built hiring plans and kept backup pipelines for roles the business cannot leave open. You think in scenarios: if this search slips, if this person leaves, if this offer dies, what do we do on Monday.
• Agency judgment. You know when a retained search is the right tool (C-level, some VP-level) and when it is wasted spend. You can brief a firm, hold them accountable, and take a search back in-house if they are not producing.
• Startup range. You have recruited at an early-stage or rapidly growing company, on a small talent team, with meaningful autonomy and high expectations.
• Judgment and bar. You can tell a hiring manager the candidate is not good enough, and you can tell leadership the plan is not realistic. You protect quality and speed at the same time.
• Clear communication. You communicate directly and precisely. You can explain pipeline health, risk, and the next action without recruiting jargon or a slide deck.
• Bias to action. You move quickly, but you do not confuse activity with progress. Outreach volume matters only if it produces the right people in the process.
• Resourceful. You identify what is unclear, find the people or information required, and move the work forward.
• AI fluency. You actively use AI tools to increase the speed and quality of your work, and you have judgment about where they help and where a human still has to decide.
• Several years as a recruiter who personally sourced and closed priority roles, not only managed processes or agencies.
• Experience managing at least one in-house recruiter and/or retained search firms, with a clear point of view on what stays in-house vs. what goes out.
• Evidence you have set recruiting strategy or built the hiring plan
• Strong preference for technical recruiting, executive / leadership recruiting, or both. We hire across Product, Engineering, GTM, and operations, including high-stakes seats.
• Comfortable with Greenhouse or a similar ATS
• Based in Austin. This role works in person Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
• Plus: experience hiring in the U.S. and Mexico / Latin America, or managing a mix of employees and contractors across those markets.

Skills

Required

• Planning and contingency
• Agency judgment
• Startup range
• Judgment and bar
• Clear communication
• Bias to action
• Resourceful
• AI fluency
• Greenhouse or similar ATS

Preferred

• Technical recruiting
• Executive / leadership recruiting