Executive Recruiter

Location: Stamford, Connecticut

Salary: $170,000 - $250,000 total compensation (base + bonus)

Working style: Hybrid

Full Time, Permanent

Hawkwood is partnering with a privately held, multi-disciplinary business operating at the intersection of strategic investment, technology, and business operations in search of an experienced Executive Recruiter to join their Talent Acquisition team in Stamford, Connecticut.

The organization operates in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, with a strong emphasis on attracting exceptional talent, fostering innovation, and building high-performing teams.

As the business continues to evolve, attracting and retaining exceptional leadership and specialist talent remains a key strategic priority. The organization is seeking an experienced recruiter to support senior-level appointments, succession planning, and longer-term talent initiatives across its US operations.

This is a highly visible opportunity to partner directly with senior executives and business leaders, combining strategic talent advisory responsibilities with hands-on executive search, market intelligence, and proactive talent mapping.

The Opportunity

As an Executive Recruiter, you'll take ownership of senior-level and specialist recruitment initiatives, partnering closely with senior leadership to identify, engage, and secure exceptional talent.

The position will focus on executive appointments, succession planning, and developing a comprehensive understanding of the external talent landscape to support both immediate hiring requirements and longer-term organizational needs.

The position will focus primarily on senior-level appointments across technical and engineering functions, with additional exposure to recruitment across corporate and business operations as needed.

You'll have the autonomy to develop creative sourcing strategies, leverage data and emerging technologies, and contribute to the continuous improvement of the organization's executive recruitment and talent intelligence capabilities.

Key Priorities

• Lead end-to-end recruitment for senior-level and specialist appointments, taking ownership of searches from initial briefing and market research through to candidate engagement, assessment, offer negotiation, and closing.
• Partner directly with senior executives, hiring managers, and HR Business Partners to understand immediate and future talent requirements, succession priorities, and broader organizational objectives.
• Develop and execute proactive sourcing strategies to identify and engage exceptional senior-level talent across the US market.
• Build and maintain comprehensive talent maps, competitor intelligence, and structured pipelines of prospective candidates to support succession planning and future leadership appointments.
• Establish and cultivate long-term relationships with senior-level candidates, developing a strong external network ahead of immediate hiring needs.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders, providing market intelligence, talent insights, compensation guidance, and recommendations to inform recruitment and succession planning decisions.
• Leverage internal networks and stakeholder relationships to generate referrals and identify high-caliber talent through creative sourcing approaches.
• Support additional specialist recruitment initiatives across corporate, operations, engineering, and technology functions as business needs evolve.
• Utilize recruitment technology, data analytics, and AI-enabled tools to enhance sourcing strategies, talent mapping, market research, and overall recruitment effectiveness.
• Manage complex candidate relationships and offer negotiations, ensuring a high-quality, thoughtful candidate experience throughout the recruitment process.
• Monitor recruitment pipelines and hiring activity, identifying opportunities to improve processes, strengthen candidate engagement, and increase recruitment efficiency.
• Build relationships across relevant professional networks and industry communities to strengthen the organization's external talent intelligence and candidate pipelines.

What They're Looking For

• Strong experience in Executive Search, Senior-Level Recruitment, or Specialist Talent Acquisition, gained within an executive search firm, specialist recruitment agency, in-house talent acquisition function - or a combination.
• Proven experience identifying, engaging, assessing, and successfully placing senior-level talent across a range of functions or specialist disciplines.
• A strong track record of direct sourcing, executive research, talent mapping, and delivering complex or difficult-to-fill searches.
• Experience recruiting across multiple business functions or specialist talent markets, with the ability to quickly understand unfamiliar disciplines and evolving hiring requirements.
• Exposure to engineering, technology, or other highly specialized talent markets would be particularly advantageous.
• Extensive stakeholder management experience, with the confidence, professionalism, and credibility to partner directly with senior executives and influence hiring decisions.
• Strong market research and talent intelligence capabilities, with a genuine interest in understanding competitor organizations, leadership structures, and external talent pools.
• Experience developing proactive candidate pipelines and cultivating long-term relationships with senior-level professionals.
• Excellent candidate engagement, influencing, and negotiation skills, with a proven ability to guide candidates through complex hiring processes and successfully close senior appointments.
• An interest in leveraging recruitment technology, AI tools, and innovative sourcing techniques to improve research, talent identification, and hiring outcomes.
• A proactive, resourceful, and adaptable approach, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, manage competing priorities, and thrive in a dynamic environment.

Next Steps

We recognize how competitive the market is for candidates, and Hawkwood are therefore striving to provide the best candidate experience we can.

If you are interested in this opportunity, we kindly request that you apply via this LinkedIn advert, as opposed to sending us an email or LinkedIn message directly. We are eager to ensure that each candidate application is considered fairly and receives a consistent experience.

Unfortunately, we cannot ensure this standard if you enquire about a role via email or LinkedIn message, as it falls outside of our established process.