Lead top-of-funnel talent discovery for aircraft/hardware engineering roles: market-mapping, advanced sourcing (LinkedIn Recruiter, HireEZ, ClearanceJobs, GitHub), candidate engagement, pipeline building, coaching recruiters, cross-functional partnership, and data-driven optimization of outreach and conversion.
Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
As we scale rapidly across our Aircraft division, we’re looking for a highly driven Senior Technical Sourcer who lives and breathes talent discovery - someone who can take a complex, highly specialized needs and translate it into a precision sourcing strategy. You’ll be the go-to expert for market mapping, proactive candidate generation, and pipeline cultivation across our Aircraft team.
This isn’t just a “find resumes” role - it’s about building intelligence, relationships, and repeatable systems that fuel our engineering hiring engine.
What you'll do:
- Own the top of funnel: Partner closely with recruiters and hiring leaders to define target profiles and build deep, data-informed sourcing strategies across multiple regions and functions.
- Map the market: Develop comprehensive talent landscapes by company, skillset, and geography; identify hidden talent pools and competitor org structures to inform recruiting strategy.
- Generate and engage: Use advanced Boolean, tooling, and creative sourcing channels (LinkedIn Recruiter, ClearanceJobs, HireEZ, Github, forums, niche aerospace networks, etc.) to identify and engage exceptional candidates.
- Build pipelines proactively: Maintain warm relationships with high-value candidates to enable just-in-time hiring across priority programs.
- Be the sourcing SME: Coach recruiters and hiring managers on market insights, talent availability, and candidate engagement best practices.
- Partner for impact: Work cross-functionally with TA ops, branding, and university teams to optimize outbound messaging and candidate experience.
- Track and iterate: Use data and storytelling to measure outreach effectiveness and improve conversion at every stage.
Who we're looking for:
- You have 8+ years of proven cross-regional sourcing experience, ideally in aerospace, defense, autonomy, or other complex hardware/software industries (in-house or executive search environment)
- Proven track record in market mapping, competitive intelligence, and candidate generation for highly specialized technical roles.
- Deep expertise in Boolean search, LinkedIn Recruiter, HireEZ, and other sourcing platforms.
- Experience building and maintaining long-term relationships with passive, cleared, or niche engineering talent.
- Excellent communication and storytelling skills - you know how to engage technical talent authentically.
- Highly organized, data-driven, and able to operate autonomously in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.
- Comfortable working in ambiguous and ever evolving environment with shifting priorities
- You have proven experience sourcing or recruiting within and building a network within high growth and innovative companies for roles including; electrical, mechanical, aerospace, avionics and RF engineering
Full-time regular employee offer package:
Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
Temporary employee offer package:
Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.
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Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.
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