Head of Executive Recruiting

Job description

Zoox is seeking an impactful and visionary **Head of Executive Recruiting** to architect and scale our in-house executive search capabilities. Operating as a strategic player-coach and trusted advisor to leadership, you will engineer the executive recruiting strategy and infrastructure, personally lead high-impact Director+ searches, and manage a dedicated team to deliver our most mission-critical hiring needs. ### In this role, you will... - **Leadership:** Design and scale a world-class executive search function, including managing/coaching a small team, development of internal executive research capabilities and long-term succession planning. - **End-to-End Recruitment:**Own and drive the entire executive recruitment lifecycle, from initial strategy meeting to candidate offer and closing, ensuring a seamless and high-touch experience for all executive candidates. - **Hands-on Executive Search:** While leading the function and team, remain actively involved in the full-cycle execution of high-priority, mission-critical searches, personally driving candidate generation, engagement, and closing for select senior-level roles. - **Market Mapping & Sourcing:** Develop sophisticated, data-driven market maps of executive talent in relevant industries (e.g., autonomous technology, automotive, software, hardware engineering, operations, finance). - **Candidate Engagement:** Articulate the Zoox mission, vision, and unique culture compellingly to high-profile executive candidates, often involving complex compensation, negotiation, and relocation strategies. - **Confidentiality & Discretion:** Handle extremely sensitive and confidential candidate information and internal organizational details with the utmost professionalism and discretion. - **Partnering with Leadership:** Serve as a trusted advisor and strategic partner to the CEO, Co-Founder, C-suite, and other senior leaders on talent planning, and executive hiring best practices. - **Process Improvement:** Drive continuous improvement in executive search processes, leveraging tools, metrics, and interview methodologies. - **Passive Candidate Conversion:** Develop and execute tailored strategies to attract and successfully engage highly passive, hard-to-reach executive candidates, effectively converting passive interest into active candidacy. ### Qualifications - **Experience:** 8+ years of experience with executive searches (Director+) and 15+ total recruiting experience. - **Technical Domain Expertise:** Proven experience recruiting executive talent in a highly technical and/or rapidly scaling environment (e.g., hardware, software, AI/ML, autonomous systems, high-growth tech). - **Leadership:**Successful multi-year track record as a player-coach, managing small team/direct reports. - **Communication:** Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence and present to C-level executives. - **Closing:**Expert-level negotiation and closing skills, particularly for complex executive compensation packages. - **Executive Sourcing & Talent Mapping:** Providing real-time competitive intelligence and talent benchmarking to the executive team, identifying shifts in the talent landscapes that may necessitate pivots. - **Education:** Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience. ### Bonus Qualifications - Experience at a retained executive search firm focused on technology. - Interest in the autonomous and electric vehicle industry. ### Location - This role will report out of our Foster City, CA office in a hybrid capacity (minimum of 3 days onsite).