Senior Recruiter, Technical

Job description

Zilliz is a fast-growing startup developing the industry’s leading [vector database](https://zilliz.com/) for enterprise-grade AI. Founded by the engineers behind Milvus, the world’s most popular [open-source vector database](https://milvus.io/), the company builds next-generation database technologies to help organizations quickly create AI applications. On a mission to democratize AI, Zilliz is committed to simplifying data management for AI applications and making vector databases accessible to every organization. ### About the Role We are looking for a Senior Technical Recruiter to help us build high-performing technical teams across North America and Europe. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role for an experienced recruiter who is comfortable operating in a fast-moving, growth-stage environment. You will own technical searches end to end, partner closely with engineering and technical leaders, and help us identify and attract talent in highly competitive markets. The role will focus primarily on engineering and technical hiring. ### What You'll Do - Own full-cycle recruiting for technical roles across North America and Europe, from intake and sourcing strategy through interviews, offer management, and close. - Partner closely with engineering leaders and hiring managers to understand technical requirements, define candidate profiles, and develop effective search strategies. - Build strong pipelines through proactive sourcing, talent mapping, referrals, communities, and other channels, with particular focus on passive and hard-to-reach candidates. - Develop a strong understanding of relevant technical talent markets, target companies, and candidate backgrounds across infrastructure, database, cloud, AI, and related ecosystems. - Help hiring managers calibrate candidate quality and make informed hiring decisions based on market realities, talent availability, and role requirements. - Deliver a thoughtful and consistent candidate experience while maintaining strong pace, follow-through, and communication throughout the process. - Use recruiting data and market insights to identify pipeline gaps, adjust sourcing strategies, and improve hiring outcomes. - Contribute to recruiting process improvements, interview quality, employer branding, agency strategy, and other initiatives that strengthen our technical recruiting capability. - Share market knowledge and recruiting best practices and provide mentorship to other recruiters as the team grows. ### What We're Looking For - 5+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with significant experience hiring technical talent. - Strong track record of independently managing complex and competitive technical searches from intake through close. - Strong direct sourcing capability and experience identifying and engaging passive candidates. - Experience recruiting for software engineering, infrastructure, cloud, database, distributed systems, SRE, AI/ML infrastructure, or related technical functions. - Ability to understand technical roles beyond keywords and translate hiring needs into effective sourcing and assessment strategies. - Experience partnering directly with senior engineering leaders and hiring managers. - Strong communication, stakeholder management, and organizational skills. - Ability to manage multiple searches with different levels of urgency and complexity. - Experience supporting hiring across North America and Europe or other international markets is preferred. ### How You Operate - **High ownership and bias for action.** You take responsibility for outcomes, keep searches moving, and actively solve problems rather than waiting for perfect conditions. - **Resilient and adaptable.** You stay effective when searches are difficult, priorities change, or the first approach does not work. - **Curious and business-minded.** You invest time in understanding the technology, the team, and the business context behind each search, and use that understanding to improve your recruiting approach. - **Low ego and collaborative.** You work closely with hiring managers, HR colleagues, and other recruiters and care more about getting to the right outcome than protecting a narrow scope of responsibility. ### Nice to Have - Experience recruiting in an early-stage or high-growth technology company. - Experience hiring in database, data infrastructure, AI infrastructure, developer tools, cloud infrastructure, or open-source companies. - Familiarity with technical talent markets across companies such as database, cloud, infrastructure, and developer platform vendors. - Experience building technical talent maps or proactive pipelines ahead of immediate hiring needs. - Experience mentoring recruiters or helping build recruiting processes and capabilities.