Senior Technical Recruiter & Portfolio Owner

Agile Defense

$110K — $130K *
Staffing
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Track record of full-cycle recruiting for technical, cleared roles up through TS/SCI with polygraph.
  • Experience in coaching or mentoring fellow recruiters.
  • Capability to manage senior stakeholders effectively and influence hiring decisions.
  • History of improving recruiting processes or workflows alongside hiring managers.
  • Interest and expertise in integrating AI into recruiting practices.
  • Commitment to cultivating diverse candidate slates and interview panels.
  • Understanding of federal contract hiring cycles and staffing needs.

Responsibilities

  • Own a portfolio of senior stakeholders for technical, cleared requisitions.
  • Mentor and coach junior Recruiters, facilitating their skill development.
  • Identify and recommend meaningful process improvements to enhance recruiting.
  • Consistently deliver strong outcomes on complex, sensitive searches.
  • Model AI-assisted recruiting practices for enhanced candidate experience.
  • Partner with hiring teams to develop diverse finalist strategies.

Benefits

  • 100% remote work environment.
  • Minimal travel, primarily to client sites in the U.S.
  • Opportunity for progression into operational or people leadership roles.
Full Job Description
Why This Role Exists

Senior Technical Recruiter is where portfolio ownership becomes the job. Agile Defense needs experienced recruiters who can own a full portfolio of technical, cleared requisitions and the senior stakeholders behind them - Program Managers, Directors, Capture leads - end-to-end, while coaching and raising the floor for the Recruiter I's and II's around them.

This is the senior individual-contributor delivery seat on the team: the recruiter other people's hardest searches get routed to, and the proving ground for anyone interested in the operational or people-leadership track that follows - Recruiting Lead or Recruiting Manager.
Performance Objectives - What Success Requires

These are the outcomes that define success in this seat over your first year. They are not a list of duties - they are the results you'll be measured against.
  • Own a full portfolio of senior stakeholders. Within 90 days, take full ownership of a portfolio of technical, cleared requisitions spanning multiple senior stakeholders (Program Managers, Directors, Capture leads), and become a trusted authority on hiring cleared technical talent up through TS/SCI with polygraph.
  • Mentor and coach junior recruiters. On an ongoing basis, mentor Recruiter I and II team members, with at least one showing a measurable improvement in independent req ownership, compliance accuracy, or candidate-experience feedback within two quarters of your coaching.
  • Recommend and contribute to process improvement. Identify at least one process or workflow gap per year and bring a concrete, well-reasoned recommendation to your Recruiting Lead or Manager - with the credibility and data to make the case.
  • Deliver consistently on the hardest searches. Be a recruiter your Recruiting Lead routes complex or sensitive requisitions to, and deliver strong outcomes on them without needing close oversight.
  • Model AI-enabled, human-led recruiting. Maintain and refine your own AI-assisted practices, and actively share them with Recruiter I and II teammates - always in service of a better human experience, not a replacement for it.
  • Champion diverse, qualified slates. Each quarter, partner with at least one senior hiring team to build and present a deliberate strategy for a more diverse, representative finalist slate - without lowering the bar for cleared, technical qualification.
What Success Looks Like

First 90 Days
  • You've absorbed your portfolio, built credibility with senior stakeholders, and are operating independently across the full complexity range, including TS/SCI and polygraph searches.

First 6 Months
  • At least one recruiter you're coaching is noticeably more capable than when you started, and you've brought at least one credible process recommendation forward.

First 12 Months
  • You're a recruiter your Recruiting Lead or Manager routes the hardest, most senior, or most sensitive reqs to - and you're ready to consider whether your next step is deeper portfolio ownership, a Recruiting Lead track leading a program or workstream beyond delivery, or people management.
Your Scope & Environment

You'll report to the VP of Talent Acquisition and own a full portfolio - typically 15-20+ concurrent requisitions - for mid-to-senior technical and programmatic roles, working alongside the Recruiter I/II teammates you help develop and partnering closely with HR, Security/Facility Security Officers (FSO), compensation, and contracts staff.

Expect real ownership of the relationships that matter most to a program's success, and real influence over how the team works - without yet carrying the org-wide program-building, prioritization, or escalation responsibilities that define a Recruiting Lead.
What You Bring

We're not screening for years of experience or a specific past title. We're looking for evidence that you can deliver the objectives above. That typically looks like:
  • A demonstrated track record independently owning full-cycle recruiting for technical, cleared positions up through TS/SCI with polygraph.
  • A track record of informally or formally coaching other recruiters and genuinely wanting to see them grow.
  • Confidence managing multiple senior stakeholders at once, including the ability to push back, advise, and influence a hiring decision when the data says you should.
  • Experience building or meaningfully improving a process, tool, or workflow, and partnering with hiring managers to make it stick.
  • A genuine, demonstrable personal interest in applying AI to recruiting work, paired with a firm point of view on where automation belongs and where it doesn't.
  • A real, lived belief that diverse slates and diverse interview panels produce better hiring outcomes, evidenced by specific outcomes you've driven.
  • Working knowledge of how federal contract cycles - recompetes, awards, labor categories, staffing plans - shape hiring urgency and timing.
Clearance, Location & Travel
  • Location: 100% Remote (U.S.) | Travel: Minimal / occasional (client sites in the US or Reston, VA / McLean, VA & the DMV region)
  • Other ideal locations would include Greater Tampa, FL region or Ft. Huachuca, AZ
  • Clearance: Must be clearable for a U.S. Secret security clearance (minimum)

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