Leadership Recruiter

About The Role

As a Leadership Recruiter at Anduril, you are the specialist we deploy against our most critical and complex senior hiring challenges within and across our Divisions. This is not standard recruiting at higher levels — it is a fundamentally different craft that requires executive-grade relationship building, deep market intelligence, bespoke search strategies, and the ability to operate with discretion and autonomy on searches that directly shape the leadership composition of the company.

You will personally own and execute full-cycle searches for Director+ (PL6-PL7), Principal+ (IC6-IC7), and in some cases VP-level roles across Anduril's Divisions, Production, and Platform organizations. You are the person who builds long-term relationships with senior leaders — not when a req opens, but years before. You understand that leadership hiring is a pipeline business built on trust, market ownership, and strategic timing.

You will operate within a dedicated Leadership Recruiting pod — a small, senior team that augments Divisional Heads of TA on their hardest searches. You bring the specialized craft of leadership search, proactive pipeline building, market intelligence, and executive-level candidate management that most recruiters don't have time or experience to execute at this caliber.

This role exists at three levels (IC4, IC5, IC6) depending on scope, autonomy, and strategic impact. At IC4 you are executing complex leadership searches with guidance. At IC5 you are a fully autonomous strategic partner owning a portfolio. At IC6 you are an enterprise-wide advisor, thought leader, and the person we send into whitespace.

What You'll Do

Leadership Search Execution

• Personally own and drive full-cycle recruiting for Director+ (PL6-PL7), Principal+ (IC6-IC7), and select VP-level roles — from sourcing through close.
• Build and execute bespoke search strategies for each role: leadership hiring does not follow a standard playbook. Each search requires a tailored approach based on the role's strategic importance, confidentiality requirements, market dynamics, and candidate motivations.
• Develop and maintain deep, long-term relationships with senior talent in defense, aerospace, and adjacent industries — Chief Engineers, Heads of Production, Program Directors, VPs of Engineering — building pipelines years before roles open.
• Navigate complex closing dynamics unique to leadership hiring: competing equity packages, unvested retention, dual-career relocation, clearance transfers, non-compete considerations, and executive-level comp negotiations.
• Manage confidential and sensitive searches with discretion — some roles cannot be posted, some candidates cannot be approached through normal channels, and some searches require managing information asymmetry between multiple stakeholders.

Proactive Pipeline & Market Ownership

• Build and maintain proactive leadership pipelines against Anduril's recurring senior hiring needs: Chief Engineers, Heads of Production, Program Directors, Growth Leaders, Senior Directors of Engineering, and other L6+ tech-driven archetypes.
• Own market intelligence for your Division and domain — know where every relevant senior leader sits (by company, clearance, geography, program), how they move, what motivates them, and when they might be open to a conversation.
• Conduct proactive SOBO campaigns for executives and senior hiring managers, building relationships on their behalf with talent they will need in 6-12 months.
• Mine our ATS for near-miss candidates, incorrectly leveled talent, and candidates lost due to timing — leadership recruiting is a long game and today's "not now" is next quarter's hire.
• Audit historical L6+ hires to identify patterns: what backgrounds succeed, what companies produce strong leaders for Anduril, what leveling signals predict success. Use these insights to sharpen future searches.

Strategic Partnership & Advisory

• Act as a trusted talent advisor to Divisional Heads of TA, senior hiring managers, and (at IC5-IC6) C-suite executives on leadership hiring strategy, market realities, and organizational design implications.
• Lead intake and calibration for leadership roles — ensuring the search is scoped correctly, the profile is market-realistic, the comp is competitive, and the interview process is designed for senior candidates (not standard IC loops).
• Provide candid, data-backed counsel on search feasibility, timeline expectations, and trade-offs — including when to pivot strategy, engage an agency, or adjust the role scope.
• Manage agency and executive search firm relationships when engaged — setting expectations, managing deliverables, and ensuring external partners add value vs. just adding cost.
• Deliver regular pipeline and search reporting to stakeholders — translating activity into a clear narrative about where the search stands, what the risks are, and what decisions need to be made.

Mentorship & Functional Elevation (IC5-IC6)

• Mentor and coach division recruiters on leadership search techniques: how to engage passive senior candidates, how to run an executive intake, how to structure an interview loop for a VP, how to close at the Director+ level.
• Contribute to the Leadership Recruiting Center of Excellence — sharing candidate intelligence, search playbooks, and market maps with the broader team.
• Lead enablement sessions on advanced topics: executive offer negotiation, confidential search management, board-level relationship building, agency management, and SOBO strategies.
• (IC6) Identify systemic gaps in how the organization approaches leadership hiring and lead initiatives to build more sustainable, scalable practices — from process to tooling to training.

Who You Are

You are a specialist, not a generalist. You chose leadership recruiting because you understand that hiring a VP of Production is a fundamentally different problem than hiring a Senior Software Engineer — different sourcing, different timelines, different stakeholder dynamics, different closing mechanics. You have built deep networks in defense, aerospace, or adjacent industries and you leverage relationships that took years to build. You are equally comfortable presenting a pipeline review to a Division VP and having a confidential career conversation with a sitting Chief Engineer at a prime. You operate with discretion, judgment, and the kind of executive presence that senior candidates expect from the person representing Anduril.

Required Qualifications

• Years of experience commensurate with level:
• IC4 (Senior Leadership Recruiter): 8+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with at least 3 years focused on Director+ or executive-level searches. Can execute complex leadership searches with some strategic guidance.
• IC5 (Staff Leadership Recruiter): 10-12+ years of progressive recruiting experience, with significant experience as the primary recruiter on VP/Director+ searches. Fully autonomous. Trusted advisor to senior leadership. Owns a portfolio of leadership searches and delivers results with minimal oversight.
• IC6 (Principal Leadership Recruiter): 12-15+ years of progressive recruiting experience, with demonstrated enterprise-level impact. Strategic advisor to C-suite. Operates in whitespace. Known for execution on the hardest, most sensitive searches. Mentors the broader team. Shapes TA practices.
• Proven track record of personally sourcing, engaging, and closing Director+ and/or VP-level talent in competitive markets — not just coordinating searches, but owning them end-to-end.
• Deep network in defense, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, or adjacent deep-tech industries — relationships with senior leaders that you've built over years, not just during active searches.
• Expert-level ability to manage confidential, sensitive, and ambiguous searches with sound judgment and discretion.
• Strong executive presence and communication skills — you are the face of Anduril to candidates who are VPs and C-suite leaders at other companies.
• Experience managing executive search firms and agency partnerships — setting expectations, evaluating deliverables, and knowing when external support adds value.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience at a top-tier executive search firm (e.g., Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds, Korn Ferry) or as an in-house executive recruiter at a high-growth technology company.
• Deep expertise in defense and aerospace leadership markets — you know where the Chief Engineers, Heads of Production, and Program Directors sit and what it takes to move them.
• Experience recruiting for roles requiring TS/SCI or other high-level security clearances, with understanding of how clearance dynamics affect candidate pools and timelines.
• Track record of building proactive leadership pipelines that resulted in hires 6-12+ months after initial relationship building — not just reactive search execution.
• Experience in a matrixed or pod-based model where you are a shared resource engaged by multiple business leaders.
• Demonstrated mentorship of other recruiters — evidence of elevating others' capabilities in leadership search craft.