Senior Hardware Recruiting Partner

About you and the role

This is not a transactional recruiting role. We are looking for someone who understands that hiring world-class hardware talent requires deep partnership, technical curiosity, and strong talent instincts. You will serve as a trusted advisor to engineering leaders, hardware executives, and candidates helping define talent strategies, influence hiring decisions, and build teams that enable Zipline’s continued growth.

The ideal candidate combines exceptional recruiting expertise with an understanding of complex technical organizations. You are energized by solving challenging talent problems, building relationships with hard-to-find candidates, and navigating competitive talent markets across robotics, aerospace, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, embedded systems, manufacturing, and operations.

You thrive in environments where priorities move quickly and ambiguity is expected. You bring ownership, urgency, and creativity to every search and are motivated by the opportunity to help build one of the most impactful hardware and autonomy companies in the world.

What You'll Do

• Serve as a strategic talent advisor to hardware executives, engineering leaders, and hiring managers, helping shape hiring strategies aligned with business priorities and technical roadmaps.
• Own full-cycle recruiting across critical hardware functions, including mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, avionics, embedded systems, manufacturing, flight test, hardware operations, and technical leadership roles.
• Develop and execute proactive sourcing strategies to identify and engage exceptional technical talent across competitive markets.
• Build deep understanding of Zipline’s hardware platforms, engineering challenges, and organizational needs to effectively represent opportunities to candidates.
• Partner with hiring teams to define role requirements, create effective interview strategies, calibrate evaluation standards, and improve hiring outcomes.
• Leverage market intelligence, talent mapping, compensation insights, and recruiting data to influence hiring decisions and workforce planning.
• Build and maintain high-quality talent pipelines for both immediate hiring needs and future organizational growth.
• Deliver an exceptional candidate experience that reflects Zipline’s mission, values, and engineering culture.
• Partner cross-functionally with Engineering, Hardware, Manufacturing, Operations, People, and Compensation teams to drive successful hiring outcomes.
• Identify opportunities to improve recruiting processes, remove bottlenecks, and increase hiring velocity without compromising quality.
• Contribute to the evolution of Zipline’s recruiting function by sharing best practices, mentoring teammates, and raising the bar for technical recruiting excellence.

What You'll Bring

• 6+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with significant experience hiring technical talent in high-growth technology, aerospace, robotics, hardware, manufacturing, or engineering-driven environments.
• Proven track record recruiting and closing exceptional hardware and engineering talent.
• Experience partnering with senior engineering leaders and executives to build teams and execute hiring strategies.
• Strong understanding of technical talent markets, including areas such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, embedded systems, robotics, autonomy, manufacturing, or aerospace.
• Exceptional sourcing skills with the ability to identify and engage passive candidates in highly competitive talent markets.
• Strong client management and stakeholder influence skills, with the ability to build trust, challenge assumptions, and drive alignment.
• Ability to translate complex technical requirements into compelling candidate experiences.
• Strong business judgment and the ability to connect recruiting strategy to broader company goals.
• Excellent communication, organization, and project management skills.
• Bias toward action, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Passion for building diverse technical teams and creating an outstanding candidate experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience recruiting for robotics, aerospace, autonomous systems, aviation, manufacturing, or hardware technology companies.
• Experience hiring engineering leaders and highly specialized technical talent.
• Familiarity with hardware development lifecycles, product development, or manufacturing environments.
• Experience scaling technical teams in startup or high-growth environments.

What Else You Need to Know

The starting cash range for this role is $135,000 - $180,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; overtime pay; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!

Please Note

We have received reports stating that certain individuals are reaching out to people under false pretenses, claiming to be Zipline employees, affiliates, agents, or representatives. They may seek to gain access to your personal information or to acquire money from you by offering fictitious employment opportunities or by claiming that they are contacting you on Zipline’s behalf.

Genuine Zipline employees or representatives will never ask you for money or payment in exchange for employment opportunities or other related services. Any such offer of employment or any other service in exchange for fees that claims to be from us is deceitful and part of a fraud.