Senior Technical Recruiter

WORK LOCATION: San Luis Obispo, CA
FLSA STATUS: Exempt
SALARY RANGE: The anticipated salary range for this role is $124,500 – 152,800 annually. This range reflects a good faith estimate based on the targeted level for the role and typical compensation benchmarks across U.S. locations. Actual compensation may vary depending on the selected candidate’s qualifications, experience, geographical location, and internal alignment.
SUMMARY
Redwire Defense Tech is seeking a Senior Technical Recruiter to serve as a strategic talent acquisition partner focused on engineering, manufacturing, and highly specialized technical roles. This individual will own the full recruitment lifecycle and independently manage a full recruiting desk while partnering closely with hiring managers and business leaders to develop and execute talent acquisition strategies that support business growth and workforce objectives.
The ideal candidate brings extensive experience recruiting engineering, manufacturing, and technical talent within aerospace, defense, advanced manufacturing, or other high-technology industries. This role requires a proactive recruiter who excels at sourcing niche talent, building strong candidate pipelines, and successfully supporting hiring initiatives in fast-paced, high-growth environments. The Senior Technical Recruiter must be comfortable navigating ambiguity, influencing stakeholders, and delivering exceptional hiring outcomes for critical technical positions.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The following job functions are a basic requirement but are not limited to and may be assigned other duties:
Own and manage the full-cycle recruitment process, including requisition intake, sourcing, screening, interviewing, offer negotiation, and onboarding.
Independently manage a high-volume, high-priority requisition load while balancing multiple stakeholders and competing business needs.
Develop and execute creative sourcing strategies to identify, engage, and hire passive candidates for highly specialized and difficult-to-fill positions.
Recruit for complex engineering, technical, manufacturing, operations, business development, and corporate roles.
Build and maintain talent pipelines to support current and future hiring needs.
Partner with hiring managers and executive leadership to align recruiting strategies with business objectives, workforce planning, and organizational growth initiatives.
Lead intake meetings, establish candidate profiles and interview plans, conduct candidate assessments, and drive hiring timelines.
Utilize advanced sourcing tools, social media, professional networks, referrals, industry associations, and direct outreach techniques to attract top talent.
Serve as a trusted advisor throughout the hiring process by providing market intelligence, hiring recommendations, compensation guidance, and a positive candidate experience.
Support talent acquisition process improvements and scalable recruiting practices
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
The following are a non-exhaustive list of qualifications for the position:
Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field.
8+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, including engineering, technical, manufacturing, and other specialized roles.
Experience recruiting within aerospace, defense, government contracting, advanced manufacturing, or other high-technology industries.
Proficiency with Jobvite, Paycor, LinkedIn Recruiter, sourcing tools, or similar ATS/recruiting technologies.
Demonstrated success sourcing, engaging, and hiring passive candidates for niche and hard-to-fill positions.
Experience supporting multi-site, geograp