Principal Technical Recruiter

Who You Are

Technical fluency to probe engineering impact in a screen. You can speak the language with top technical talent and distinguish between elite technologists and strong subject matter experts.
10+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting, not supported by a dedicated sourcing function or coordinator handling the heavy lift.
Experience driving genuinely complex offer situations: above-band justifications, counter-offer re-engagements where the competing number is 2 to 3x, and role upleveling mid-process, using comp strategy grounded in first-principles thinking and logic, not just benchmarking data.
Hiring manager-level judgment: you push back when a search is miscalibrated, propose process changes before you’re asked, and make calls in ambiguous situations without needing sign-off on every decision.
You’ve acted as a mentor on your team, helping other recruiters grow. Operationally, you’ve built new tools for your team, such as a coaching program, a tracking system, a process change, or a framework that outlasted your direct ownership of it.
You’re genuinely curious: about the market, about what strong engineering looks like in practice, about which candidates would do well in the Babylist culture, and about why a candidate hesitated and what it would take to change that.
You naturally reach for AI in your work. At Babylist, every team uses AI daily. You’re already using it to move faster and improve your output, and you stay curious about what’s coming next.
How You Will Make An Impact

You become a true trusted partner to the technical leadership team.
Own and close Babylist’s complex technical roles: senior, staff, and director-level engineers, principal PMs, and emerging AI/Builder profiles that require creative calibration and non-standard comp strategy.
Build and maintain the team’s hiring intelligence infrastructure: finals trackers, pipeline health dashboards, and funnel analysis tools that surface bottlenecks and patterns before they become problems.
Present pipeline health, hiring trends, and forward-looking recommendations to Engineering Leadership, with a point of view on what the data means, not just what it says.
Drive the offer strategy on hard-to-close situations: above-band requests, counter-offer re-engagements, and role upleveling decisions, with a framed recommendation and clear rationale, not just a list of options.
Design and run team capability programs, including peer screen reviews, calibration sessions, and recruiter coaching, that raise the quality bar across the full tech TA function.
Manage external agency partnerships using performance data you build and track: submittal quality, pass-through rates, and hire outcomes, holding partners to quality over volume.
Shape how Engineering and Product leadership thinks about hiring calibration and process, not just executing searches, but actively influencing the standards and decisions that determine who gets hired.
Why This Role

You’ll own the roles other recruiters can’t calibrate yet: senior, staff, and director-level engineers, principal PMs, and the emerging AI/Builder profile we’re still defining. There’s no existing playbook. You write it.
You’ll have real influence without a title change. Engineering and Product leadership treat this seat as a strategic partner, not an order-taker. Your read on a search changes the search.
You’ll build the infrastructure the rest of the team uses. The trackers, dashboards, and coaching programs you create for your own hardest searches become how tech TA works.
You’ll get full ownership, start to finish, on the searches that matter most to the business, with no waiting on headcount or a coordinator to hand you tasks.
About Compensation

We use a market-based approach to compensation. The starting salary range for this role is:

$179,400 to $218,000 + target 20% annual bonus and competitive equity

Your starting salary will be based on your location, experience, and qualifications, with increases over time tied to performance, role growth, and internal pay equity.

Why You Will Love Working At Babylist

Our Culture

We work with focus and intention, then step away to recharge
We believe in exceptional management, and we invest in the tools and the time to connect with colleagues
We build products that positively impact millions of people's lives
AI is part of how we work, not a side experiment. You'll have leading tools like Claude and ChatGPT from day one, with no waiting on access, so the busywork gets handled and your judgment goes where it counts
Growth & Development

Competitive pay and meaningful opportunities for career advancement
We believe technology and data can solve hard problems
We're committed to career progression and performance-based advancement
Benefits

Company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance
Retirement savings plan with company matching and flexible spending accounts
Generous paid parental leave and PTO
Winter Wonder Week: the whole company takes a paid week off at the end of the year, whether or not you celebrate anything, so everyone's out at once and comes back refreshed
Remote work stipend to set up your office
Perks for physical, mental, and emotional health, parenting, childcare, and financial planning

Skills Required
10+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting without heavy coordinator/sourcing support
Technical fluency to evaluate engineering impact in screens
Experience managing complex offer situations, above-band requests, and counter-offer re-engagements
Hiring-manager level judgment to recalibrate searches and make autonomous decisions
Experience mentoring recruiters and building enduring operational tools or programs
Ability to build and maintain hiring intelligence infrastructure: trackers, pipeline dashboards, funnel analysis
Experience presenting pipeline health and hiring recommendations to engineering leadership
Comfort using AI tools in recruiting workflows (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT)