Executive Recruiter

Executive Recruiter

Castelion is moving incredibly fast to develop and deliver advanced defense systems at a time when execution matters more than ever. We believe focus and technical excellence are decisive advantages - and we are building a team that can deliver real capability, not just concepts.

This is a rare opportunity to join at an early stage, where your work will directly shape critical systems, influence major technical decisions, and have immediate, real-world impact.

We are looking for someone who excels at identifying game-changing talent - often highly passive candidates - and building the long-term relationships required to bring them into a mission-driven, high-performance organization. This person must understand how to map elite talent markets, identify where exceptional leaders come from, develop thoughtful engagement strategies, and execute highly personalized, white-glove recruiting experiences.

You will partner closely with company leadership on some of the most important and high-impact hires in the business, including:

• C-Suite and executive leadership
• Engineering leadership
• Strategic technical experts
• Critical organizational builders

The right person for this role has a demonstrated track record of landing needle-moving hires - the types of individuals whose arrival creates a seismic shift inside an organization.

Responsibilities:

• Lead executive and strategic recruiting efforts across engineering, manufacturing, operations, business, and leadership functions
• Identify and engage highly passive talent through research, networking, referrals, and creative outreach strategies
• Conduct deep market mapping and competitive talent intelligence exercises
• Develop targeted approaches for difficult-to-access or highly sought-after candidates
• Build and maintain long-term relationships with top-tier talent, often over months or years
• Partner directly with executives and hiring leaders on search strategy, calibration, and candidate assessment
• Deliver exceptional, high-touch candidate experiences throughout the recruiting process
• Assess leadership capability, cultural alignment, trajectory, and long-term impact potential
• Help shape Castelion's executive recruiting strategy, infrastructure, and talent brand

Basic qualifications:

• 7+ years of recruiting experience, including significant experience in executive search or highly strategic technical recruiting
• Demonstrated track record of landing exceptional leadership or technical hires
• Experience engaging and closing highly passive candidates
• Strong market mapping and talent intelligence capabilities
• Exceptional communication, relationship-building, and influence skills
• Ability to operate with urgency, discretion, and sound judgment
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-accountability startup environment

Preferred skills and experience:

• Experience recruiting for aerospace, defense, advanced hardware, robotics, autonomy, or high-growth technical organizations
• Experience partnering directly with founders, executives, or senior technical leaders
• Background in retained search, executive recruiting, or elite in-house recruiting environments
• Strong understanding of engineering and technical leadership organizations

Other duties:

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Benefits and perks:

All full-time employees are granted meaningful long-term equity, sharing in the company's significant growth trajectory. We offer four (4) weeks of paid time off, ten (10) company-paid holidays, and comprehensive health benefits - including 100% employee-covered medical and strong dependent coverage, along with dental and vision plans. We also provide paid parental leave to support growing families, a $100 monthly fitness stipend to promote health and performance, and onsite EV charging for convenience. In addition, employees enjoy perks like catered meals, company-covered food during high-demand periods, and a fully stocked kitchen to stay fueled throughout the day.

While this position does not currently require a U.S government-issued security clearance, it may in the near future. Therefore, the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government–issued security clearance is required. U.S. citizenship is required, as only U.S. citizens are eligible for a security clearance.

Affirmative action/EEO statement:

Employment with Castelion is governed on the basis of competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.