Senior Technical Recruiter

The posting, as Nominal wrote it

About Nominal

Nominal is building the connected test and operations platform powering the world's most advanced hardware systems, from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation defense programs. Our platform gives hardware engineering teams a single place to ingest data, analyze performance, automate test execution, and collaborate across every phase of development, so they can move faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We're a fast-moving team that owns problems end-to-end, works across disciplines, and thrives at the intersection of hardware and software.

We serve top-tier commercial and defense customers, from autonomy leaders like Anduril and Shield AI to next-generation aerospace teams like Hermeus and REGENT, and performance engineering teams like Pratt Miller Motorsports, alongside mission partners within the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force on programs where failure isn’t an option. We’re backed by Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed. Our team draws from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies, united by a common mission: giving hardware engineers the tools to build the future with speed, safety, and confidence.

As a Technical Recruiter at Nominal, you’ll own recruiting for some of the most technically complex and important roles across our Engineering and Product organizations.

This is a role for a recruiter who can learn technical domains quickly, develop strong opinions about talent, and operate as a true partner to technical leaders. You won't need to be an engineer, but you should be able to go deep enough to understand why one engineer is meaningfully different from another—and explain that distinction back to the hiring team.
You'll own searches end-to-end while helping us build stronger, more repeatable ways to identify and assess exceptional technical talent as Nominal scales.

🚀 What You'll Do

Own complex technical searches

• Lead full-cycle recruiting across Software Engineering, Product, Infrastructure, AI, and other highly technical areas as our organization evolves.
• Build targeted search strategies and market maps for roles where the right candidates may come from a narrow or highly competitive talent pool.
• Develop and maintain relationships with exceptional technical talent, including candidates who may not be actively looking.
• Own the candidate relationship from first outreach through offer and close.

Turn technical problems into recruiting strategies

• Partner directly with engineering and product leaders to deeply understand the problems their teams are solving and the capabilities required to solve them.
• Take raw or ambiguous hiring needs and turn them into clear role definitions, candidate profiles, sourcing strategies, and compelling job descriptions.
• Learn unfamiliar technical concepts quickly enough to distinguish meaningful experience from surface-level keyword matches.
• Bring market signal back to h

[…]
don't need a perfectly defined process or profile before you can start making progress.

• You build credibility quickly with highly technical hiring managers and candidates through preparation, curiosity, and sound judgment.

⚡ Skills that supercharge us

• Experience recruiting engineers at high-bar software, infrastructure, AI, developer tools, data, or technically complex product companies.
• Experience recruiting through a period of significant engineering organization growth.
• Experience at a venture-backed startup or agency supporting high-growth technology companies.
• A strong existing network of software engineering and technical talent.
• Experience building or materially improving technical interview processes, scorecards, or assessment strategies.
• Experience recruiting across multiple technical domains rather than specializing exclusively in a single profile.
• Experience explaining and closing candidates on startup compensation and equity.
• Familiarity with hardware, aerospace, defense, robotics, developer infrastructure, data-intensive software, or other technically complex domains.

✨ Benefits/Perks

• 🏥 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 🏖️ Unlimited PTO and sick leave
• 🍽️ Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
• 🚀 Professional Development Stipend
• 🛠️ In-office hardware lab with a $250 project stipend
• ✈️ Annual company retreat

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.

ITAR Requirements
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Compensation
The base pay range for this role is $150,000 – $200,000 per year.