Lead Recruiter

About Critical Loop

Critical Loop is shaping the next generation of energy systems by building the integrated edge grid of the future. Specializing in advanced energy management and battery control systems, Critical Loop empowers businesses and communities to seamlessly unite distributed energy resources for faster, more reliable, and affordable grid access. With deep expertise in grid modernization and a passion for creating resilient, responsive energy solutions, Critical Loop drives innovation at the intersection of technology and energy.

Critical Loop | Full-Time | Hybrid | Long Beach, CA

The Role

We are hiring our first dedicated Lead Recruiter.

You will own recruiting across the business while helping expand the recruiting infrastructure that supports Critical Loop as we scale.

You'll partner directly with hiring managers and executive leadership to attract exceptional talent across engineering, operations, manufacturing, corporate functions, and leadership. You'll also help build upon the existing recruiting processes, interview frameworks, and operational cadence that create a consistent, high-quality hiring experience.

You'll report directly to the People & Talent Lead and have the opportunity to continue to shape how recruiting operates at Critical Loop.

We're looking for someone who enjoys both sides of recruiting:

• finding and closing exceptional talent

• building better systems that make hiring easier tomorrow than it is today

What You'll Do

• Own full-cycle recruiting across technical and non-technical roles, including sourcing, screening, interviewing, offer management, and candidate experience.

• Partner with hiring managers to define hiring strategies, conduct intake meetings, build interview plans, and calibrate candidate profiles.

• Build proactive talent pipelines for recurring and difficult-to-fill positions before hiring needs become urgent.

• Develop sourcing strategies that leverage LinkedIn Recruiter, networking, referrals, communities, and creative outreach techniques.

• Own recruiting operations within Ashby, including job creation, interview scheduling workflows, reporting, scorecards, templates, and process documentation.

• Continuously improve interview processes, candidate communications, hiring manager enablement, and recruiting metrics.

• Track recruiting analytics including time-to-fill, pipeline conversion, sourcing effectiveness, and hiring manager satisfaction.

• Partner with the People & Talent Lead on onboarding improvements, employer initiatives, and People Operations projects that improve the employee experience.

• Serve as a trusted advisor to hiring managers by challenging assumptions, improving interview quality, and helping teams make better hiring decisions.

• Identify patterns across searches and recommend improvements to recruiting strategy, compensation positioning, interview design, and talent planning.

Must-Haves

• 3+ years of full-cycle in-house recruiting experience across multiple business functions.

• Demonstrated success sourcing passive candidates and building talent pipelines for difficult-to-fill positions.

• Experience partnering directly with hiring managers throughout the hiring process, from intake through offer acceptance.

• Strong interviewing and candidate assessment skills with the ability to evaluate both technical capability and long-term organizational fit.

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.

• Highly organized with outstanding follow-through and attention to detail.

• Comfortable managing multiple concurrent searches while maintaining an exceptional candidate experience.

• Experience using modern ATS platforms (Ashby preferred, Greenhouse, Lever, or equivalent acceptable).

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience recruiting for engineering, manufacturing, hardware, or operations organizations.

• Experience working at a Series A, Series B, or other high-growth startup.

• Experience building or improving recruiting processes, interview frameworks, scorecards, or hiring documentation.

• Experience partnering with People Operations beyond recruiting, including onboarding, recruiting analytics, or manager enablement.

• Experience developing recruiting dashboards or using recruiting metrics to improve hiring outcomes.

• Familiarity with compensation benchmarking and offer strategy.

• Experience mentoring hiring managers on interviewing best practices.

• Demonstrates curiosity beyond recruiting by identifying opportunities to improve hiring, onboarding, hiring manager enablement, and People Operations processes.

Critical Loop is an equal opportunity employer. We're committed to building a diverse team and creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.