Own university recruiting strategy and full-cycle hiring for interns, co-ops, and new graduates across engineering and select business functions. Build campus partnerships and employer brand, manage career events, lead technical candidate evaluation, close offers, support onboarding, and drive intern-to-full-time conversion. Partner with senior leaders on workforce planning, track funnel and school ROI metrics, and optimize recruiting strategy. Travel is required during peak campus recruiting season.
Shield AI’s future engineering bench is built on campus. We’re looking for a Senior Recruiter to own university recruiting end to end—from campus strategy and full-cycle hiring for interns, co-ops, and new graduates to intern-to-full-time conversion, in close partnership with our internship program team.
You will lead the full university recruiting lifecycle—Plan, Attract, Engage, Assess & Hire, Convert, Retain, and Optimize—across Software Engineering (C++ and autonomy), Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Integration & Test, Mechanical Engineering, and select business functions. You will have real autonomy to shape strategy and clear accountability for outcomes: meeting hiring demand on time, securing offer acceptances in a fiercely competitive market, and converting interns into full-time engineers.
You are equal parts strategist, closer, and program partner. You are as comfortable presenting a school portfolio and ROI analysis to a VP in the morning as you are leading a technical calibration with hiring managers at midday or closing a rising senior with three competing offers that evening.
What You'll Do:
- Own Shield AI's university recruiting strategy end to end, including the target school portfolio, annual plan, calendar, and budget for your business
- Lead demand collection with business leaders for interns, co-ops, and intern-to-FTE conversions, driving iHIRE approvals and req postings on schedule for your business
- Build Shield AI's campus brand through technical storytelling, faculty and career center relationships, and engagement with robotics, AI, and diversity student organizations
- Represent Shield AI at career fairs, tech talks, and info sessions, and build early pipelines of high-potential candidates ahead of req approval
- Run full-cycle recruiting for all intern, co-op, and new grad roles for Aircraft
- Maintain a structured, bias-reduced evaluation process and run intern interview training and calibration to keep the bar consistent across teams and sites
- Extend timely offers within the standard framework by role, location, and level, and partner with Compensation on salary and housing stipend benchmarking
- Own the accepted-offer-to-Day-1 experience to reduce reneges and strengthen onboarding readiness
- Partner with the intern program team on mentorship matching, project scoping, reviews, and intern events
- Own the intern conversion cycle, from identifying full-time-eligible interns through extending return-intern and full-time offers
- Report on demand fulfillment, offer and accept rates, conversion, diversity, and school ROI, and use those metrics to reshape each season's strategy
Required Qualifications:
- 5+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with at least 3 years focused on university, early-career, or campus recruiting
- Demonstrated ownership of a campus strategy end to end — school selection, event planning, budget, and season execution — not just requisition execution
- Track record of high-volume technical hiring for engineering roles, and of closing candidates in a competitive market
- Experience partnering directly with senior business and engineering leaders on workforce planning and demand
- Strong data instincts: you build and use funnel metrics, conversion rates, and ROI analysis to make decisions and to influence leaders
- Proficiency with an ATS and sourcing tools; comfort building process, templates, and reporting from scratch
- Excellent written and verbal communication; you represent the company credibly to students, faculty, and executives
- Willingness to travel during peak campus season
- A demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and being kind to others
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience recruiting in AI, robotics, aerospace, or defense technology
- Experience running or supporting an internship or co-op program, including intern-to-full-time conversion processes
- Familiarity with U.S. defense-industry hiring considerations, including export control (ITAR/EAR) and work authorization requirements for early-career candidates
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