Senior Technical Recruiter

Why Castelion, Why Now

Castelion is moving incredibly fast to develop and deliver advanced defense systems at a time when execution matters more than ever. We believe focus, ownership, and excellence are decisive advantages - and we're building a world-class team to turn bold ideas into real capability.

This is a rare opportunity to join at an early stage, where you'll have significant ownership, collaborate with exceptional teammates, and make a direct, measurable impact on our mission and the future of the company - regardless of your function.

Senior Technical Recruiter

As a Senior Technical Recruiter at Castelion, you will play a critical role in building an elite engineering and technical organization responsible for developing and manufacturing next-generation hypersonic defense systems. You will own full-cycle recruiting across some of our most complex and competitive technical disciplines, partnering directly with engineering leaders to identify, engage, and close exceptional talent.

This is a highly hands-on role for a recruiter who knows how to build pipelines from scratch, navigate competitive talent markets, and consistently deliver results. We are looking for someone who takes extreme ownership, operates with urgency, and understands that great recruiting requires much more than managing applicants and coordinating interviews. You create activity, build relationships, challenge conventional approaches, and find exceptional people who may not be actively looking.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting for highly technical and specialized engineering positions across multiple disciplines, from initial sourcing through offer acceptance.
• Partner closely with engineering leadership and hiring managers to understand technical requirements, establish hiring priorities, and develop targeted recruiting strategies.
• Proactively identify, engage, and attract exceptional passive candidates through creative sourcing strategies, market mapping, referrals, and direct outreach.
• Build and maintain robust talent pipelines across disciplines such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, software, firmware, RF, radar, GNC, propulsion, systems engineering, and other specialized technical functions.
• Develop a deep understanding of competitive talent markets, including defense primes, high-growth startups, aerospace companies, and adjacent technology industries.
• Lead candidate calibration and evaluation discussions, ensuring alignment between technical qualifications, demonstrated execution, and organizational values.
• Drive recruiting processes with urgency, maintaining strong candidate engagement and minimizing unnecessary delays between interview stages and hiring decisions.
• Deliver an exceptional candidate experience through thoughtful communication, preparation, transparency, and consistent follow-through.
• Leverage recruiting data and market intelligence to identify pipeline gaps, evaluate sourcing effectiveness, and continuously improve hiring strategies.
• Hold hiring teams accountable to recruiting timelines, feedback, and interview commitments.
• Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of Castelion's recruiting processes, tools, and operating standards.

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting experience, preferably within aerospace, defense, hardware, advanced manufacturing, robotics, or high-growth technology environments.
• Demonstrated success recruiting highly specialized engineering and technical talent in competitive markets.
• Proven ability to independently manage multiple complex requisitions while maintaining strong candidate pipelines and consistent hiring outcomes.
• Strong sourcing capabilities with experience identifying and engaging passive candidates through LinkedIn Recruiter and other research tools.
• Experience partnering directly with senior engineering leaders and technical hiring managers.
• Excellent communication, relationship-building, negotiation, and closing skills.
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail and the ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, constantly evolving environment.
• Demonstrated ownership, urgency, resourcefulness, and a bias toward action.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience recruiting within the defense, aerospace, hypersonics, space, missile systems, or advanced hardware industries.
• Experience hiring across multiple engineering disciplines, including mechanical, electrical, RF, radar, software, firmware, GNC, propulsion, and systems engineering.
• Prior experience scaling a technical organization within a venture-backed startup or rapidly growing company.
• Familiarity with engineering talent markets across Southern California, Texas, and other major aerospace and defense hubs.
• Experience developing talent maps, competitive intelligence, and proactive sourcing strategies for difficult-to-fill positions.
• Experience working in Greenhouse or another modern applicant tracking system.

Castelion offers a generous benefits package. Please refer to the bottom of our Careers page for more details.

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.

Additional Eligibility Requirements

This position may require access to classified information or restricted U.S. Government sites, systems, or information, as determined by the Company and/or applicable U.S. Government requirements. If the position is so designated, your employment in the role may be contingent upon your ability to obtain and maintain the required U.S. Government security clearance or other government authorization, and to satisfy any citizenship or other eligibility requirements imposed by applicable law, regulation, executive order, or government contract requirements. You will be notified if and when such requirements apply.

Affirmative Action/EEO Statement

Castelion is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Castelion is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application and hiring process. If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete an application, participate in the interview process, or otherwise participate in the hiring process, please contact hr@castelion.com. Requests for accommodation will be considered on an individual basis and handled in accordance with applicable law.

Castelion is committed to fostering a workplace where employment decisions are based on qualifications, business needs, and the ability to perform the essential functions of the role, with or without reasonable accommodation.

EAR/ITAR Requirements

This position requires access to export-controlled information, and as such, employment (or hiring of a contractor) is contingent upon the candidate’s ability to access all applicable export-controlled information without additional export licensing being required by the Bureau of Industry and Security and/or the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.