Principal Executive Recruiter

At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. We are building artificial gravity space stations, allowing long-term stays in space without the adverse effects of zero-gravity. Our initial crewed space habitat will be Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station when it launches into low earth orbit in August 2025. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.

Vast is looking for a Principal Executive Recruiter, reporting to the Vice President of Talent Acquisition, to support niche and executive level Engineering roles in the development of the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations. The Principal Executive Recruiter will be a strategic problem solver and have a shared sense of urgency in identifying and filling critical leadership and niche talent gaps for our growing Engineering team. This role will manage a Senior Technical Sourcer/Researcher, and an Executive Search Coordinator. 

This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location. 

Responsibilities: 

• Partner with Vast executive leadership to recruit top talent across the engineering organization
• Lead a team of 2 with a focus on top notch candidate experience and the rigor of an executive search firm. 
• Attract a diverse group of high-quality passive candidates while delivering an exceptional recruiting experience for both clients and candidates
• Work with clients and key stakeholders to define a recruiting strategy based on the specific opportunity and business needs, clearly communicate and manage the progress of the exec search process, and set and manage client and candidate expectations
• Drive high touch, consistent, end-to-end candidate experience from job posting through to onboarding and employment
• Develop trusted and influential relationships with client groups, ensuring that executive recruitment, including and a positive candidate experience and a “talent first” approach is integrated into business principles
• Influence client groups by using market data insights to support business growth and decision making
• Collaborate with the broader Talent Acquisition organization to share recruiting concepts, experiences and best practices
• Coach and mentor less experienced recruiters and share knowledge/best practices
• Drive operational excellence and compliance, set high recruitment standards

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or similar experience
• 8+ years of overall executive recruiting experience, ideally both in-house and at an executive search firm. Aerospace experience a strong plus.
• Direct experience recruiting executive-level technical leadership (e.g., VP Engineering, VP Product, VP Propulsion, etc.) and hard-to-find niche technical roles for aerospace, technology, or industrial organizations

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in full life cycle recruiting to include intake, position profiles, target list creation, sourcing/marketing plan development, candidate outreach and development, slate presentation, offer delivery, negotiation and close
• Committed to delivering a high-touch client and candidate experience
• Experience recruiting for global, complex matrix organizations in a corporate or search firm environment, as well as for startup environments
• Proven experience executing attract/recruit strategies that support business priorities and objectives
• Ability to build trust and inspire confidence
• Methodical in practice - procedural and process focused; can develop a plan for execution
• Execution and ownership focused - Goal oriented; attains satisfaction from doing, achieving and excelling

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY