Skip to content

Executive Recruiter

Torrance, California, United States
Full Time On-site

Summary

Job Description

This is not a traditional recruiting role.

We are looking for someone who excels at identifying game-changing talent - often highly passive candidates - and building the long-term relationships required to bring them into a mission-driven, high-performance organization. This person must understand how to map elite talent markets, identify where exceptional leaders come from, develop thoughtful engagement strategies, and execute highly personalized, white-glove recruiting experiences.

You will partner closely with company leadership on some of the most important and high-impact hires in the business, including:

  • C-Suite and executive leadership
  • Engineering leadership
  • Strategic technical experts
  • Critical organizational builders

The right person for this role has a demonstrated track record of landing needle-moving hires - the types of individuals whose arrival creates a seismic shift inside an organization.

Responsibilities

  • Lead executive and strategic recruiting efforts across engineering, manufacturing, operations, business, and leadership functions
  • Identify and engage highly passive talent through research, networking, referrals, and creative outreach strategies
  • Conduct deep market mapping and competitive talent intelligence exercises
  • Develop targeted approaches for difficult-to-access or highly sought-after candidates
  • Build and maintain long-term relationships with top-tier talent, often over months or years
  • Partner directly with executives and hiring leaders on search strategy, calibration, and candidate assessment
  • Deliver exceptional, high-touch candidate experiences throughout the recruiting process
  • Assess leadership capability, cultural alignment, trajectory, and long-term impact potential
  • Help shape Castelion's executive recruiting strategy, infrastructure, and talent brand

Basic Qualifications

  • 7+ years of recruiting experience, including significant experience in executive search or highly strategic technical recruiting
  • Demonstrated track record of landing exceptional leadership or technical hires
  • Experience engaging and closing highly passive candidates
  • Strong market mapping and talent intelligence capabilities
  • Exceptional communication, relationship-building, and influence skills
  • Ability to operate with urgency, discretion, and sound judgment
  • Comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-accountability startup environment

Preferred Skills and Experience

  • Experience recruiting for aerospace, defense, advanced hardware, robotics, autonomy, or high-growth technical organizations
  • Experience partnering directly with founders, executives, or senior technical leaders
  • Background in retained search, executive recruiting, or elite in-house recruiting environments
  • Strong understanding of engineering and technical leadership organizations

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.

Benefits And Perks

All full-time employees are granted meaningful long-term equity, sharing in the company's significant growth trajectory. We offer four (4) weeks of paid time off, ten (10) company-paid holidays, and comprehensive health benefits - including 100% employee-covered medical and strong dependent coverage, along with dental and vision plans. We also provide paid parental leave to support growing families, a $100 monthly fitness stipend to promote health and performance, and onsite EV charging for convenience. In addition, employees enjoy perks like catered meals, company-covered food during high-demand periods, and a fully stocked kitchen to stay fueled throughout the day.

While this position does not currently require a U.S government-issued security clearance, it may in the near future. Therefore, the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government–issued security clearance is required. U.S. citizenship is required, as only U.S. citizens are eligible for a security clearance.

Affirmative Action/EEO Statement

About Castelion

Castelion

Castelion is one of the fastest-rising defense technology companies focused on building affordable, rapidly deployable hypersonic strike systems for the U.S. military. Founded by former SpaceX leaders, the company is working to modernize how advanced weapons are developed and manufactured—using rapid iteration, vertical integration, and scalable production to deliver next-generation deterrence capabilities faster than traditional defense programs. Castelion’s mission centers on restoring America’s ability to field advanced military technology at speed and scale.

For job seekers, Castelion offers the opportunity to work directly on some of the most advanced technologies in national defense, including propulsion systems, avionics, flight software, guidance and navigation, missile systems, and advanced manufacturing. The company hires across aerospace engineering, embedded software, manufacturing, test engineering, avionics, cybersecurity, and operations—making it especially attractive to engineers, builders, veterans, and mission-driven professionals who want hands-on ownership of real hardware.

Unlike traditional defense contractors, Castelion operates with a startup-style engineering culture modeled after rapid aerospace development environments. Employees work closely with flight hardware, testing, and production systems in a fast-paced setting where speed, accountability, and execution are prioritized. The company openly emphasizes a builder mentality—giving team members the chance to own major projects and contribute directly to systems with national security impact.

As the U.S. military increases investment in hypersonic weapons, missile modernization, and scalable deterrence capabilities, Castelion continues to grow rapidly through major government contracts and manufacturing expansion. For professionals seeking a high-growth aerospace and defense company where they can help shape the future of national security technology, Castelion is quickly becoming one of the most exciting employers in the defense innovation ecosystem.

Go to company profile