Senior Recruiter

Highwire•Chicago, WA

5d•$80,000 - $95,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Highwire is seeking a Senior Recruiter to lead full-cycle recruitment, develop proactive sourcing strategies, and build long-term talent pipelines across agency and corporate functions. As a member of the People team, the Senior Recruiter partners with leaders to understand business needs, identify talent, and strengthen Highwire’s ability to attract and engage candidates for current and future opportunities. The role serves as a trusted talent advisor to hiring leaders and develops relationships with qualified candidates beyond traditional applicant pools. It requires expertise in passive candidate sourcing, talent market research, and relationship building, along with the ability to translate business needs into effective recruiting strategies. The successful candidate will thrive in a fast-paced, evolving agency environment where hiring priorities can shift. The Senior Recruiter leads searches from kickoff through offer across agency and corporate functions, including PR, integrated communications, digital, creative, and corporate roles. The role also leads sourcing and recruitment for the agency’s internship program, builds early-career pipelines, and partners with the Director of Talent Strategy on recruiting priorities, practices, and processes. Highwire offers remote and hybrid work options depending on the candidate’s location. Candidates within commuting distance of the New York, NY or San Francisco, CA offices follow a hybrid schedule with three in-office days per week. Fully remote roles are available only to candidates residing in the states and district listed in the posting at the time of hire. The salary range is $80,000 to $95,000, with the final offer based on factors including education, relevant experience, skills, prior training, internal equity, and local geographic market data.

Requirements

At least 5 years of recruiting experience.
Deep expertise in sourcing and a proven ability to identify and engage high-quality passive candidates through targeted, research-driven strategies.
Experience building talent pipelines for immediate hiring needs and long-term workforce planning.
Ability to build credibility with senior leaders, understand business needs, and translate them into effective recruiting strategies.
Ability to research talent markets and advise hiring teams on candidate availability, competitive dynamics, profiles, and expectations.
Experience managing full-cycle searches from intake through offer while balancing candidate experience, hiring-team partnership, and recruiting outcomes.
Strong negotiation skills and experience extending offers, navigating compensation discussions, and balancing candidate expectations with salary bands and internal equity.
Commitment to a thoughtful, engaging, and transparent candidate experience, including timely communication and consistent follow-through.
Comfort using recruiting metrics and pipeline insights to evaluate effectiveness, identify challenges, and adjust strategies.
Strong relationship-building and communication skills, including the ability to engage candidates, influence hiring decisions, and build trusted partnerships across teams and leadership levels.
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities, reprioritizing while maintaining organization and momentum.
Proactive, resourceful approach, with ownership of searches and the ability to anticipate hiring needs and explore new ways to identify and attract talent.
Experience broadening talent networks and creating equitable, thoughtful candidate experiences.
Experience with applicant tracking systems, LinkedIn Recruiter, and advanced search techniques.
Proficiency in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel for pipeline tracking, reporting, and recruiting data management.

Nice To Haves

Recruiting experience in PR, communications, marketing, creative, digital, agency, or professional services environments.
Greenhouse applicant tracking system experience.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute proactive sourcing strategies across PR, communications, marketing, digital, creative, and corporate functions.
Build and maintain talent pipelines for current, anticipated, hard-to-fill, and recurring roles, cultivating relationships with qualified candidates before positions become available.
Use LinkedIn Recruiter, Boolean search, talent mapping, referrals, networking, and other sourcing techniques to identify passive candidates.
Research talent markets, candidate availability, competitive landscapes, and sourcing channels; assess pipeline health and refine sourcing strategies.
Serve as a trusted talent advisor to hiring leaders by understanding business objectives, team dynamics, and talent needs.
Translate business priorities into role requirements and recruiting strategies, and advise on talent availability, candidate expectations, market trends, and competitive positioning.
Guide interview strategy, candidate assessment, and hiring decisions, and recommend alternative approaches when candidate profiles or expectations need recalibration.
Maintain regular hiring-manager communication, including weekly updates on search progress, pipeline activity, candidate feedback, and next steps.
Partner with the Director of Talent Strategy to anticipate hiring needs and align recruiting priorities with broader business goals.
Lead full-cycle recruitment across agency and corporate roles from kickoff through offer, maintaining search momentum and alignment with hiring teams.
Identify and assess talent through sourcing, networking, referrals, and inbound applicants.
Deliver a thoughtful candidate experience through timely communication, transparency, engagement, and follow-through.
Develop knowledge of Highwire’s compensation structure, salary bands, and benefits to communicate total rewards and set candidate expectations.
Lead offer discussions and negotiations with hiring leaders and the Director of Talent Strategy, balancing candidate expectations with compensation guidelines and internal equity and working to close candidates.
Partner with the Director of Talent Strategy to strengthen recruiting practices, sourcing approaches, and scalable agency processes.
Maintain accurate candidate, search, and pipeline information in Greenhouse and supporting trackers, ensuring data integrity and visibility into recruiting activity and hiring progress.
Track recruiting metrics such as pipeline development, sourcing effectiveness, time to fill, and candidate conversion; use insights to inform decisions and identify improvements.
Identify opportunities to streamline recruiting workflows and improve the candidate experience.
Collaborate with the People team on employer branding, job descriptions, and hiring communications, and support inclusive hiring through broader sourcing channels and diverse talent networks.
Lead sourcing and recruitment for the agency’s internship program, identifying early-career talent aligned with Highwire’s needs.
Build relationships with universities, career centers, and relevant professional organizations to strengthen early-career pipelines.
Manage intern recruitment with hiring teams, providing a coordinated candidate experience and developing sustainable pipelines for future agency needs.