The Company Sofar is the leading ocean intelligence platform. We've built the world's largest real-time ocean network, turning billions of measurements into insights trusted by scientists, governments, and shipping fleets. Our technology makes the ocean more predictable and sustainable, helping customers save costs, cut emissions, and unlock insights that were once out of reach.
About The Position As our Senior Technical Recruiting Partner, you own the pipeline. Not "support" it. Not "help with" it.
Own it. You're energized by the challenge of finding the best maritime sales talent in Singapore, discovering which hardware engineers are ready for their next adventure, and showing passive candidates why solving ocean data problems is the most meaningful work they could be doing.
You'll love this role if you're someone who gets a thrill from creative problem-solving-building sourcing strategies on the fly, connecting dots others miss, and turning "we can't find anyone for this role" into "we have three amazing finalists." You'll partner closely with hiring managers and our HR team, bringing both hustle and strategic thinking to everything you do.
What You'll Actually Do: Hunt, don't post-and-pray: - Build sourcing strategies for roles we've never hired before (senior maritime sales in APAC, government program engineers, ocean tech marketers etc.)
- Go beyond LinkedIn - find talent in GitHub repos, maritime industry conferences, climate tech Slacks, competitor alumni networks, and anywhere else top people congregate
- Maintain a living pipeline of 50+ qualified candidates at any given time for our highest-priority roles
Sell Sofar relentlessly: - Every outreach message, every phone screen, every interaction is a chance to tell our story. You're equal parts recruiter and evangelist
- Convert passive candidates who aren't looking by painting a compelling picture of impact, mission, and career growth
- Create candidate experiences so good that even people we decide not to move forward with want to refer their friends
Move fast and fix what's broken: - Push back on hiring managers with vague requirements or unrealistic expectations (tactfully but firmly). You are the expert in the room and you are leading them through the hiring journey while holding them accountable
- Collapse our time-to-hire from weeks to days by owning the entire candidate journey
- Spot patterns (we keep losing candidates at the final stage, this hiring manager is too slow, this role description is scaring people away) and solve them without being asked
Think ahead: - You're not just filling today's req - you're building relationships with people we'll need in 6 months
- Stay ahead of market trends: What are maritime tech competitors paying? Where are hardware engineers moving? What benefits do climate tech candidates care about? What AI tools can help get the job done more efficiently?
- Proactively flag: "We're going to need X role in Q1, here are three people I'm already talking to"
Be resourceful, own recruiting: - Limited budget? Find creative ways to source (employee referral campaigns, content marketing, speaking at conferences, building talent communities)
- Hard-to-fill role? Try 10 different approaches until something works
- No playbook exists? Write it yourself
You're the Right Person If: You have a black belt in sourcing: - 6+ years of technical or specialized recruiting (startup/scale-up preferred)
- Your superpower is finding talent, not just screening applicants. You know Boolean search, X-Ray techniques, and how to build talent maps
- You've filled "impossible" roles before and have war stories about how you did it
You have range: - Equally comfortable writing InMail to a VP of Sales and debugging why our Ashby workflow could be better
- You can recruit a firmware engineer (deeply technical) and a maritime sales exec (deeply commercial) in the same week
- You flex between doing the work yourself and coaching others on how to do it
You're gritty and autonomous: - Comfortable with ambiguity, tight deadlines, and changing priorities
- You don't need hand-holding - you see a problem and solve it
- Rejection doesn't faze you. 90% of your outreach gets ignored and you just keep going
You're metric-obsessed but human-centered: - You track everything (response rates, pipeline velocity, source of hire, time-to-fill) and use data to improve
- But you also know recruiting is about relationships, not just hitting numbers
You can sell ice to penguins: - You genuinely believe in what you're selling (if you don't care about the ocean and climate tech, this isn't the role)
- You're scrappy, energized, and infectious-candidates leave conversations with you more excited than when they started
You push back when needed: - You'll tell a hiring manager "this job description will not attract qualified candidates"
- You'll tell the Head of People "we're losing candidates because our interview process takes too long, here's what I propose we change"
- You do it with tact and data, but you don't stay silent when you see problems and you keep relevant stakeholders informed
What You Don't Need to Be: - A maritime industry expert (though curiosity about ocean tech is essential)
- Someone who's done this exact role before (we value resourcefulness over perfect experience match)
- A culture fit for a sleepy, process-heavy company (that's not us)
The bottom line: We need someone who wakes up energized by the challenge of finding people others can't find, who treats recruiting like a competitive sport, and who wants to build something from scratch rather than maintain someone else's system. If that's you, let's talk.
Why You'll Love Working Here: - Mission-Driven Work: Be part of a team that is making a positive impact on the world by driving innovative solutions for ocean industry, health and sustainability.
- Collaborative Culture: Work alongside a passionate, diverse, and inclusive team that values collaboration, creativity, and continuous learning.
- Hybrid Work Arrangement: Enjoy the benefits of working from our office on the Embarcadero while having the flexibility to work from home one day a week.
- Ownership: You will own strategy around sourcing and building the talent within Sofar Ocean.
Estimated Salary Range - $125,000 - $170,000
- The range listed is what we reasonably expect to pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and may be modified in the future. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, experience, and equity package.
Sofar's Commitment to Climate Justice We at Sofar Ocean acknowledge that careers in the marine sciences "... have traditionally been, and remain, non-diverse work environments", thereby limiting the entry and prosperity of underrepresented groups in the space. (Johri et al., 2021) Many of these same groups are disproportionately affected by climate change, and are often excluded from decision-making that directly address their interests and needs.
We are committed to addressing these climate injustices and highly encourage people who identify as women, LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) to apply.
Employee Conduct It is the responsibility of every employee to contribute to a positive work environment through cooperative and professional interactions with co-workers, customers, and vendors.
Equal Employment Opportunity All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law.
