
Senior Recruiter, Principal Engineer Recruiting, PE Recruiting
Arlington, VAJob$143–193K/yrSeen todaySeen in employer's feed today
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At a glance
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Job overview
The client lead recruiter advises Directors and VPs on senior engineering talent and leads recruiting strategies for critical, sometimes confidential searches. The role focuses on sourcing and assessing passive senior engineering candidates, building talent networks, sharing market insights, and guiding leaders through hiring decisions. The Global Specialty Recruiting team hires Principal and Senior Principal Engineers across Amazon businesses.
Skills & qualifications
Skills
Qualifications
Benefits
Full job description
Description
As a client lead recruiter, you'll have the unique opportunity to impact leadership teams across Amazon's diverse technology landscape, building relationships with Directors and VPs while shaping the future of Amazon's senior engineering community.
Key job responsibilities
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Serve as the primary talent advisor to Directors and VPs, educating leaders on the external senior engineering talent landscape and market dynamics
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Define and deliver recruiting strategies for highly-critical, sometimes confidential roles with broad cross-organizational impact
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Identify and engage highly passive senior engineering candidates through creative, research-driven sourcing strategies
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Build and cultivate robust talent networks across technology sectors, leveraging deep industry knowledge and relationships
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Lead client update meetings on active searches, providing clear, data-driven insights on progress and market conditions
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Provide candid guidance to executive leadership on matters related to top technical talent
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Make sound judgments about candidate fit based on comprehensive analysis of technical depth and leadership impact
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Conduct thorough candidate assessments, participate in debriefs, perform comprehensive reference checks, and present/negotiate employment offers
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Coach leaders to continuously improve their talent acquisition capabilities at the senior level
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Set exceptionally high standards for search quality, candidate experience, and recruiting excellence
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Investigate deeply into technical domains, candidate backgrounds, and market trends to inform strategy
A day in the life
Your day begins with strategic planning sessions discussing talent gaps and market intelligence for critical Principal Engineer searches. You'll spend time researching and engaging passive candidates through personalized outreach, leveraging your extensive network and industry knowledge. Mid-day might involve leading a client update meeting where you present market analysis and candidate pipeline progress, followed by conducting in-depth technical assessments with potential candidates. You'll collaborate with your team of recruiters and researchers, sharing insights on emerging talent pools and coaching colleagues. Afternoons often include candidate debriefs with hiring teams, where you provide perspective on technical depth and leadership potential. You'll also dedicate time to building relationships with industry leaders and technical communities, staying ahead of market trends. Throughout the day, you'll make high-stakes decisions with incomplete information, balancing urgency with thoroughness to secure world-class engineering talent.
About the team
The Global Specialty Recruiting (GSR) team partners with technical and business leaders across all of Amazon's businesses to hire the company's most senior engineering talent. Our team specializes in recruiting Principal Engineers and Senior Principal Engineers– Amazon's most senior technical contributors who set the standard for engineering excellence and drive innovation across the company.
Basic Qualifications
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5+ years of advising and influencing executive leadership experience
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7+ years of progressive corporate or search firm recruiting work with a focus on passive engineering candidate generation in a high tech market experience
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7+ years of recruiting with focus on engineering, technical operations, and product management experience
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Bachelor's degree or above
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Experience in advising and influencing executive leadership
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Experience in progressive corporate or search firm recruiting with a focus on passive engineering candidate generation in a high-tech market
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Experience building and driving talent sourcing initiatives and pipelines
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Experience creating, measuring and scaling workflow among candidates, hiring managers and the recruiting team
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Experience managing and prioritizing multiple searches, projects and client relationships
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Bachelor's degree or equivalent
Preferred Qualifications
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5+ years of performing team building, coaching and managing experience
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Experience in performing team building, coaching, and managing
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Experience recruiting passive candidates who are the most senior experts in their field
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Experience with executive recruiting in either a blue-chip, global in-house executive search team, or a top executive search firm
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Experience working with recruiting and people-related tools, CRM systems, and complex spreadsheets
Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.
Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.
The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits .
USA, CA, SANTA CLARA - 157,100.00 - 212,600.00 USD annually
USA, NY, New York - 157,100.00 - 212,600.00 USD annually
USA, TN, Nashville - 110,000.00 - 192,400.00 USD annually
USA, VA, Arlington - 142,800.00 - 193,200.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 142,800.00 - 193,200.00 USD annually
How this job compares
Set against the 2,604 open Recruiter jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 3, 2026.
- Pay
- This posting$143–193K/yr
- Virginia median$74–104K/yr63 salary ranges
- US median$80–114K/yr1,358 salary ranges
This range's midpoint, $168K, is 92% above the Virginia median midpoint ($88K) — in the top quarter of Recruiter salary ranges in Virginia.
- Openings
- Olive Jobs lists 92 open Recruiter jobs in Virginia and 2,604 across the US. 7% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
- Hiring the most in Virginia
- Capital One12 open
- Aston Carter11 open
- CoStar Realty Information, Inc.5 open
- Experience
- This posting asks for at least 7 years of experience — more than three in four Recruiter postings that state a minimum ask for (median 3 years, across 1,776 postings).
- Education
- 309 of the 2,604 open Recruiter jobs (12%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.
Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 3, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.
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