Executive Research Recruiter, Principal Engineer Recruiting Team

Amazon is hiring an Executive Research Recruiter, Principal Engineer Recruiting Team in Santa Clara, United States. It pays $86k-$151k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this HR role Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
The posting mentions executive recruiting, talent mapping and candidate sourcing among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a senior role.
Amazon has 21,000+ other open roles on Level.
Posted within the past two weeks.

AI in this role

Executive Research Recruiter to identify and hire world-class Principal Engineers for Amazon.

executive-recruitingtalent-mappingcandidate-sourcingexecutive-advisory

Join Amazon's Global Specialty Recruiting team and help us identify and hire the world's most exceptional Principal Engineers. Members of Amazon's Principal Engineer Community Amazon's most senior technologists, exemplary practitioners and pragmatic visionaries who set the standard for engineering excellence across Amazon. This role offers unparalleled visibility—you'll work across all Amazon businesses, advising senior executives on hiring strategy while building relationships with world-renowned technical leaders.

Key job responsibilities
Strategic Search Design: Develop robust, multi-channel search strategies attracting world-class engineers. Map target companies, engage at conferences, generate referral leads. Build talent networks and tap industry sources for ongoing candidate pools.

Executive Advisory: Serve as talent adviser to leaders across Amazon—educating hiring managers about the external Principal Engineer demographic. Provide strategic guidance to executive leadership on top technical talent. Conduct continuous company and talent mapping.

Candidate Development: Develop prospects into candidates through sophisticated engagement. Perform assessment and screening, present to executive leadership. Conduct phone interviews, prepare candidates for technical interviews, coach leaders on talent acquisition at senior levels.

Market Expertise: Serve as expert for engineering recruiting. Contribute to knowledge base with education on industries and talent pools. Learn new domains quickly and craft effective search strategies.

What we're Looking for:

Research acumen: Learn technical domains quickly, craft effective search strategies, excel at candidate identification, engagement, and creative sourcing

Executive presence: Compelling communicator who engages busy executives and renowned engineers, self-assured and quick-thinking

Strategic judgment: Think strategically while executing tactically, relentlessly high standards, results-oriented

Collaboration: Team leader and member who believes individual wins are team wins, inquisitive with strong desire to learn

A day in the life
You'll identify technical leadership at target companies and domains, identifying Principal Engineers working on problems similar to Amazon's strategic initiatives. You'll craft multi-channel engagement strategies—attending technical conferences, leveraging networks for warm introductions to passive candidates who would be transformational hires.

You'll advise leaders on search parameters based on market realities, conduct phone interviews with renowned engineers assessing technical depth and influence capability, and coach hiring managers on candidate engagement. You'll contribute to the team's knowledge base by documenting insights about emerging talent pools that inform future searches.

About the team
The Principal Engineering Recruiting team is the talent acquisition engine for Amazon's PE Community. We take a multi-channel approach (target company mapping, conference and event engagement, referral and network lead generation) to talent identification, engagement, assessment, and match-making. Our mission: identify, build relationships with, and hire every great Principal Engineer in the world. You'll work with a strong, established team of executive recruiters.

Basic qualifications

- 5+ years of advising and influencing executive leadership experience
- 7+ years of progressive corporate or search firm recruiting work with a focus on passive engineering candidate generation in a high tech market experience
- 7+ years of recruiting with focus on engineering, technical operations, and product management experience
- Bachelor's degree or above
- Experience in advising and influencing executive leadership
- Experience in progressive corporate or search firm recruiting with a focus on passive engineering candidate generation in a high-tech market
- Experience building and driving talent sourcing initiatives and pipelines
- Experience creating, measuring and scaling workflow among candidates, hiring managers and the recruiting team
- Experience managing and prioritizing multiple searches, projects and client relationships
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Preferred qualifications

- 5+ years of performing team building, coaching and managing experience
- Experience in performing team building, coaching, and managing
- Experience recruiting passive candidates who are the most senior experts in their field
- Experience with executive recruiting in either a blue-chip, global in-house executive search team, or a top executive search firm
- 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.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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 - 86,100.00 - 150,700.00 USD annually
USA, NY, New York - 86,100.00 - 150,700.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 80,200.00 - 137,000.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Executive Research Recruiter, Principal Engineer Recruiting Team at Amazon rates 0 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Executive Research Recruiter, Principal Engineer Recruiting Team is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The listed salary is $86k-$151k a year.
The role is based in US, CA, Santa Clara.
The job was posted on October 14, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by Amazon. Apply on Amazon

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Executive RecruitingTalent MappingCandidate SourcingExecutive Advisory

Also common in HR jobs at this level

AWS AI agents Computer vision SQL Generative AI Machine learning

Pay

This job starts at: $86k
Typical HR job: $120k

This posting starts 28% below the typical HR job. See HR jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where executive recruiting was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where talent mapping was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where candidate sourcing was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where executive advisory was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Executive Recruiting, Talent Mapping, Candidate Sourcing, and Executive Advisory. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.

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