Lead Technical Recruiter (Contract to Hire)

Description

Exowatt is revolutionizing the energy landscape for the AI era with our groundbreaking P3 system that captures solar energy, stores it as heat, and generates electricity on demand. Founded in 2023 and backed by leading investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sam Altman, and Felicis, we're committed to providing clean, modular, and scalable power that meets the rapidly growing demands of AI infrastructure. Our mission is to make sustainable renewable energy always available and almost free, enabling technological advancement while protecting our planet.

We are looking for a Lead Technical Recruiter to own full-cycle hiring for our most critical engineering and technical roles. You will be the primary talent partner to our engineering and product leaders in Miami, building pipelines for hard-to-fill roles across hardware, mechanical, electrical, power systems, optical, controls, and firmware engineering. You will source, engage, assess, and close top talent in a competitive market, while raising the bar on how we recruit.

This is a hands-on, in-office role. You will sit alongside the engineers you hire, learn the technology deeply, and be based in our Miami headquarters. The position starts as a 1099 contract with a path to full-time employment for the right person.

Only Miami, FL and surrounding area based candidates will be considered for this role.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting to include intake, sourcing, screening, interview coordination, offer negotiation, and close for technical roles spanning hardware, mechanical, software, electrical, power systems, optical, manufacturing, controls, and firmware engineering.
• Build and execute creative sourcing strategies to reach passive candidates from hardware, energy, aerospace, automotive, semiconductor, robotics, and adjacent deep-tech industries.
• Partner closely with hiring managers to define role requirements, calibrate on candidate profiles, and design structured, efficient interview processes.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to engineering leadership on market conditions, compensation benchmarks, talent availability, and hiring strategy.
• Deliver an exceptional candidate experience from first outreach through onboarding, representing Exowatt's mission and culture with credibility.
• Manage a high-priority requisition load while maintaining rigor on quality and data hygiene in our ATS. We use Lever.
• Track and report on pipeline health, funnel metrics, and time-to-fill; use data to identify bottlenecks and improve outcomes.
• Help establish and refine recruiting processes, tooling, employer brand, and interviewer training as the Austin team scales.
• Travel periodically to our Austin facility to align and partner with other leadership and Exowatt team members.
• What You Bring
• 6+ years of technical recruiting experience, with a demonstrated track record of sourcing, identifying, and closing top talent for hardware, mechanical, software, electrical, power systems, optical, controls, and firmware roles.
• Understanding of the Miami, and Florida engineering talent market and local networks.
• Deep experience recruiting for hardware and engineering-heavy organizations. You understand the difference between a power electronics engineer and a controls engineer, and you can speak credibly with both.
• Proven ability to build pipelines for niche, senior, and hard-to-fill roles through direct sourcing, networking, referrals, and market mapping, not just inbound applications.
• Strong closing skills: experience navigating complex offers, competing opportunities, relocations, and equity conversations.
• Excellent judgment on candidate quality and the confidence to push back on hiring managers when it improves the outcome.
• Highly organized and data-driven, with fluency in Lever, LinkedIn Recruiter, and modern sourcing tools.
• Experience using AI tools, Claude specifically, to enhance productivity and efficiency.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, early-stage environment with shifting priorities and a high degree of ownership.
• Based in the Miami, FL metro area and able to work on-site five days per week. Only local Miami and surrounding area candidates will be considered.
• Able to travel to Exowatt's Austin, TX facility as needed.

Requirements

• Experience recruiting for climate tech, energy, solar, energy storage, or industrial hardware companies.
• Experience hiring for manufacturing, test, and field engineering roles in addition to design engineering.
• Experience as a first or early recruiting hire, building processes and infrastructure from scratch.
• Familiarity with the Austin engineering talent market and local networks.
• Engagement Details
• Structure : 1099 independent contractor, contract to hire. Successful contractors will be considered for conversion to full-time employment.
• Schedule : 40 hours per week, on-site in our Miami headquarters, Monday through Friday.
• Travel : Periodic travel to our Austin, TX facility; travel and accommodation expenses are covered by Exowatt.
• Compensation : Competitive contract rate commensurate with experience; details discussed during the interview process.