The Role
STR is seeking a Recruiting Director to lead and evolve enterprise recruiting strategy in support of mission-critical defense and national security programs. This leader will oversee technical and non-technical recruiting operations while serving as a strategic advisor to executive leadership on workforce planning, talent market dynamics, organizational growth, and hiring scalability.
This role combines executive-level partnership, operational leadership, and selective hands-on engagement in critical hiring initiatives. The Director will lead a high-performing recruiting organization focused on attracting exceptional talent across advanced technology domains including cyber, software, systems engineering, RF, radar, sensors, analytics, AI/ML, and national security operations.
The ideal candidate brings deep experience scaling recruiting functions in highly competitive and regulated environments while balancing speed, quality, compliance, and candidate experience. Hybrid preferred in Woburn, MA or Arlington, VA. We are also open to remote candidates who are a strong fit for the role, with occasional travel to company locations.
What You’ll Do
Lead Enterprise Talent Acquisition Strategy
Develop and execute recruiting strategies aligned to STR’s long-term business objectives, growth priorities, and technical workforce needs. Partner closely with executive leadership to forecast talent demand and hiring capacity across divisions.
Build & Lead a High-Performing Recruiting Organization
Lead, develop, and scale a team of recruiters, recruiting managers, coordinators, and sourcing resources. Establish clear performance expectations, operational rigor, and a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Actively coach and mentor recruiters on advanced sourcing techniques, candidate engagement strategies, and closing high-value technical talent. Focus on upskilling the team to increase quality-of-hire and conversion rates.
Serve as a Strategic Business Partner
Act as a trusted advisor to division leadership and senior executives on labor market conditions, hiring strategy, organizational design implications, compensation competitiveness, and workforce planning risks.
Drive Technical Recruiting Excellence
Enhance Employer Brand & Talent Positioning
Strengthen STR’s visibility and reputation within highly competitive defense and technology talent markets. Partner with leadership, HR, and communications teams to develop differentiated talent attraction strategies and messaging.
Optimize Recruiting Operations & Analytics
Establish scalable recruiting processes, metrics, and reporting capabilities. Utilize data-driven insights to improve hiring velocity, pipeline health, diversity outreach, offer acceptance, and recruiting ROI. Lead the evolution of talent acquisition capabilities through the thoughtful integration of AI-enabled tools, automation, and data-driven recruiting practices. Evaluate and implement technologies that improve recruiter efficiency, sourcing effectiveness, candidate engagement, reporting insights, and operational scalability while maintaining compliance, data integrity, and a high-quality candidate experience.
Lead Recruiting Technology & Process Innovation
Drive continuous improvement across recruiting systems, workflows, and operational processes. Evaluate and implement enhancements to ATS functionality, sourcing tools, reporting capabilities, and candidate engagement strategies.
Ensure Compliance & Risk Management
Maintain recruiting compliance with OFCCP requirements, federal contractor obligations, employment regulations, and internal governance standards while supporting efficient and scalable hiring practices.
Support Executive & Strategic Hiring
Partner directly with executive leadership on senior-level and strategically critical hiring initiatives. Help shape competitive offer strategies and talent acquisition approaches for high-impact positions.
What You Bring
Education & Required Experience
Pay Information
Full-Time Salary Range: $180,000-220,000
The salary range listed is based on external market data. Offers are based on factors, such as but not limited to, the candidate’s experience, education, training, key skills/critical skills, security clearances, and prevailing market and business conditions.
STR is a growing technology company with locations near Boston, MA, Arlington, VA, near Dayton, OH, Melbourne, FL, and Carlsbad, CA. We specialize in advanced research and development for defense, intelligence, and national security in: cyber; next generation sensors, radar, sonar, communications, and electronic warfare; and artificial intelligence algorithms and analytics to make sense of the complexity that is exploding around us.
STR is committed to creating a collaborative learning environment that supports deep technical understanding and recognizes the contributions and achievements of all team members. Our work is challenging, and we go home at night knowing that we pushed the envelope of technology and made the world safer.
STR is not just any company. Our people, culture, and attitude along with their unique set of skills, experiences, and perspectives put us on a trajectory to change the world. We can't do it alone, though - we need fellow trailblazers. If you are one, join our team and help to keep our society safe! Visit us at www.str.us for more info.
STR is an equal opportunity employer. We are fully dedicated to hiring the most qualified candidate regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
If you need a reasonable accommodation for any portion of the employment process, email us at appassist@str.us and provide your contact info.
Pursuant to applicable federal law and regulations, positions at STR require employees to obtain national security clearances and satisfy the requirements for compliance with export control and other applicable laws.
STR is driven to deliver impact. We take pride in formulating solutions to the nation's newest, hardest problems through sustained innovation and application of technology.
As the world becomes increasingly inter-connected, our model for keeping society safe must evolve. STR is leading the way, with cutting edge cybersecurity tools that wrangle complexity, analytics toolsets that drive sensemaking to the user, sensing that exploits the intricacies of physics, and systems that deliver capability to make us safer.
Our people and our values drive us. We are an employee-owned company that seeks lasting, long-term contribution and not short-term returns. We strive to leave the world a little better and safer each day, both through our work and our interactions with each other. We believe that by coming together and working together, we can achieve greater impact than we ever could alone.
