Director Robotics Jobs in Santa Rosa, CA (NOW HIRING)

Who We Are:

Aurelius Systems is a VC-backed defense tech startup developing autonomous, edge-deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We make laser systems to shot down drones.

Our small team includes engineers, former US military operators, and experts, focused on creating the first cost-effective, reliable, and robust laser weapon system.

The Role and Your Impact

We're going from ~20 to 60 people in the next six months. Every hire matters. We need a Technical Recruiter to run full-cycle recruiting on our hardest engineering searches while helping build the recruiting machine underneath.

This is a hybrid role. You'll own priority technical searches — screens, process, close — and you'll partner with the Head of Talent on the operating layer that makes hiring scale. You are not a coordinator. You are not a sourcer only. You are the person who moves candidates through the funnel and moves the funnel itself forward.

You'll report to the Head of Talent and work directly with founders and engineering leads. Your reqs will span software, controls, robotics, electrical, optics, and ML.

What You'll Own

• Full-cycle recruiting on priority technical searches — screens, process management, references, offer coordination
• Candidate qualification and assessment against role requirements, working closely with hiring managers
• Onsite operations: scheduling, travel logistics, invites, candidate-facing communication, tracker hygiene
• Ashby as the single source of truth — clean stages, scorecards, archive hygiene, follow-ups
• Process discipline — same-day debrief cadences after onsites, no candidates stalling in the funnel
• Onboarding coordination handoff for new hires
• Recruiting workflow improvements — templates, reminders, operating cadences, documentation
• Pipeline reporting — weekly syncs, quarterly tracking, sourced vs. inbound, stage conversion, bottlenecks

What We're Looking For

• 2 to 5 years in recruiting, ideally with meaningful technical searches under your belt
• Experience recruiting deeply technical profiles — hardware, embedded, robotics, controls, optics, ML, or adjacent engineering.
• Strong candidate assessment judgment — you can tell the difference between a builder and someone who talks like one
• ATS discipline — Ashby, Greenhouse, or similar. You keep systems clean without being asked
• Urgency — you move candidates and decisions forward instead of letting process drift
• Comfort with ambiguity, changing priorities, and building process while running it
• High ownership and low drop rate. Details don't slip

Where You Probably Come From

Technical recruiting at defense tech, robotics, hardware, or deeptech startups. Agency recruiting where you owned technical searches end to end. In-house recruiting at Series A to Series C companies where you ran multiple reqs at once without a coordinator underneath you.

We Want to Talk If

You've closed hard technical hires that other recruiters couldn't. You've built process at a small company that made hiring measurably faster. You'd rather run five searches well than ten searches poorly.

Not a Fit If

Your experience is high-volume non-technical recruiting (retail, hospitality, ops). You've only worked in large recruiting orgs with coordinators doing the process work for you. You need a fully-built playbook to execute — this role builds the playbook.

Nice to Haves

• Ashby ATS experience
• Defense, national security, or ITAR-sensitive recruiting background
• Startup or high-growth company experience
• Recruiting operations, reporting cadences, or process documentation ownership
• Experience recruiting alongside a founder-led hiring bar

What Success Looks Like

• First 90 days: Build a working understanding of Aurelius's roles, technical profiles, and hiring bar. Independently manage screens and process for at least three priority searches. Get Ashby to a clean state and establish a weekly recruiting operating cadence with the Head of Talent.
• 6–12 months: Independently own multiple concurrent searches from kickoff to accepted offer. Contribute 2–4 hires per month during active hiring periods. Build trusted relationships with hiring managers so they trust you to run their loops end to end.

How You Operate:

• Extreme bias for action
• High ownership and low drop rate
• Process-minded without becoming bureaucratic
• Strong operator under ambiguity
• Fast follow-through with clean detail
• Clear communicator with hiring managers, candidates, and founders
• Comfortable making judgment calls with imperfect information

Why Join Aurelius Systems:

• Build the recruiting machine at a company where hiring quality directly shapes company quality. You will help design the systems, run the process, and personally close the people who matter most.
• Career velocity is real. This role is broad by design, with direct exposure to founders, hiring strategy, operating systems, and high-stakes technical hiring.

How We Work:

We work Monday through Friday, 9 to 6, most Saturdays, and some evenings, although not constant. Supporting engineering, development, and operations are core responsibilities of the role. We don't manufacture intensity for show, the pace is real because the work is real.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary + equity
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• PTO + sick days
• Daily lunches and office snacks/drinks
• Direct access to leadership
• Real ownership over systems, process, and hiring outcomes