Senior Recruiter (m/f/d) Berlin | Hybrid · Permanent · Full-time

About the role

You don't need a perfect CV. You need the right skills. This is not a role that filters by job title or tenure. It filters by what you can actually do. We are looking for a recruiter who owns the full process — from the first Boolean search string to the signed offer, without hand-holding, without process gaps, and without needing someone to define the search for them. Skills are the filter, not biography. If you can demonstrate the capabilities below, we want to hear from you, regardless of how your career path looks on paper. About the Role You will be the driving force behind talent acquisition at a fast-growing, AI-powered HR Tech startup based in Berlin. This is an internal recruiting role, not a staffing agency seat, not a volume-first environment. You will own the complete hiring funnel: sharpen the role before searching, build and execute sourcing strategies, conduct structured interviews, and manage stakeholders who need to be challenged, not just served. Roles are thought of in terms of skill requirements, not job titles. The result is precision instead of volume. That's the standard you'll work within and the standard you'll be held to. What this role is not: A coordinator position waiting for candidates to come in A reactive sourcing seat with no strategic mandate A bureaucratic HR function with fixed playbooks and no autonomy What this role is: Full ownership of the recruiting process from identification to signed offer A strategic partner seat, you challenge requirements, you advise, you deliver A skill-first environment where your process quality matters more than your job title history Your Skill Map Core Skills are the central, non-negotiable capabilities of the role. Extended Skills are desirable additional competencies that strengthen the profile but are not a knockout criterion. Core Skills - KO Level These are non-negotiable. If you cannot demonstrate these, this role is not a match. Full-Cycle Recruiting Ownership You independently drive the complete hiring process, from role clarification and sourcing strategy through structured assessment to offer and close — without process gaps or handoffs mid-funnel. What we look for: You can describe a search you ran end-to-end, including how you aligned the hiring manager on requirements before searching, how you structured the funnel, and how you navigated blockers. Active Sourcing via LinkedIn Recruiter You can build and execute complex Boolean search strings from scratch, not just apply standard filters. You understand how to construct multi-layer queries, use operators, and adapt strings to market signals. What we look for: You can write a Boolean string for a target role live, explain the logic behind it, and describe how you would adapt it if initial results are too narrow or too broad. Competency-Based Interviewing You conduct structured interviews using a defined competency framework. Your candidate assessments are evidencebased, documented, and defensible, not impressionistic. What we look for: You can explain how you assess a specific competency in an interview, what question structure you use, and how you document the evidence. You distinguish between self-reported claims and demonstrated behavior. Stakeholder Advisory You challenge hiring managers when role definitions are unrealistic, market expectations are off, or process decisions create risk. You align before searching, not after. What we look for: You can describe a situation where you pushed back on a hiring manager's position and explain how you built the case and navigated the outcome. Data-Driven Recruiting You read, interpret, and act on funnel KPIs, time-to-hire, source-to-screen conversion, offer acceptance rates. You use data to make process decisions, not just report them. What we look for: You can describe a recruiting funnel metric you tracked, how you interpreted it, and what process change it drove. Language Skills — Non-Negotiable German at C2 / native-equivalent lev

Skills