Does your company’s product or service rely on technology? If so, you’ll likely need to hire for technical roles like software engineers and data analysts. Recruiting tech talent takes a substantial amount of time and resources, especially for highly specialized roles. That’s where technical recruiters come in.

Learn more about the skills and responsibilities of a technical recruiter below, plus what you need to know about adding a tech recruiter to your talent team.

What is a technical recruiter?

Technical recruiters are a specific type of recruiter that find and hire candidates for software development, data science, IT, technical writing, DevOps, and other STEM fields.

Technical recruiters may own different parts of the hiring journey, depending on the size of your organization and your talent team. They are usually tasked with candidate sourcing, outreach, interviewing, and onboarding, as well as working with hiring managers and other internal stakeholders. Learn more about the skills and responsibilities of technical recruiters.

Where do technical recruiters fit into a hiring team?

Technical recruiters are becoming increasingly in demand, as the need for tech talent increases. In fact, there are currently more than 7,300 technical recruiter jobs listed on LinkedIn. These specialists usually have more background knowledge about technology and the technical skills required for the jobs they’ll recruit for. Understanding tech and the lingo that’s used by candidates comes in very handy when working with Engineering Directors and Managers, Chief Technology Officers, and other hiring managers

Depending on an organization’s needs, they may have technical recruiters and general recruiters on staff. If your company primarily hires for tech-related roles, they might decide to rely solely on technical recruiters. Another option is to hire a technical sourcer, that focuses solely on identifying qualified candidates. A technical sourcer might also handle the initial outreach and screening, and then let a technical recruiter handle the later stages of hiring. Technical recruiters that oversee others may go on to lead teams and become managers and directors of tech talent, or of talent more broadly.

The bottom line: the technical recruiter’s role and responsibilities will vary depending on the stage they are at in their career, and the structure and mission of their organization.

Considering whether you should add new team members or new tools to your talent team? Check out our guide to navigating these decisions, especially with tighter budgets!

What tools does a technical recruiter need to be successful?

The goal of technical recruiters is to help your company find and hire the best tech talent. They need to be able to seamlessly work with hiring managers, find the right candidates, create a stellar hiring experience for them, and set up metrics to track performance. It’s no surprise that they’ll most likely turn to tech solutions to help them streamline parts of their processes.

In general, those in technical recruitment will rely on the same general tech stack as other talent pros. This includes sourcing tools, ATS and CRM solutions, assessment and interview platforms, and talent intelligence tools. There are also many online spaces and hiring solutions dedicated to tech talent specifically, such as Github, HackerRank, and Codementor.

Just as having innovative tools is important to tech talent, having access to channels that will empower technical recruiters is key to their success – and your company’s success in hiring developers, IT specialists, data scientists, etc.

Do you need to hire a technical recruiter?

Ask the following questions if you're considering adding a technical recruiter to your team or working with a freelance recruiter to help you make tech hires:

• Will a large percentage of your upcoming hires be for tech roles? If your company's growth is tied to a product or service that requires specialized knowledge, it's a good bet you'll want someone that specializes in tech recruiting.

• Does someone on your current talent team have a strong background or knowledge in STEM? If you do have a generalist on your team that's interested in focusing more on tech talent, let them take over recruiting for your open technical roles.

• What is your budget? The average pay for a technical recruiter in the United States is $76K/year, which includes salary and potential commissions or bonuses that recruiters may earn. Freelance recruiters normally ask for 15% to 25% of the new hire's starting salary -- which for senior engineers, can be steep.

• Do you have the tools needed for a technical recruiter to succeed, or the budget to support investing in different channels & tools? Because the battle for tech talent is so fierce, if you want to stay ahead of the curve, you'll need to make sure your recruiting tech stack is, too.

Fetcher is an innovative recruiting platform that elevates sourcing and outreach efforts, while saving recruiters hours a week on manual tasks. You need to deliver an exceptional experience to stand out with technical candidates, and what makes Fetcher different is our platform's combination of efficiency and personalization.

And because we have a human-in-the-loop working to verify and vet candidates on every search, you’re only delivered candidates that meet the criteria you’ve outlined for each role.

"In a start-up, being able to have headspace time is crucial and sourcing takes up a lot of headspace," says Dubi Ben-Shoham, Head of Talent Acquisition at Socotra. "We are getting quality candidates that we want to talk to through Fetcher." We've helped Socotra find and hire for in-demand roles like Frontend Engineers and Senior Software Developer to improve and scale their platform.