Technical recruiting is the work of finding, assessing and hiring people for technical roles: software engineers, data scientists, DevOps and security engineers, product designers and similar. Tech recruiting differs from most hiring in two ways. The skills that matter are hard to judge from a CV, and many of the best candidates are not looking for a job.
For a fast-growing company, technical recruiting usually becomes the constraint on the product plan. This guide covers how to source engineers, how to run technical screening that predicts performance, how to design the interview loop, and how to scale an engineering hiring pipeline without burning out your engineers.
What does a technical recruiter do?
A technical recruiter runs hiring for technical roles from intake to offer: agreeing the profile with the hiring manager, sourcing and contacting candidates, managing the technical screening and interviews, and closing offers. The best ones understand enough about the work to have credible conversations with engineers and to push back on unrealistic requirements.
| Stage | Recruiter's job | Engineering's job |
|---|---|---|
| Intake | Turn the need into must-haves, a loop and a timeline | Define the work and the skills it needs |
| Sourcing | Find and contact candidates, personalise outreach | Refer people, review profiles, join outreach for senior roles |
| Screening | Run the first call and send the technical screen | Design and calibrate the screen |
| Interviews | Schedule, brief candidates, collect scorecards | Interview, score, debrief |
| Offer | Close, negotiate, manage counter-offers | Help sell the team and the work |
Our recruiter hiring guide and recruiter job description cover hiring for the role itself.
How do you run a technical recruiting intake?
Hold a 30-minute intake with the hiring manager before sourcing starts, and leave with written must-haves, the interview loop and who interviews at each stage. Most failed technical searches trace back to a vague intake.
An intake checklist:
- What will this person build or own in the first six months?
- Which three or four skills are essential on day one, and which can be learned?
- Which languages and tools really matter, and which are preferences?
- Level and scope: what separates a mid-level hire from a senior one here?
- Where can they be located, and what overlap hours are required?
- The loop: which stages, who interviews, what each stage tests.
- Pay range approved.
- Example profiles of people who would be a strong fit.
Write the result down and share it with the interview panel.
Give your engineers back their interview hours
Cohesyve sources and contacts technical candidates from your job description, runs job simulations of the real work and returns a ranked shortlist, so engineers interview only the strongest.
How do you source engineers?
Source outbound, with specific outreach about the work, and make referrals easy. Many strong engineers are employed and not applying, so inbound alone rarely fills senior or specialist roles.
| Channel | Best for | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Referrals | All levels | Ask engineers for names against a specific role, not "anyone you know" |
| Outbound on professional networks | Mid to senior roles | Lead with the problem they would work on |
| Open-source and public code | Specialist roles | Mention the work of theirs you looked at |
| Communities, meet-ups, conferences | Building a long-term pipeline | Have engineers speak and attend alongside recruiters |
| Past candidates | Roles you have hired for before | Re-contact strong runners-up |
| Inbound applications | Junior and generalist roles | Screen with a consistent test |
Outreach that gets replies
Example structure (adapt the content):
- One line on why them: a specific project, talk or piece of their work.
- One line on the problem: what they would build and why it is interesting.
- One line on the team or stage: who they would work with.
- A small ask: a 20-minute call with the hiring manager.
Follow up more than once, and track reply and positive-reply rates by message. Our guides to sourcing and outreach automation, sourcing candidates who never applied and the recruiting outreach email template go deeper.
What is the best way to do technical screening?
Use a short task that looks like the job, scored against criteria agreed in advance, and give it to every candidate who passes the basic screen. Screening built on puzzles or trivia mostly rewards practice at puzzles. Screening that mirrors the real work tells you how someone handles the work.
| Screening method | What it tells you | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| CV review | Background, rough fit | Weak signal on actual skill; inconsistent at volume |
| Recruiter phone screen | Motivation, logistics, communication | Recruiters should not be judging deep technical skill |
| Algorithmic coding test | Problem-solving under time limits | Can drift far from the day-to-day job |
| Realistic job task or simulation | How the person handles the actual work | Must be short and relevant, or good candidates drop out |
| Take-home project | Depth on a realistic problem | Time cost for candidates; keep it bounded |
| Pair programming | How they think and collaborate | Needs a trained engineer's time for every candidate |
Coding test platforms such as HackerRank, Codility and CodeSignal are common in this category; check each vendor's site for current features and pricing. Our guide to technical assessment tests covers the options.
Cohesyve takes a different approach to the screen: give it a job description and it sources candidates, contacts them, runs AI job simulations of the real work and returns a ranked shortlist before interviews. That puts the first human decision on evidence of the work, and keeps engineers out of the earliest stage.
Checklist for any technical screen:
- Tests a skill from the intake must-haves.
- Short enough that strong, busy candidates finish it.
- Same task and criteria for everyone at the level.
- Candidates told what it covers and how long it takes.
- Reviewed and refreshed regularly so answers do not circulate.
How should you structure an engineering interview loop?
Keep it to a few stages, each testing something different from the intake, with trained interviewers scoring against a shared scorecard.
An example loop for a mid-level software engineer (adapt to your roles):
| Stage | Tests | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Recruiter call | Motivation, logistics, communication | Recruiter |
| Technical screen | Core coding or job skill on a realistic task | Automated or engineer review |
| Technical deep-dive | Depth in the main skill; discuss the screen | Engineer |
| System or design discussion (level-dependent) | Trade-offs, architecture | Senior engineer |
| Collaboration and values | How they work with others, ownership | Hiring manager or cross-functional peer |
| Debrief | Decision against the scorecard | Panel |
Rules that keep loops fair and quick:
- No two stages test the same thing.
- Scorecards submitted before the debrief.
- Final stages booked within days of the screen.
- Feedback to every candidate who interviewed.
Use our software engineer interview questions, software engineer screening checklist and structured interview guide to build yours.
How do you scale an engineering hiring pipeline?
Plan interview hours from your funnel, train more interviewers, and remove manual steps at the top of the pipeline. Engineering time is often the real limit on how fast you can hire.
Worked example (illustrative numbers)
A company plans 24 engineering hires in two quarters. From past data (illustrative here), it needs about 6 final loops per hire and 3 technical deep-dives per final loop.
| Item | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Final loops | 24 × 6 | 144 |
| Deep-dives | 144 × 3 | 432 |
| Engineer hours, deep-dives (1 hour each) | 432 × 1 | 432 |
| Engineer hours, final loops (4 hours each) | 144 × 4 | 576 |
| Total engineer interview hours | about 1,000 |
Spread across 26 weeks, that is about 40 engineer-hours of interviewing a week, before preparation and debriefs. If the team cannot absorb that, either tighten the screen so fewer people reach deep-dives, or train more interviewers.
Scaling levers
- Tighten the top of the funnel. A better technical screen means fewer, stronger deep-dives.
- Grow the interviewer pool. Shadow, reverse-shadow, then interview solo; calibrate quarterly.
- Specialise interviewers. Some run deep-dives, some system design, so each gets good at one stage.
- Block interview time. Recurring slots during a hiring push.
- Track pass rates per stage. If deep-dive pass rates are low, the screen is too loose. See our recruiting funnel guide.
- Measure velocity. Days in stage, weekly; see hiring velocity.
- Track quality of hire by cohort so speed does not cost you; see quality of hire metrics.
How do you close technical candidates?
Move fast after the final round, have the hiring manager sell the work, and be ready for counter-offers. Engineers with options often decide on speed, the team and the problem as much as on pay.
- Debrief within a day or two of the final interview.
- Pre-approved pay range so the offer goes out quickly.
- Let candidates meet future teammates if they ask.
- Prepare for a counter-offer conversation; see our guide to counter-offers.
Common technical recruiting mistakes
- Requirement lists that no real person meets.
- Recruiters screening deep technical skill on the phone.
- Screens that test puzzles unrelated to the job.
- Long loops with repeated stages.
- Weeks between stages.
- No feedback to candidates who invested hours.
FAQs
What is the difference between technical recruiting and IT recruiting?
The terms overlap. IT recruiting often refers to infrastructure, support and enterprise systems roles, while technical recruiting usually covers software engineering, data, product and other specialist technical roles. The methods are much the same.
Does a technical recruiter need to know how to code?
No, but they need to understand the work well enough to discuss it credibly, read a technical profile, and judge whether a requirement is essential. Many learn by sitting in on interviews and asking engineers.
How do you assess engineers fairly at volume?
Give everyone at a level the same realistic task and criteria, then run structured interviews with a shared scorecard. Avoid judging on CV keywords or university names alone.
How many interview stages should a technical hire have?
As few as can cover the must-haves from the intake. Each extra stage adds days and drops candidates. Merge stages that test the same thing.
How do you reduce the load on engineers during hiring?
Move the first screen to a consistent technical task or simulation, train more interviewers so the load spreads, and only send candidates to engineers once they have shown the core skill.