Senior Professional Services Recruiter

Who We Are:

17a is a new type of management consulting firm. We come from places like McKinsey, Palantir, JP Morgan Philanthropies, and venture-backed healthcare startups. We share a common goal: improving the quality of government and social services. 17a believes that trust in government is something to be continuously built and earned, through strong service delivery.

We have a dynamic core team, and partner with Consultants — known internally as Project-Based Team Members — to bring the best combination of expertise to what we do. Our team has varied skills from a range of industries and experiences, including management consulting, technology and analytics, and public service. If you've spent the early part of your career in consulting, recruiting, or a fast-paced professional services environment and you're ready to apply those skills to something with direct civic impact, 17a is for you.

The Opportunity:

The 17a Network is not a talent database. It is the engine that powers our entire business model — a carefully curated community of ex-MBB consultants, Medicaid policy experts, technology leaders, and subject matter experts who bring specialized expertise to our clients on a project basis.

We have grown 4x in two years, and the work of identifying, vetting, and growing our network has become a dedicated function in its own right. We are hiring a Senior Recruiter to own the full-cycle effort of bringing exceptional professionals into the 17a Network.

This is not a traditional corporate recruiting role. You are not just posting jobs and screening applicants. You are also identifying accomplished professionals who are not actively looking and making a compelling case for why 17a is worth their time. The people you recruit are seasoned — they have options. Credibility, judgment, and genuine curiosity about their work are what will make you successful here.

What You'll Do

You will own the identification and qualification of new network members from first contact through onboarding. You will also work closely with the rest of the Network team to ensure new members are set up for long-term engagement and success.

Key Responsibilities

Sourcing & Talent Identification

• Build and continuously refine a sourcing strategy to identify qualified candidates across functional specialties — with particular focus on ex-MBB consultants, public sector policy experts, and technology leaders
• Use recruiting tools including professional networks, referrals, and creative outbound tactics to identify candidates who are not actively on the market
• Develop and maintain a pipeline of potential network members across priority specialty areas, calibrated to 17a's current and anticipated client needs
• Partner with the Head of Network Strategy & Operations to understand emerging skill needs and translate those into proactive sourcing campaigns

Candidate Engagement & Assessment

• Conduct initial outreach and engagement with prospective members — representing 17a with professionalism and credibility appropriate to the caliber of candidate
• Lead intake conversations to assess candidates' backgrounds, expertise, availability, and fit for the 17a model (project-based engagements)
• Screen candidates for functional depth, communication quality, collaborative ability, and professional maturity — the bar for network membership is high
• Manage candidates through a structured qualification process, ensuring a consistent and respectful experience that reflects 17a's brand

Coordination & Handoff

• Maintain accurate, up-to-date records in 17a's ATS/CRM, including candidate profiles, outreach history, and status
• Partner closely with the Network team to ensure a warm, well-contextualized handoff when candidates are ready to join the network
• Track pipeline metrics and provide regular visibility into sourcing activity, conversion rates, and capacity gaps
• Contribute to the ongoing refinement of 17a's recruiting and onboarding processes as the team and network continue to scale

The Skillset:

You'll thrive in this role if you:

• Have 5+ years of full-cycle recruiting or sourcing experience, ideally within a professional services, consulting, or advisory environment
• Have a demonstrated ability to source and engage passive candidates — people who are not actively looking but are the right fit
• Have experience recruiting for knowledge-work roles: consultants, policy professionals, analysts, technical SMEs, or similar profiles
• Are familiar with the ex-consulting talent market (MBB, Big 4, boutique advisory) — this is a meaningful plus
• Have experience working in or alongside a lean, fast-moving team where you've had to build process, not just follow it
• Have exceptional written and verbal communication — you can write a cold outreach message that actually gets a response from a busy ex-McKinsey partner
• Bring strong judgment in candidate assessment: you can distinguish between credentials and actual expertise, and between availability and genuine interest
• Are comfortable operating with ambiguity and building structure where it doesn't yet exist
• Are proficient with recruiting tools — LinkedIn Recruiter, ATS platforms, CRMs — and have a genuine interest in using data to improve your sourcing approach
• Have high personal organization and attention to pipeline hygiene; you know where every candidate stands at every stage
• Approach recruiting as relationship-building, not transaction-processing — you are credible in professional services environments and understand how consultants think
• Are scrappy and resourceful: when a sourcing channel goes cold, you find a new one
• Take pride in candidate experience and treat every person in your pipeline as someone worth impressing, regardless of immediate fit

Location:

This position is remote eligible within the United States.

Compensation and Benefits:

This is a full-time role with a competitive annual salary commensurate with experience, plus performance-based incentives, health benefits, paid time off, company holidays, and life and disability insurance.

Accommodation Statement:

Improving public service delivery requires a team with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, familial status, pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions, domestic violence victim status, prior arrest or conviction record, military status, predisposing genetic characteristics, membership or activity in a local human rights commission, or status with regard to public assistance.

We encourage and welcome applicants who identify with groups traditionally underrepresented in government to apply.

Please contact recruiting@group17a.com if you would like to request reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process.