Principal Technical Recruiter at OpenTable in San Francisco, CA

Job description

With millions of diners, 70,000+ restaurant partners and 25+ years of experience, OpenTable, part of Booking Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), is an industry leader with a passion for helping restaurants thrive. Our world-class technology empowers restaurants to focus on what matters most – their team, their guests, and their bottom line – while enabling diners to discover and book the perfect restaurant for every occasion. Every employee at OpenTable has a tangible impact on what we do and how we do it. You’ll also be part of a global team that includes and its portfolio of metasearch brands. Hospitality is all about taking care of others, and it defines our culture. As a Principal Technical Recruiter on our Recruiting team, you will play a critical strategic role in identifying, attracting, and hiring top-tier engineering and specialized technical talent to drive our company's growth. You will serve as a trusted advisor to senior executive leadership, leveraging recruitment analytics and market intelligence to shape our workforce strategy. You will lead high-impact hiring initiatives, design scalable talent acquisition frameworks, and elevate our technical recruitment bar across the organization. In this role, you will combine high-touch, executive-level candidate experiences with hands-on sourcing and complex offer negotiations. Responsibilities Partner directly with senior leadership, including Directors, VPs, SVPs, to design baseline hiring criteria, forecast workforce needs, and provide data-driven advisory on competitive market conditions. Execute advanced sourcing and market mapping strategies to build robust pipelines of passive, high-caliber talent across software engineering, infrastructure, data science, and research domains. Lead complex offer negotiations and construct competitive compensation packages while delivering a white-glove candidate experience from outreach to onboarding. Establish scalable hiring frameworks, standardized interview rubrics, and structured candidate evaluation processes across the broader engineering organization. Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the technical recruitment pipeline to ensure fair and comprehensive sourcing strategies. Upskill and mentor junior recruiters and sourcers, establishing best practices and raising the overall standard of technical talent acquisition across the team. Minimum Qualifications 8+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting experience, ideally in-house within high-growth or enterprise technology environments. Proven track record of advising and influencing senior executive stakeholders using market data, pass-through rates, and pipeline health metrics. Deep technical acumen with a strong functional understanding of software engineering, infrastructure, data science, or specialized research landscapes. Demonstrated expertise in navigating and executing complex, high-level offer negotiations and compensation structuring. Ability to work in a hybrid model, commuting to our San Francisco office 2 days per week. Preferred Qualifications Experience designing and standing up various hiring initiatives and inclusive sourcing programs within technical organizations. Proven experience establishing standardized interview rubrics and scalable talent assessment frameworks. Background in direct mentorship or formal coaching of talent acquisition team members and sourcers. Expertise in advanced recruitment analytics and building data dashboards to track talent acquisition performance. Benefits and Perks Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year Focus on mental health and well-being: Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth Company-paid subscription to Headspace Annual company-wide week off a year - the whole team fully recharges (and returns without a pile-up of work!) Paid parental leave Generous paid vacation + time off for your birthday Paid volunteer time Focus on your career growth: Development Dollars Leadership dev