About Us
We are a boutique Financial Services consultancy, however we reject the conventional "consultant-client" script — we are partners with a shared responsibility for outcomes. We put focus on cultural transformation within the client's business and put high emphasis on transparency when we disagree. At Ikigai, we specialise in helping clients build, launch, and run successful digital banks. We're looking for someone who's been there, done it and knows what great technical recruitment looks like.
Responsibilities
•Own the end-to-end recruitment process for technical roles, with a particular focus on Backend Engineering, Architecture, Platform, Security & Data
•Proactively source, engage and build relationships with exceptional technical talent across international (mainly European) markets
•Partner directly with engineering leaders and hiring managers to understand their teams, technical challenges and hiring requirements
•Manage multiple vacancies and priorities independently, keeping recruitment moving without needing constant direction
•Deliver a great candidate experience, with honest communication, timely feedback and a genuinely human approach
•Build talent pipelines for future opportunities, not just the roles we're hiring for today
•Use data and your own judgement to understand what's working, what's not and where we could improve
•Help shape and improve our recruitment approach as we continue to scale, without introducing processes simply for the sake of having them
Requirements
•Strong experience recruiting technical talent, particularly Backend Engineering, Architecture, Platform, Security & Data
•Experience working in-house within a technology business, ideally a start-up or scale-up
•Experience working at a top Software Engineering Recruitment Agency
•A proven track record of managing the full recruitment life cycle, from sourcing through to offer and onboarding
•Someone who understands technical recruitment beyond simply matching keywords on a CV
•Confidence working directly with senior engineers, technical leads and other stakeholders
•A proactive sourcer who knows how to find and engage people who aren't actively looking for a new role
•Experience working in a fast-moving, international and remote scale-up
•Strong communication skills and the confidence to challenge, influence and make recommendations
•A self-starter who can prioritise their own workload, solve problems and make decisions without waiting for instructions
•Comfortable being trusted: pausing and raising issues when something isn't working, challenging an approach with reasons while staying open to other views, and asking for help when needed; we don't expect you to have every answer, but we do expect you to take responsibility for finding them
•Strong communication, since we're a remote business and Slack is a big part of how we work — you need to be comfortable keeping people updated, asking questions and raising issues before they become problems
•Comfortable with ambiguity and enjoy being part of a business that's evolving, as we're still growing and not everything will be perfect, with priorities sometimes changing quickly
Conditions
•This isn't a role where you'll be given a script, told how many calls to make or asked to account for every hour of your day — no power hours, unnecessary meetings or someone constantly checking what you're doing
•Genuine autonomy, the tools and support you need, and the freedom to approach recruitment in the way you know works best
•You'll report to the Head of People, who has a recruitment background and understands the realities of the job — someone to bounce ideas off, challenge and ask for help, but not someone looking over your shoulder
•We're not interested in monitoring activity for the sake of it; we care about the quality of your work, the relationships you build and the outcomes you achieve
•Remote-first company, allowing you to work from wherever you work best, though this role involves some elements of travel
•Open-ended career progression
•$2,000 annual budget for personal training and attending conferences, alongside an industry leading benefits package
•Team meet-ups and social events when it suits, including yearly company-wide get-togethers: Thailand (2023), Portugal (2024), Vietnam (2025), Croatia (2026)
