Daven Desai
Washington
Summary
Senior Recruiter with over 10 years of experience in diverse sectors including tech start-ups, corporate environments, and government contracting. Demonstrated success in filling high-volume and challenging roles in Tech, Cyber Security, legal, Sales & Marketing, and Accounting & Finance. Expertise in building strong relationships and leading Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives.
Overview
10
10
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Recruiter
Anduril Industries
Washington
06.2024 - Current
- Senior G&A Recruiter for the entire Security Organization and Legal Organization
- Owned 100% of end-to-end recruiting for highly specialized Legal and Security organizations, supporting 15+ distinct functions including physical security, global corporate security, industrial security, counterintelligence, employment law, M&A, compliance, contracts, real estate, legal ops, proposals, and capture.
- Delivered 150+ internal hires, representing the highest hiring volume across the entire SG&A organization, while independently managing intake, sourcing, interviewing, offers, and onboarding with minimal leadership oversight.
- Built trusted partnerships with 30+ hiring managers and senior leaders, becoming the primary talent advisor for complex, high-stakes hiring initiatives and long-range workforce planning.
- Developed domain expertise in Legal and Security recruiting from zero prior experience, achieving high interview-to-offer conversion rates by anticipating hiring manager preferences and candidate fit.
- Reduced time-to-fill and increased pipeline efficiency by designing custom sourcing strategies, leveraging talent mapping, competitor analysis, and market intelligence to proactively meet evolving business needs.
- Generated and sustained high-volume, high-quality pipelines through advanced prospecting techniques using Greenhouse, LinkedIn Recruiter, Gem, Boolean search, automation, and data extraction tools, engaging passive candidates at scale.
- Conducted hundreds of candidate screens and interviews, consistently delivering strong slate quality and accelerating hiring decisions across sensitive, security-cleared, and legally complex roles.
- Successfully navigated government contracting and security-sensitive hiring requirements, ensuring compliant, seamless contractor onboarding without delays to business timelines.
- Influenced and standardized recruiting best practices across Legal and Security, improving process consistency, candidate experience, and stakeholder satisfaction across high-impact projects.
- Represented the company's mission and value proposition internally and externally, directly contributing to offer acceptance through effective storytelling, alignment, and closing strategy.
- Drove data-driven recruiting decisions by tracking pipeline health, funnel conversion, and performance metrics, translating insights into actionable recommendations that increased hiring velocity.
- Advanced diversity hiring efforts by consistently delivering diverse candidate slates while maintaining a positive, transparent candidate experience from first contact through offer.
Talent Partner
Atlassian
Washington
08.2021 - 04.2024
- Experienced layoff due to reduction in force (RIF).
- Employed by Talentful as embedded Talent Partner for Atlassian, specializing in engineering recruitment for security, principal, and architect roles, achieving quarterly goals consistently for two years.
- Established and executed end-to-end recruitment processes, resulting in successful hiring of over 85 permanent employees with engineering skill-sets.
- Led initiatives to meet Atlassian's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) goals, ensuring alignment with company objectives.
- Orchestrated recruitment efforts as lead recruiter on Talenful engineering pod, supporting 8 junior recruiters in mastering tools like Gem, SeekOut, Lever, LinkedIn Recruiter, and DE&I sourcing techniques.
- Assigned to specialty and core engineering teams where I focused on security, principal and architect level positions
Technical & Corporate Recruiter
A P Ventures, LLC
Columbia
01.2019 - 08.2021
- Managed full life cycle recruitment for diverse positions within AP Ventures, government contracting agency specializing in instructional design and e-learning across agencies like FDA, CMS, CDC, USDA, US ARMY, and AIR FORCE.
- Handle requisition load of 10-15 and consistently achieve 3-4 placements per month.
- Develop and implement sourcing plans to attract candidates matching position requirements.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with hiring managers, serving as trusted advisor throughout recruitment process.
- Provide white-glove service to candidates, utilizing creative and cost-effective sourcing methods while ensuring compliance with state, local, and federal agency requirements.
- Government contracting agency specializing in instructional design and e-learning across agencies like FDA, CMS, CDC, USDA, US ARMY, and AIR FORCE.
Technical Recruiter
Randstad Technologies
Rockville
03.2016 - 12.2018
- Oversaw full life cycle recruitment of IT professionals for both contract, contract-to-hire, and direct hire positions, catering to clients in DMV area through staffing agency that supports several large companies.
- Supported recruitment process for various positions, averaging 6-7 hires per month, while assisting 18 account managers across four DMV offices in Rockville, Baltimore, DC, and Tysons.
- Established and fostered relationships with candidates and consultants, aiding in development of fulfilling careers.
- Offered comprehensive technology solutions including IT staff augmentation, permanent placements, and project services.
- Employed variety of candidate sourcing methods such as direct sourcing, cold calling, networking, and targeted advertising, while managing administrative tasks and cultivating sales leads to drive new business opportunities.
- Additionally, actively contributed to short-term and long-term recruiting strategies to ensure account growth, profitability, and client relationship development with Fortune 500 companies.
- Staffing agency that supports several large companies.
Education
Bachelor of Arts - Broadcast Journalism
University of Maryland, College Park
College Park, MD12.2015
Skills
- Training and development
- Interview Process Creation
- Technical Assessments
- Talent mapping
- Diversity recruitment
- Social Media Recruiting
- Talent reporting and metrics
- Insights Reports
- Salary Benchmarking
- Boolean searches
- Presentation skills
- Attention to detail
- Time management
- Relationship building
- Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
- Sourcing Tools
- Other Tools
- Market intelligence
- Candidate sourcing
- Full-cycle recruitment
- Employee onboarding
- Stakeholder engagement
- Process improvement
- Data-driven decisions
- Compliance hiring
Websites
Accomplishments
- Q2 Grit Winner
- Q3 Partner Winner
Languages
English, Native/Bilingual
Hindi, Native/Bilingual
Gujarati, Native/Bilingual
French, Professional
Activities
- Conducted recurring recruiting trainings
- DE&I Advocate
Timeline
Senior Recruiter
Anduril Industries
06.2024 - Current
Talent Partner
Atlassian
08.2021 - 04.2024
Technical & Corporate Recruiter
A P Ventures, LLC
01.2019 - 08.2021
Technical Recruiter
Randstad Technologies
03.2016 - 12.2018
Bachelor of Arts - Broadcast Journalism
University of Maryland, College Park