Jenna Pilja
Huntington Beach,CA
Summary
Talent Acquisition leader who is passionate about creating inclusive, human-centered workplaces that support each individual in reaching their full potential. Offering 15+ years of experience dedicated to talent acquisition and culture initiatives for high-growth, technology organizations. Experienced scaling start-ups and has had two successful company exits. Has a proven track record of consistently exceeding hiring goals.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Senior Recruiter
Akeyless
01.2026 - Current
- Hired as the Founding Recruiter in the United States
- Responsible for hiring all GTM and Support Engineering Talent
- Responsible for implementing and selecting all Recruiting Technology tools such as JuiceBox, LinkedIn, etc.
Senior Recruiter - Go To Market
Boulevard Recruiting
10.2025 - 12.2025
- Brought into the client, MotherDuck, to support their GTM hiring efforts on a short-term basis.
- Met all metrics for the client (sourcing outreach, initial phone interviews, and hires).
- Created detailed reports for client to explain the state of the recruiting market, explain conversion rates for the recruiting process, and showcase our progress on searches.
- Filled a Sales Engineer and Account Executive search.
Senior Business Recruiter
Armada
10.2024 - 05.2025
- Support start-up hiring at Series A stage for Sales, Marketing, Operations and G+A
- Tasked with hiring candidates who are top 1% of their job functions, as directed by hiring managers and executive leadership
- On average, successfully hired 3-4 candidates per month
Senior Recruiter II - Go-To-Market
HashiCorp
02.2021 - 06.2023
- As a client lead for the go-to-market (GTM) recruiting team, I partnered with organizational leaders to achieve their hiring goals.
- Consistently met and exceeded hiring plans; grew the SEA (Solutions Engineering and Architecture) client group by 100% in under one year.
- Responsibilities included: full-cycle recruiting, sourcing, reporting and metrics analysis, onboarding new recruiters, team escalation point for complex requests, public speaking, and project management.
- Led project for Interview Reasonable Accommodations to make our recruiting process more inclusive for candidates with disabilities (in partnership with Benefits, PBP, and DEIB teams).
- Created and delivered trainings to Global Recruiting team on neurodivergent friendly interview best practices.
- Selected by VP of Talent to lead a 17-person DEI Hiring Process Revamp Project and recruiter enablement planning for People Team Offsite and FY24.
Head of Talent Acquisition
DNA Talent
03.2016 - 01.2021
- Acted as Head of Talent team of 1 and/or Founding Recruiter for clients.
- Responsibilities included: creating and executing recruiting strategy, partnering with founders on operationalizing core values into company culture, filling key strategic roles across a variety of departments, sourcing, interview scheduling, immigration, and more.
- On average, grew clients by 250% per year.
- Grew Solvvy (now Zoom) by 400% in one year.
- Recruiting searches included but were not limited to Software Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, Account Executive, and Business Development Representative.
Senior Recruiter
Open DNS (Now Cisco)
05.2015 - 02.2016
- Created post acquisition recruitment strategy to ensure continued growth and achievement of company hiring plans ahead of time.
- Educated hiring managers on new post-acquisition recruiting strategies, including Cisco leveling process, compensation assessments, requisition compliance, visa sponsorship requirements, and more.
Education
Bachelor's Degree - Communications, Business Administration
University of Washington
Tacoma, WA03-2010
Skills
- Full-cycle Recruiting
- Interviewing
- Client Relationship Management
- Recruiting Strategy
- Boolean Sourcing
- Interview Scheduling
- Leadership
- Metrics Analysis
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Project Management
- Event Planning
- Employment/ Immigration Law
- Artificial Intelligence
Other Experience
Campus Recruiter, LinkedIn , 2014- 2015
Recruiter, Google , 2014-2014
TOOLS
- ATS Systems: Ashby, Greenhouse, Lever, iCims, Rippling, JobVite, Workday, Comeet and others.
- AI Tools: Metaview, Juicebox, Chat GPT, Gemini, Claude
- Sourcing Tools: LinkedIn, HireEZ, Hiretual, Wellfound/Angel List, Indeed, Career Builder, and others
- Coding Interview Platforms: Hacker Rank
- Employee Engagement Systems: Culture Amp
- Office Suites: Google and Microsoft
Certification
- PHR (Professional in Human Resources), HRCI, 2025-Present
- CPC (Certified Professional Coach), Certified Life Coach Institute
Timeline
Senior Recruiter
Akeyless
01.2026 - Current
Senior Recruiter - Go To Market
Boulevard Recruiting
10.2025 - 12.2025
Senior Business Recruiter
Armada
10.2024 - 05.2025
Senior Recruiter II - Go-To-Market
HashiCorp
02.2021 - 06.2023
Head of Talent Acquisition
DNA Talent
03.2016 - 01.2021
Senior Recruiter
Open DNS (Now Cisco)
05.2015 - 02.2016
Bachelor's Degree - Communications, Business Administration
University of Washington