Okay maybe not in all industries, but tech recruiters like Tommy Hansen are on the front lines of advanced workflows, creating memorable candidate experiences that convert elite talent, quickly. And yes, they’re using AI.
Tommy Hansen has built the talent machine at Juniper Square, where he’s led recruiting through rapid growth and cultural transformation. Over the years, Tommy has scaled global hiring, built a values-driven talent function from the ground up, and helped shape Juniper Square’s mission to make private markets more accessible. He also serves as Chair of the company’s Pride ERG, creating safe, authentic spaces for LGBTQIA+ employees while driving inclusion across the business.
In this conversation, Tommy and I get into what modern recruiting actually looks like when you’re building inside a high-growth tech company and trying to keep quality, speed, and candidate experience moving in the same direction. We talk about how AI is changing the work past sourcing, why the smartest teams are investing in RecOps as an operating system, and what it takes to develop recruiters who can keep up with the next era of hiring.
Tommy’s perspective is needed right now and he’s someone in the industry I respect a ton. (Literally go ask anyone, he’s legit as they come.) And right now with so much dialogue on tooling and the headlines about AI litigation, the teams who win will not be the ones who stack the most tools. They’ll be the ones who design better workflows, build real accountability into the interview process, and protect the human side of hiring even as automation increases. We also spend time on the practical reality of AI interviewers, what it solves, what it risks, and how to roll it out without creating a worse candidate experience in the name of efficiency.
If you’re a recruiter, RecOps leader, or TA owner wondering what “future-ready” actually means, this episode is a grounded look at where things are headed and what you can start building now. Mad respect to Tommy.
Connect with him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommy-hansen-a3497626/
Timestamps
03:20 - What it looks like to build a talent function through growth and change
07:10 - AI in recruiting is moving past sourcing and into screening and decision-making
12:05 - AI interviewers: where they help, where they can backfire, and how to roll them out thoughtfully
18:40 - RecOps as talent engineering and why workflows matter more than tool count
24:15 - Developing recruiters with business acumen, not just task specialization
30:30 - Interview quality, hiring manager accountability, and what interview intelligence unlocks
37:10 - Candidate experience in an era of high volume and AI-generated noise
42:50 - What Tommy would do differently with AI adoption and internal enablement
47:30 - The skills that will matter most for recruiters over the next few years
Shout out to our sponsor, Rooster.
Rooster is a native interview scheduling platform built inside Workday Recruiting that eliminates back-and-forth and gives recruiters and candidates a clean self-scheduling experience.
If you want fewer scheduling errors, faster coordination, and a smoother candidate experience, visit rooster.us to book a demo.
Quick note: I appreciate you being here and supporting Building the Talent Machine. If this one sparked ideas for how your team should evolve your recruiting workflows, share it with a recruiting leader or RecOps partner who’s building for the next cycle. And let me know in a quick email reply what you’re working on these days.
-Brandon
