Day60 guide
How to find the hiring manager for a job
Find the hiring manager for a job from the posting, the company’s own pages and a LinkedIn search you run yourself. Then write one short, checked message.
The short answer
Direct answer
The hiring manager is usually the person who leads the team the job joins. Read the posting for the team, the title the role reports to and any names. Check the company’s own pages for that team’s leader. Then search LinkedIn yourself by that title and the company, and confirm their current role before you write one short message.
The four people closest to the hire
A job has more than one person behind it. Four of them are worth knowing, and each one can help in a different way.
- Hiring manager. The person the new hire will report to. They feel the need behind the posting most, and they usually have the final say.
- Hiring manager’s boss. The leader one level above the hiring manager. They care about the result the team owes the business.
- Internal champion. Someone on the team, or a peer in the same kind of role. They know the day-to-day work and can point you to the right person.
- Recruiter. The person running the search. They screen applications and set up interviews.
Start with the job posting
The posting holds more clues than most people use. Read it once for the job and once for the people.
- The title and team. A title such as “Data Engineer, Payments” or “Account Executive, Channel” names the team, and the team tells you whose leader to look for.
- A reports-to line. Phrases such as “reports to,” “reporting to” or “you’ll work with” often give the hiring manager’s title, and sometimes their name.
- A hiring team or recruiter line. Some postings name the recruiter or the hiring manager. Write down any name you see, and check it before you use it.
- The level. For a role without direct reports, the hiring manager is usually a manager or director in the same function. For a manager role, look a level higher: a director, head of or VP of that team.
- The place. A city, region or “remote” scope narrows the search when the company has more than one team with the same title.
Check the company’s own pages
Next, look where the company describes its own teams: the about or leadership page, team pages, announcements, the blog and product updates. A leader who announced a launch, a new office or a new team is a strong lead.
The same page can give you the dated detail your message opens with. Note the date and the link so you can point to it.
Use only what the company or the person published. Do not turn a company announcement into something the hiring manager personally did unless the page says so.
Search LinkedIn yourself
With a team and a title in hand, open LinkedIn yourself. Go to the company’s page, open People, and search a short title keyword, such as “Channel Sales” or “Customer Support.” Then try the level titles one at a time: manager, director, head of and VP.
Too many results? Filter by where people live, or by what they do. No results? Try a broader title, or search the title and the company name in LinkedIn’s main search bar.
Do every step by hand. Skip any tool that logs in to LinkedIn for you, copies profiles in bulk or sends messages on its own. The goal is a few people you have checked, not a long list.
Spot each of the four
Once you have a few names, sort them by role. Look for people in the same function as the job, not the teams next to it. For a sales job, for example, a sales operations or enablement leader runs a different team; look for the sales leader instead.
- Hiring manager. The leader of the team the job joins, at the level above the role. A reports-to line or a team page usually settles it.
- Their boss. One level above the hiring manager, in the same function. At a small company, this can be a founder or the head of the whole function.
- Internal champion. Someone in the same function and specialty, at the role’s level or below. They can tell you what the work is like and who is hiring for it.
- Recruiter. A recruiter or talent partner who hires for this function, such as a technical recruiter for an engineering role. A name in the posting beats a guess.
Confirm before you write
Titles change, and profiles go out of date. Before you write, check three things: the person still works at the company, their title fits the team in the posting, and they work in a place that makes sense for the role.
When you cannot tell which of two people leads the team, write to the recruiter or the internal champion first and ask who the right person is. A short question costs less than a message to the wrong person.
Write to a work email address or through LinkedIn, never to a personal address. If you cannot find a work address, a short LinkedIn connection note works too.
An example, start to finish
This walk-through is illustrative. Brightline, its people and its dates are invented.
Say a posting for a Support Team Lead at Brightline says the role “reports to the Director of Customer Support” and mentions a new evening shift. Brightline’s team page lists a director of customer support, and the company blog has a March 3 post about the evening shift for West Coast customers.
A People search on Brightline’s LinkedIn page for “Customer Support” shows that director with a current title that matches, plus a VP of Customer Experience above them, a support team lead on the day shift and a recruiter who hires for support. That is the hiring manager, their boss, an internal champion and the recruiter.
Why a short message beats applying alone
An application joins a queue that someone screens later. A short message puts one specific reason in front of the person who feels the need for the hire.
It helps only when it is researched: one dated detail about the company, one proof point from your work and one question. A generic note is easy to ignore, and a long one is hard to answer.
Send it alongside your application, not instead of it. The company may still need your application in its system before it can interview you.
Write one short message
Use Hook → Bridge → Ask. Open with the dated detail you found. Connect it to one result from your work. End with one question that is easy to say yes or no to.
Match the ask to the person. Ask the hiring manager for 15 minutes this week or next. Make the same ask of their boss, more lightly. Ask an internal champion to flag your application or point you to the right person, and ask the recruiter for a quick screen, mentioning your application if you have sent it.
Illustrative email to the hiring manager
The company, people, dates, and experience in this example are invented.
Subject
Brightline’s evening support shift
Message
Brightline’s March 3 post says the support team is adding an evening shift for West Coast customers. At Cedarline, I helped start a second support shift and wrote the handoff notes both shifts used each day. That gave both shifts the same view of open tickets at every handoff. The support team lead role stands out because the posting asks for someone to build that kind of handoff. Would you be open to a 15-minute conversation this week or next about what the new shift needs first? Best, Alex If you're not the right person, a quick 'not me' is a kindness.
Where Day60 fits
Day60 helps you identify the four people closest to the hire: the hiring manager, their boss, an internal champion and the recruiter.
It reads the posting for clues, gives you the titles to search on LinkedIn, and ranks the people you find. Check each person's current role before you add them.
You open every search and send every message yourself. Day60 never logs in to LinkedIn or sends anything for you.
Related guides
Next step:How to message a recruiter about a job
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