Ashleigh Ranero
Ashleigh Ranero (Huffman)
Tech Recruiting Lead, Gusto
Ashleigh Ranero’s path into recruiting began far from traditional talent acquisition. A journalism major in college, she once envisioned a future as an international correspondent. But after graduation, a move to Los Angeles and a chance connection opened the door to an unexpected opportunity—a recruiting coordinator role at Disney Interactive.
That first role became the foundation of a career defined by curiosity, adaptability, and people-first leadership.
At Disney, Ashleigh learned recruiting at scale. Starting as a coordinator, she moved into campus program management, supporting internship programs across Disney’s many business verticals. Over time, she became deeply drawn to the ambassador side of recruiting—meeting students, building relationships, and helping people connect with roles that could shape their futures. That passion led her into full-cycle campus recruiting, where she supported technical hiring, built university partnerships, and mastered the art of translating business needs into talent strategy.
After years of growth at Disney, Ashleigh made a personal and professional leap—leaving Los Angeles and relocating to Denver to be closer to family. That move led her to Gusto, where a former Disney colleague helped open the door to her next chapter.
At Gusto, Ashleigh began as a recruiter supporting high-volume CX and sales hiring. It was here that she sharpened her sourcing expertise and discovered what truly energized her: passive talent engagement, relationship-building, and the craft of finding the right people—not just filling roles. Over time, her impact and leadership potential became unmistakable. When an opportunity arose to step into management, she was encouraged by leadership to take the leap.
Since then, Ashleigh has built and scaled high-performing recruiting teams at Gusto, most recently transitioning into a leadership role supporting technical recruiting. Her long-term vision is clear: to be a full-stack recruiting leader—capable of driving strategy across disciplines while remaining grounded in the craft itself.
What Energizes Her Most
For Ashleigh, this moment in recruiting feels like a reset—and that’s exactly what excites her.
With AI reshaping how work gets done, she sees an opportunity not just to improve efficiency, but to fundamentally reimagine how recruiting operates. Rather than replacing recruiters, she believes technology can remove the administrative weight that has long pulled teams away from what matters most: meaningful relationships with candidates and deeper partnership with hiring leaders.
She finds energy in learning alongside her team—experimenting with new tools, rethinking old processes, and rebuilding a “toolbox” for what the next generation of recruiting leadership will require. To Ashleigh, the future of recruiting isn’t about automation for its own sake—it’s about creating space for more human, consultative, and impactful work.
How Recruiting Is Changing
Ashleigh has watched AI shift from something that once felt intimidating—or even threatening—into one of the most transformative forces in the profession.
What began as skepticism has evolved into conviction: when used thoughtfully, AI enhances recruiting rather than diminishes it. By streamlining administrative tasks and improving workflows, it allows recruiters to show up as true talent partners—elevating both the candidate experience and the business impact of the function.
She believes the past year has marked a turning point. Recruiting is moving beyond being seen as a process-driven operation and toward its higher calling: a consultative discipline that shapes organizations through talent. In Ashleigh’s view, the real opportunity lies in how leaders guide this transition—ensuring technology amplifies judgment, strategy, and connection rather than replacing them.
Ashleigh’s Advice for 2026
As the profession continues to evolve, Ashleigh encourages talent leaders to embrace what they don’t yet know.
Her advice is rooted in adaptability: get comfortable with ambiguity, lean into change, and be willing to learn alongside your team. The work recruiters do today will look fundamentally different from what leaders experienced earlier in their careers—and that’s not something to resist. It’s something to explore.
She urges leaders to stay close to the work, to understand how tools are actually being used on the ground, and to grow with their teams rather than above them. In this moment of transformation, leadership isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about curiosity, humility, and shared learning.
That mindset—forward-looking, people-centered, and grounded in craft—is what defines Ashleigh Ranero Huffman’s approach to talent leadership. It’s also what makes her a standout voice in the future of recruiting and a deserving member of the Talent 100.
