Riley Agnew

Riley Agnew

Head of Global Employer Brand & Talent Marketing, Celonis

Like many leaders in talent acquisition, Riley Agnew never originally planned to build a career in recruiting.

Instead, she found her way into the industry through a growing passion for storytelling, employer branding, and helping companies connect with the right people in meaningful ways.

Her career journey began shortly after college, when she joined HubSpot as a Culture Content Creator — a role that blended elements of recruiting, marketing, storytelling, and employer branding at a time when recruitment marketing was still an emerging discipline.

“I got a firsthand look at what it really means to attract candidates through the lens of both recruiting and telling the story of the people behind the product,” Riley shared.

That experience fundamentally shaped the way she views talent acquisition today.

For Riley, recruiting is not simply about filling positions.

It is about helping candidates understand why they should choose one organization over another and creating authentic connections between people and company culture.

“Why does a candidate want to work at your company versus anywhere else in the world?” she explained.

As recruitment marketing continued evolving over the last decade, Riley grew alongside the function itself.

What was once considered a niche specialty gradually became one of the most important components of modern talent acquisition strategy.

Throughout her career, Riley has helped organizations strengthen employer brands, improve recruiter outreach, refine candidate messaging, and create more compelling talent attraction strategies in increasingly competitive hiring markets.

The Leaders Who Helped Shape Her Career

Looking back on her journey, Riley credits several influential leaders who took chances on her early in her career and helped shape her leadership philosophy.

Two of the earliest and most impactful were Hannah Fleischman and Katie Burke during her time at HubSpot.

At the time, Riley was still very early in her professional journey, having recently returned from a short experience writing for a travel magazine in Edinburgh.

Without a traditional corporate background, she credits both leaders for recognizing her potential and giving her the opportunity to grow within the recruiting and employer branding space.

“They saw the potential in me,” Riley explained.

Their support helped Riley become one of the earliest members of HubSpot’s recruitment marketing and employer brand initiatives, allowing her to grow alongside the organization’s talent and culture teams during a period of rapid expansion.

Later in her career, Riley joined Datadog, where she worked closely with recruiting leader Marissa Parillo.

According to Riley, Marissa had a major influence on how she approaches leadership, resilience, and strategic talent branding.

“She taught me so much grit and perseverance,” Riley shared.

During the uncertainty of the COVID era, Riley watched Marissa lead with stability, confidence, and long-term vision at a time when many organizations were questioning the value of employer branding and recruitment marketing functions.

Rather than scaling back, Marissa continued investing in talent brand strategy and helped demonstrate the direct business connection between employer brand growth and company growth.

“She helped me show through data and business strategy that this role is something companies need,” Riley explained.

Marissa also became the first leader to give Riley the opportunity to step into people leadership herself — something Riley says permanently shaped her career trajectory.

The Evolution of AI in Recruiting

As AI rapidly transforms recruiting and talent acquisition, Riley believes the industry is entering one of the most significant technological shifts it has ever experienced.

Unlike many who fear AI will eventually replace recruiting professionals, Riley sees AI as a tool designed to enhance human work rather than eliminate it.

“AI can never replace a human,” she explained.

For Riley, AI should always function as a starting point — not the final decision-maker.

In her own work, she actively uses AI tools such as Google Gemini to improve recruiter messaging, streamline workflows, and help teams operate more efficiently.

“It’s an opportunity to work more efficiently,” Riley said.

Rather than viewing AI as a threat, she believes talent professionals should embrace it as a productivity tool that helps recruiters focus more time on strategic and human-centered work.

“It helps you work smarter, not harder,” she explained.

Riley also believes AI is fundamentally changing how candidates search for jobs and how companies position themselves online.

One major trend she highlights is the evolution from traditional SEO toward what she describes as “GEO” — generative engine optimization.

Instead of simply optimizing career sites for search engines, organizations are now increasingly thinking about how their employer brands, company reputations, and job opportunities appear within AI-generated search experiences.

“We’re trying to figure out how to optimize our career site language and how people are showing up within AI,” she explained.

According to Riley, this shift will continue to redefine talent attraction strategies over the next several years.

Balancing Brand Growth With Candidate Quality

One of the biggest recruiting challenges Riley sees emerging alongside AI is the growing tension between brand visibility and candidate quality.

As companies continue building stronger employer brands and attracting larger applicant pools, recruiters are also becoming overwhelmed with application volume and pipeline noise.

“We continue to build these really powerful brands for our companies, but there’s a trade-off,” Riley explained.

That challenge is one reason Riley believes AI-powered sourcing and candidate matching tools will become increasingly important moving forward.

Her hope is that AI continues advancing in ways that improve candidate matching, reduce recruiter workload, and help organizations better identify the strongest talent more efficiently.

Instead of manually reviewing every application, Riley sees enormous value in AI tools that can analyze skills, job descriptions, and candidate qualifications to identify stronger matches across multiple roles.

“AI can help match the right candidate to the right role,” she explained.

She also believes future AI systems may become increasingly capable of identifying alternative opportunities for candidates within organizations — helping recruiters uncover talent that may have otherwise been overlooked.

For Riley, the future of AI in recruiting is not about removing humans from the process.

It is about helping recruiters navigate increasingly large talent ecosystems more intelligently and efficiently.

Her Advice for Talent Leaders in 2026

As recruiting continues evolving alongside AI, automation, and changing candidate behaviors, Riley encourages talent leaders to approach AI with curiosity rather than fear.

She believes the organizations that succeed will be those that learn how to combine technology with authentic storytelling, strong employer branding, and meaningful human connection.

For Riley, AI is not replacing recruiting.

It is reshaping how recruiting works.

And while technology will continue evolving rapidly, the organizations that stand out will still be the ones that know how to build trust, communicate culture authentically, and create exceptional candidate experiences.

That combination of strategic thinking, employer brand expertise, and forward-looking leadership is exactly what makes Riley Agnew a deserving member of the Talent 100.