Stuart Shaw

Stuart Shaw

Director, Global Tech Recruiting, Procore Technologies

Stuart Shaw didn’t map out a career in recruiting — he found it while looking for a change.

After graduating from Texas Tech University, Shaw was working at a car dealership in Lubbock, Texas. He knew he wanted to move back to Austin and start something new, but he wasn’t sure what that would be. A friend working at a recruiting agency suggested he give the industry a shot, describing it as a fast-paced, sales-driven environment focused on connecting people with jobs.

“I really just fell into it,” Shaw says. “I moved back to Austin in 2009, interviewed with the agency, and the rest was history.”

He spent roughly six years on the agency side, working across a variety of client roles and learning the fundamentals of recruiting through high-volume, high-pressure environments. That foundation shaped the way he still views the profession today — as both relationship-driven and performance-oriented.

Building Global Recruiting Teams

Today, Shaw leads technical recruiting at Procore Technologies, where his team spans multiple regions around the world. His organization includes recruiters in the United States, Cairo, and India, along with regional leadership to support continued growth.

The Cairo team, which joined through an acquisition several years ago, has become a major hub for product and technology hiring. What began as a smaller presence has grown into one of Procore’s key global recruiting centers, supporting hundreds of hires annually.

For Shaw, leading distributed teams is both a challenge and a point of pride.

“Not everyone is in the same time zone, and stakeholders are often spread across the world,” he says. “It forces us to be more intentional about communication and process.”

What Energizes Him Most

Even after more than a decade in recruiting, Shaw remains driven by the human impact of the work.

“I like to say we’re changing lives one hire at a time,” he explains. “In a lot of cases, we really are.”

He also thrives on the partnership aspect of recruiting — working closely with hiring managers who are under pressure to fill critical roles and helping them solve real business problems. That balance of empathy, urgency, and strategy keeps the work engaging.

At the same time, he draws energy from building strong teams. Watching recruiters grow in confidence, develop new skills, and take ownership of their markets is one of the most rewarding parts of leadership for him.

How AI Is Changing Recruiting

Over the past year, Shaw has seen AI begin to meaningfully shift how recruiting teams operate — particularly in reducing time spent on repetitive, administrative tasks.

His teams are using AI tools to help process applicant flow, resurface talent from existing pipelines, and summarize complex information for hiring teams. In some cases, recruiters are turning detailed market intelligence reports into concise, easy-to-digest summaries that help leaders make faster, more informed decisions.

AI has also become a personal productivity tool.

From refining executive communications to organizing performance review notes, Shaw uses AI to streamline work that once took significantly longer. “Something that might have taken me 30 minutes before, I can now turn around in a few minutes,” he says.

Still, he’s clear that technology has limits.

“Recruiting is very personal,” Shaw says. “People want to talk to a human — especially for the kinds of specialized, high-impact roles we hire for.”

While tools like AI-powered scheduling assistants are promising, he believes the industry is still in the learning phase, figuring out how to blend efficiency with a high-touch candidate experience.

Leadership and Influence

Throughout his career, Shaw has been shaped by several leaders and peers who influenced his approach to recruiting.

One of the most impactful was a former manager who encouraged him to move into leadership, pushing him beyond what he initially saw as a career individual contributor path. That mentorship helped him build confidence and see the broader impact he could have by developing others.

He also learned valuable lessons from peers with different recruiting styles — including highly technical recruiters known for their direct, no-nonsense communication. Observing and adapting elements of those approaches expanded his own toolkit and reinforced that there’s no single “right” way to be effective in recruiting.

Advice for Talent Leaders in 2026

Looking ahead, Shaw believes curiosity and adaptability will define successful talent leaders.

AI will continue to reshape workflows, and teams that stay open to experimentation will have an advantage. At the same time, he emphasizes that tools alone won’t solve everything — especially if hiring managers don’t evolve their own decision-making speed and expectations.

“Recruiters are only one piece of the puzzle,” he says. “We can get faster and more efficient, but we also need our partners to adapt.”

Above all, his leadership philosophy comes down to people.

“Hard work matters. Curiosity matters. But culture matters too,” Shaw says. “Work is stressful enough — build teams with people you actually want to solve problems with.”

For Shaw, the future of recruiting is about combining smart technology, strong partnerships, and teams built on trust — a formula he believes will stand the test of time.