Todd Hazen

Todd Hazen

Talent Leader, Gusto

Todd Hazen did not begin his career in recruiting. He began it knocking on doors.

Fresh out of college, Todd took a door to door sales job selling solar electricity in the middle of summer. It was uncomfortable, unpredictable, and short lived. But it taught him something foundational. How to talk to people, how to read situations, and how to keep going even when the answer is no.

From there, he found his way into agency recruiting at Robert Half, running a full desk that combined both sales and recruiting. While he learned the commercial side of the business, he gravitated naturally toward candidates. He was drawn to the responsibility that comes with helping someone take the next step in their career. Recruiting, for him, was not transactional. It was personal.

Learning to Operate in Ambiguity

Todd moved in house when he joined Uber at a time when the company was still defining how internal recruiting should work. On his first day, he was handed a laptop and told to go. There was no playbook. No clear structure. Just goals and ambiguity.

That environment taught Todd how to prioritize without perfect information, how to operate through uncertainty, and how to deliver results while systems were still being built.

Leadership came into focus during his time at Facebook. After succeeding as a recruiter, Todd intentionally stepped into a different part of the organization, taking ownership of candidate experience. Almost immediately, the manager above him left, and Todd found himself leading a team of roughly twenty five people with no prior formal management experience.

Soon after, COVID reshaped the world of work.

It was a crash course in leadership. Managing scale, navigating uncertainty, supporting teams through disruption, and learning how to make decisions when the ground is constantly shifting.

Building and Scaling at Gusto

Today, Todd is at Gusto, where he has held multiple leadership roles across go to market, G&A, and now technical recruiting. Despite not coming from a traditional technical background, he leads a global tech recruiting organization with three managers and a team of about twenty five recruiters.

His focus is clear. How do you increase hiring velocity in a market that is constantly changing?

The work that energizes Todd most is problem solving alongside the business. He partners closely with senior leaders who bring different pressures, expectations, and priorities. His role is to bring clarity to talent decisions. What the business needs, when it needs it, and what must change in process, data, or structure to make that possible.

There is no one size fits all approach. Different teams require different hiring models, expectations, and levels of engagement. Todd embraces that complexity and designs for it.

Leading People and Learning Along the Way

People leadership is central to Todd’s approach. He focuses on developing recruiters, placing the right people in the right roles, and being the kind of manager he once wished he had.

Transitioning fully into technical recruiting has required humility. Todd is open about what he does not know and actively learns from the institutional knowledge of his team. Each function, from engineering to product design to data, comes with its own nuances. Senior level hiring only amplifies that complexity.

Todd often describes his role as a quarterback. Knowing when to be in the weeds and when to step back. Knowing where to focus attention, how to manage time, and how to anticipate issues before they become blockers. No two days look the same, and recalibration is constant.

How the Recruiting Landscape Has Shifted

Over the past year, Todd has seen recruiting become faster and more competitive, especially for senior talent. Strong candidates move quickly. If the process slows down, the best people are gone.

That reality has led to sharper conversations with the business about interview design, decision making, and speed. Recruiting velocity has become a competitive advantage.

At the same time, AI has moved from experimentation to expectation. Todd views AI as a way to improve efficiency and productivity, not a replacement for judgment. At Gusto, his team is actively testing AI across sourcing, outreach, ATS workflows, and operational tooling, with a clear goal of moving faster without sacrificing quality.

He also emphasizes diversification of outreach. Conferences, networking, employer branding, and direct hiring leader involvement all matter. When leaders show up early and engage directly, candidates respond differently and processes move faster.

Todd’s Advice for 2026

Stay relentlessly close to the data

Understanding funnel health, pipeline signals, and capacity constraints allows talent leaders to spot issues before they become problems.

Think ahead, not just in the moment

Forecasting, capacity planning, and forward looking analysis are critical. The job is not only to react, but to anticipate.

Move with urgency for senior talent

Speed matters. Slow processes lose great candidates. Clear decision making and aligned stakeholders are essential.

Lead with humility and partnership

You do not need to know everything. Learn from your team, trust their expertise, and build credibility by listening.