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Ward predicts rise of ‘talent engineer’ and says recruiters should build tools

Lenny's Podcast · The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor · August 9, 2026
Ward predicts rise of ‘talent engineer’ and says recruiters should build tools
Lenny's Podcast
Lenny's Podcast
The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor
"I think maybe the other trend, I think we see like the rise of the talent engineer. I don't know if you've seen that out there, you know, the kind of the function within a recruiting team who is a possibly former engineer who's like building tools and things like that. And my warm take, not a hot take, my warm take is like every recruiter should be a talent engineer."
Ward says recruiting teams are increasingly adding ‘talent engineers’—staff with software backgrounds who build internal recruiting tools and workflows. He argues modern tools mean recruiters themselves should increasingly be able to prototype and build what they need, rather than waiting for product or engineering support.
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Lenny's Podcast
Lenny's Podcast

The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursor

August 10, 2026 · 1h 30m · 6 Egleze moments
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