The hiring manager is the person who will manage the role once it is filled. They are not the recruiter. The recruiter runs the process. The hiring manager decides.
That distinction matters because they behave differently. A recruiter is measured on filling the requisition and screens for keywords against a list. The hiring manager has a gap on their team and a problem they need solved. Those are two different conversations, and only one of them is worth having early.
The hiring manager is one level above the role
Almost every posting follows the same shape. An individual contributor role reports to a manager. A manager role reports to a director. A director role reports to a VP. Read the posting again and ignore the requirements. You are looking for the team it sits on and any line about who it reports to.
Write that target title down. You are no longer looking for a person. You are looking for whoever currently holds one specific title.
Put a name on the title
Now find the human. In rough order of how well they work:
- The company's team or leadership page, which is public and current more often than people expect.
- Search the company name plus the team plus manager, director, or head. The professional network results usually surface the right person even from a plain web search.
- Blog bylines and release notes. Engineering and product teams sign their work.
- Conference talks, webinar panels, and podcast guest lists.
- The posting itself. Some list the reporting line outright.
Ending up with two candidates is fine. Guessing between two people who actually run the team still beats messaging a recruiter.
Check you have the right person
Before you write anything, confirm three things. Their title is one level above the role. They sit on the same team the posting describes. They are currently at the company, not two jobs ago on a stale profile.
If any of those fail, you have the wrong person, and an email to the wrong person costs you the right one.
Reach them while the posting is still new
The pile under every posting grows by the hour, and the manager reads it top down maybe once. An email that arrives on day one reads like a person. The same email on day twelve reads like someone working through a list.
Keep it to one question they can answer from their phone. No pitch, no resume, no attachment. The resume comes after they reply, and it lands better when they asked for it. If your draft runs longer than a short paragraph, it is a cover letter in disguise.
Do it for every role, not just this one
The method works. The problem is that it takes twenty minutes per posting, and by the time you have done that for the fifth role of the week, the first one is no longer new.