Job Builder
A structured role-building workflow for turning hiring intent into sharper job architecture, stronger briefs, and more consistent intake.
26
EMEA Talent Systems · AI Transformation
Lee Sam
The recruiting leader for the AI era.
Position
Building Engineering and GTM teams across EMEA at Cloudflare.
Point of View
AI is changing how companies scale. Recruiting leadership turns that shift into operating advantage.
Record
Eighteen years across category-defining technology companies.
02 / Experience
Timeline.
Eighteen years across the world's category-defining technology companies.
№CompanyPositionYear
01
CFCloudflareLeadership Recruiting & AI2026 →→
- Lead executive and senior leadership recruiting for Cloudflare across EMEA, focused on critical regional leadership roles.
- Design executive search strategies, research frameworks, market maps, and proactive succession pipelines.
- Advance AI adoption across Recruiting by improving productivity, simplifying workflows, and building custom tools for recurring work.
- Contributed to Cloudflare's official candidate guidance on AI usage in interviews, helping define practical expectations for candidates and interview teams.
- Partner with senior stakeholders on talent availability, market dynamics, candidate positioning, pipeline diversity, and search cadence.
02CFCloudflareHead of Recruiting EMEA2022 — 26→
- Led EMEA recruiting delivery at scale: 318 hires in 2023, 477 in 2024, and 429 hires in 2025 as of 1 September.
- Partnered with business leaders and Finance on workforce planning, headcount forecasting, and growth alignment.
- Built and developed a high-performing recruiting team through feedback loops, career development, performance management, and succession planning.
- Worked across HR, Compensation, Legal, People Operations, and Special Projects to support hiring governance, M&A activity, and talent retention.
03CFCloudflareRecruiter → Manager2018 — 22→
- Progressed from Recruiter to EMEA Recruiting Lead and EMEA Recruiting Manager during Cloudflare's regional growth.
- Hired across Sales and Engineering talent across EMEA.
- Partnered with managers and leaders to identify diverse talent for active and future hiring needs.
- Built the foundation for broader EMEA recruiting leadership across planning, delivery, stakeholder partnership, and team operating rhythm.
04
OKOktaSenior Recruiter2018→
- Recruited for a fast-growing enterprise identity business during a period of international scaling.
- Partnered with hiring teams in a cloud software environment focused on security, access, workflow, and customer success.
- Brought prior SaaS recruiting experience into a high-growth, venture-backed technology company.
05
SNSnap Inc.Senior Business Recruiter2017→
- Hired as Snap's first Business Recruiter outside the US.
- Owned strategic hiring across EMEA, with additional ad-hoc roles across the Middle East and US.
- Managed end-to-end hiring from intake and sourcing through offers, contracts, and onboarding.
- Recruited across Account Executives, Account Managers, Creative Strategists, Marketing Managers, Event Managers, Sales Operations, Business Operations, and Agency Partners.
06
SFSalesforceSenior Recruiter2015 — 16→
- Partnered with Professional Services, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud business groups across EMEA.
- Developed senior stakeholder relationships and managed hiring through direct sourcing and employee referrals.
- Worked closely with Employee Success, Finance, and cross-functional teams to keep recruiting processes smooth and efficient.
- Contributed to Salesforce's 1:1:1 model through volunteering and local community activity.
07
TWTwitterSenior Recruiter2013 — 15→
- Recruited across UK and EMEA roles spanning Ads Sales, Account Management, Media Partnerships, Marketing, Comms, Legal, Finance, and Research.
- Managed end-to-end hiring from intake through offer acceptance, with a strong focus on candidate experience.
- Used market data and internal benchmarks to construct competitive candidate offers with HR, Compensation, and senior business approval.
- Promoted employee referrals, ran sourcing sessions, maintained hiring trackers, and presented recruiting updates to the UK office.
08
BABoA Merrill LynchTechnology Recruiter2011 — 13→
- Managed end-to-end technology hiring across GWIM, GMRT, GWBT, Technology Infrastructure, and Risk Tech.
- Built talent pools for Software Engineers, Application Support Analysts, Business Analysts, and Project or Programme Managers.
- Partnered with hiring managers, HR Business Partners, agencies, and business leaders on pipeline, compensation, approvals, and market updates.
- Direct sourced candidates through LinkedIn, X-ray search, eFinancialCareers, Jobserve, CW Jobs, and niche boards.
09
EYErnst & YoungRecruiter IT Advisory2010 — 11→
- Managed end-to-end recruitment for IT Advisory, Risk Advisory, Programme Advisory Services, and interim Transactions Advisory coverage.
- Recruited Programme Managers, Enterprise Architects, SAP Consultants, and transformation specialists across major sectors.
- Turned around IT Advisory recruitment, helping the group meet FY10 headcount targets and all recruitment KPIs.
- Served as Champion for Racial Diversity at EY UK, improving attraction and recruitment of candidates from under-represented ethnicities.
10
HPHewlett PackardIn-House Recruiter2007 — 10→
- Recruited Technical Account Managers, Technical Pre-Sales Consultants, and Sales Account Managers for the Technology Solutions Group.
- Supported hiring managers from requisition approval through close, advising on salary, benefits, working conditions, and process compliance.
- Reduced agency expenditure through direct sourcing and achieved 98% direct recruitment in FY09.
- Reduced time-to-hire to under 38 days in FY09 while managing the largest requisition volume in the Staffing team.
03 / AI Work
Recruiting tools for the AI era.
A mini portfolio of practical tools built to make recruiting sharper, faster, and more intelligence-led.
Candidate Intelligence
A candidate research layer designed to improve preparation, synthesis, and signal quality across senior recruiting workflows.
Relay
A Greenhouse-connected handover tool that summarizes a recruiter's open roles, current status, and next actions, then exports the handover to PDF for colleagues.
Pinr
A product experiment built outside work, combining product thinking, agentic coding, and hands-on app development.
Ryval
A second independent app build exploring how AI-assisted workflows can move an idea from concept to usable product.
Cortex
A programmatic stock trading bot that monitors market movement and places trades through a trading platform API based on preset technical indicators.
Execue
A mobile app where candidates upload a CV and job posting URL, then receive role-fit analysis, suitability guidance, and interview preparation support.
Delivery,
in numbers.
EMEA recruiting delivery at Cloudflare across FY23–25. Volume measured in hundreds, acceptance measured in confidence.
FY 2023318EMEA hires delivered
FY 2023 cohort86%Offer acceptance rate
FY 2024477EMEA hires delivered
FY 2025 · 1 Sep429EMEA hires year-to-date
05 / Outside Work
Travel, basketball, and a few long flights.
Outside work, I make time for travel, live sport, and the kind of trips that become stories.
I am a Milwaukee Bucks fan, including flying to Milwaukee to watch games in person. This is the personal side of the story: places, games, and the occasional very long flight.
Personal archive
Travel · Bucks
Let's talk.
For introductions, conversations, or quiet enquiries about senior leadership search, AI-era recruiting operations, and talent systems for companies being rebuilt around AI.