Rebecca Carr is the CEO at SmartRecruiters. With over 15 years of experience in recruiting and HR technology, Rebecca brings a deep understanding and passion for the space, supported by roles in product development, pre-sales, and customer success. Her contagious energy and strong leadership give her a unique perspective on this role and organization.
Rebecca’s journey at SmartRecruiters started in September 2014, holding different positions including SVP Growth, VP Product, and VP Solutions Consulting. She rejoined SmartRecruiters in July 2023 after two years at Checkr, where she was the GM for Checkr Pay.
SmartRecruiters streamlines hiring with AI-powered tools that automate tasks, anticipate needs, and enable faster, smarter talent acquisition. Trusted by 4,000+ companies worldwide, the platform offers an all-in-one solution for interviews, offers, and onboarding, with configurable workflows and seamless integrations. Designed to simplify recruitment, SmartRecruiters empowers teams to focus on finding the best talent while delivering real results.
You’ve spent nearly a decade at SmartRecruiters, transitioning from CPO to CEO. How has your time as Chief Product Officer shaped your vision and priorities as the company’s CEO?
My tenure as Chief Product Officer gave me a front-row seat to both the challenges and opportunities our customers face when trying to find, hire, and retain top talent. It shaped my belief that great hiring starts with empowering the right people—whether recruiters, hiring managers, or business leaders—with tools that simplify complexity and amplify impact. As CEO, my vision is grounded in that principle: ensuring SmartRecruiters remains a strategic partner that not only innovates but also transforms how organizations think about and execute hiring strategies. My priority is to lead with empathy for our customers, keeping them at the heart of every decision as we redefine the future of work.
What unique challenges did you encounter during your transition from a product-focused role to leading the entire organization, and how did your experience prepare you for them?
Moving from a product-focused role to leading the company required me to think beyond innovation to embrace more complex operational processes, work broadly to drive strategic alignment, and invest time in prioritizing culture and leadership. One challenge was ensuring that our customer-first ethos extended across every function of the organization. My product background prepared me well—I’ve spent years understanding customer pain points and designing solutions that resonate. That problem-solving mindset, combined with a focus on collaboration and execution, equipped me to navigate the broader challenges of leading SmartRecruiters.
As someone deeply involved in product innovation, how do you plan to balance technological advancements with the broader strategic objectives of SmartRecruiters?
Balancing technological advancement with strategy is about aligning innovation with purpose. Every new capability we develop must directly support our mission to create hiring success for each and every customer. For instance, our work with AI is about more than algorithms—it’s about delivering actionable insights that help companies hire smarter and faster. At the same time, our broader strategy focuses on being a partner to customers, extending hiring to their personal flow of work, and ensuring that SmartRecruiters is the trusted backbone of their hiring processes.
With SmartRecruiters investing heavily in AI, what role do you see artificial intelligence playing in transforming the recruitment industry?
AI is the game-changer that allows us to rethink hiring from the ground up. At SmartRecruiters, we believe AI has the potential to remove inefficiencies, support decision-making, and elevate the entire hiring experience. It’s not just about making recommendations—it’s about surfacing insights that empower users to make better decisions. Whether it’s through automating repetitive tasks, enabling predictive analytics, or providing proactive guidance, AI helps us transform hiring into a faster, fairer, and more effective process.
Can you provide specific examples of how AI and automation will simplify hiring processes for your customers?
Imagine a hiring manager receiving a Slack notification with a curated shortlist of top candidates ready for review or a recruiter supported to automatically schedule interviews without lifting a finger. These are just a few ways we integrate AI and automation to simplify hiring. Winston AI delivers proactive insights like candidate prioritization and action reminders, empowering users to focus on making meaningful connections and decisions rather than being bogged down by logistics. This is hiring elevated—smarter, faster, and more human.
How do you address concerns around bias and transparency when integrating AI into talent acquisition tools?
Building trust in AI requires a foundation of fairness and transparency. At SmartRecruiters, we design AI systems to mitigate bias, incorporating rigorous testing and explainability features to ensure users understand how decisions are made. We also provide tools for customers to assess and fine-tune their processes, so they can maintain a hiring framework that is both ethical and effective. Transparency isn’t just a value—it’s a necessity when building solutions that organizations trust to shape their future workforce.
You’ve previously highlighted the importance of solving customer pain points like disparate systems and data silos. What new initiatives or features are in the pipeline to address these challenges?
Our integrations with Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, SMS and other business tools are designed to unify workflows and eliminate silos, meeting users where they already work or search for work. We’re also advancing our SmartAnalytics features to provide customers with a single source of truth—aggregating data from across their hiring ecosystem and transforming it into actionable insights. This ensures that SmartRecruiters isn’t just a platform but the hub that connects and empowers every part of the hiring process.
In an era where talent acquisition technology is becoming increasingly competitive, how do you intend to position SmartRecruiters as the go-to solution for enterprise hiring?
Our strategy is to lead by delivering exceptional value—combining innovative technology with an unparalleled focus on customer success. With the launch of Winston AI, we’re not just enhancing existing processes; we’re redefining the entire category by making hiring faster, smarter, and more intelligent than ever. By integrating seamlessly into enterprise workflows and providing transformative insights, we position SmartRecruiters as the partner enterprises trust to navigate the complexities of hiring at scale and volume.
In your opinion, what will be the defining factor for companies like SmartRecruiters to succeed in the future of recruitment technology?
The defining factor is the ability to anticipate and adapt to customer and candidate needs. Companies that succeed will combine technological excellence with a deep understanding of human behaviors, user expectations, and business challenges. At SmartRecruiters, we focus on creating solutions that are intuitive, adaptable, and impactful—solutions that not only solve today’s problems but evolve to meet the demands of tomorrow’s workforce.
What is your vision for the SmartRecruiters platform in terms of user experience and functionality over the next five years?
Our vision is to reimagine hiring as a seamless, collaborative experience. This means empowering everyone involved—recruiters, managers, and leaders—with tools that work where they do. Integrations with platforms like Slack and Teams are just the beginning. Winston AI will be the linchpin, not by dictating decisions, but by providing context, recommendations, automations and insights at every step. Think of Winston as the guide and orchestrator, ensuring that every action taken feeds into a unified system of intelligence. Over the next several years, we will expand our platform’s adaptability and predictive capabilities, making SmartRecruiters the indispensable tool that not only powers hiring success but sets the standard for how organizations shape their workforce and offer personalized, integrated experiences for all.
Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit SmartRecruiters.
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