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# Jonathan Santillan Diaz

**Headline:** Professional profile
**Location:** San Francisco, CA, USA

## About

Jonathan Santillan Diaz is a recruiter with experience across technical, generalist, and executive search. Jonathan’s work centers on building sales organizations, planning headcount for growth, and identifying candidates through a mix of traditional and hands-on sourcing methods. He is particularly strong at evaluating sales talent in real customer-facing settings, observing how candidates engage customers and sell before initiating a recruiting conversation. At Cheatham, Jonathan scaled a sales executive team from 6 to 20 people while achieving minimal attrition among sales-team hires. He supported that growth with headcount planning and projections, creative sourcing across job boards, LinkedIn, direct outreach, and in-person recruiting, and a candidate-engagement style grounded in discovery questions rather than scripted pitches. Jonathan also emphasizes personalized onboarding and employee referrals as contributors to stronger sales hiring and retention outcomes. His approach combines practical workforce planning with close attention to candidate behavior, engagement style, and long-term fit.

## Highlights

- Scaled the sales executive team at Cheatham from 6 to 20 individuals.
- Achieved minimal attrition among sales-team hires at Cheatham.
- Used headcount planning and projections to support company growth.
- Recruited across technical, generalist, and executive-search functions.
- Sourced candidates through job boards, LinkedIn, direct outreach or poaching, and in-person recruiting.
- Assessed sales candidates by observing customer interactions to evaluate engagement style and selling skills.
- Used an in-person recruiting approach that involved observing sales candidates in their work environment before engaging them.
- Built candidate rapport through discovery questions rather than forced pitches.
- Emphasized personalized onboarding to support employee loyalty.
- Recognized employee referrals as a source of stronger sales hires.

## FAQ

### What does Jonathan do?

Jonathan is a recruiter with experience in technical recruiting, generalist recruiting, and executive search. He has experience supporting company growth through headcount planning, sales-team scaling, candidate sourcing, and retention-focused hiring.

### What are Jonathan’s recruiting strengths?

Jonathan is strongest at scaling sales teams, planning headcount, sourcing candidates through multiple channels, assessing sales ability through observed customer interactions, and building natural candidate rapport through discovery questions.

### What did Jonathan accomplish at Cheatham?

At Cheatham, Jonathan scaled a sales executive team from 6 individuals to 20 individuals. He also achieved minimal attrition among sales-team hires.

### How has Jonathan supported headcount growth?

Jonathan has experience with headcount planning and projections that support company growth.

### How does Jonathan source candidates?

Jonathan uses job boards, LinkedIn, direct outreach or poaching, and in-person recruiting to identify candidates.

### How does Jonathan assess sales candidates?

Jonathan evaluates sales candidates by observing them interact with customers, which helps him assess their engagement style and selling skills.

### What is distinctive about Jonathan’s in-person recruiting approach?

Jonathan’s in-person recruiting approach can involve observing sales candidates in their work environment before engaging them about an opportunity.

### How does Jonathan build rapport with candidates?

Jonathan uses discovery questions to create a natural conversational flow with candidates rather than relying on forced pitches.

### How does Jonathan approach onboarding and employee referrals?

Jonathan emphasizes personalized onboarding as a way to help new hires become loyal employees and supports the use of employee referrals to identify stronger sales hires.

### What recruiting areas has Jonathan worked in?

Jonathan has worked across technical recruiting, generalist recruiting, and executive search.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-santillan-diaz-b917a7121

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