Build right. Hire right. Rebel forever.

I'm a fractional Head of Talent for Series A-C startups and defense contractors. I build recruiting infrastructure companies own forever, ATS workflows, sourcing frameworks, scorecards, pipelines; then close critical hires in under 30 days.

My path wasn't traditional: TGI Fridays → booking bands → managing tours → 14 years in recruiting. It taught me to spot talent fast, sell with conviction, and treat every search like representation. I operate like an agent, take care of both sides, protect the brand, close the deal.

Currently: Fractional Head of Talent at EarthDaily Federal (geospatial intelligence, defense). Board member at Underground Admins.

Author: Head and Heart: Winning the AI Recruiting War

richie@rebeltalentsystems.com | rebeltalentsystems.com

Richie Lampani

I got recognized at Costco yesterday.


Guy walks up, points at me, and goes "You're that recruiter."

I said "Depends. Are you hiring or mad at me for ghosting you or something?"

He said "Neither. I just see you everywhere and wanted to make sure you were real."

Then he bought a 48-pack of paper towels and left.

No follow. No handshake. No "love your content." Just a man confirming my corporeal existence between the rotisserie chickens and the tire center.

I've never felt more seen and more invisible at the same time.

This is what 50,000 LinkedIn connections gets you.

A stranger in bulk goods aisle 7 performing a wellness check.

Anyway I'm still taking clients.

Also, who would tune in for the below podcast? I'm trying to talk Shaun Hervey into starting it back up. 

Richie

Fractional Head of Talent | Series A-C Startups & Defense | Author & Talent Strategist | Former TGI Fridays Flair Champ

When the hiring manager says ‘we need someone hungry’ and the team looks like they’ve been surviving on vibes and stale granola since 2023.

No alternative text description for this image

I get why people hate recruiting agencies. I’m Richie. I’ll go first.
I apologize for my part in it and for once being one of the idiot recruiters you all deal with. Candidates AND Decision Makers. 

Because the real problem with recruiting isn’t mysterious. It isn’t candidates. It isn’t even “bad actors.”

The real problem with recruiting is that there is zero barrier to entry.

Anyone can open a “firm” tomorrow.

No credentials. No licensing. No skill checks. Nothing.

Even if you get hired into an agency, the interview process isn’t about expertise for recruiters with 2 or less years experience. It’s about personality and enthusiasm.

Can you smile through rejection, handle being micromanaged, and agree to do more for less? Congratulations, you’re a recruiter now.

No wonder the industry looks the way it does.

What new recruiters actually get taught
It’s not recruiting. It’s volume mechanics.
Here’s the training plan at most shops:
-Here’s the template job description. Don’t think. Just post it.
-Here's the basics of the ATS. Not even how to search the database that exists within it.
-Here’s how to search for keywords. Don’t understand them. Just match them.
-Here’s the call quota. Hit it.
-Here’s the email quota. Hit it.
-Here’s the “submit” quota. Hit it.
AND INVARIABLY and INEVITABLY at EVERY shop I've worked at, there is a minimum of 1 meeting a month about candidate ownership that 100% will devolve into a battle of how to decide who talked to Joe that has a very basic skillset but always answers every outreach.

If I’m finding .NET developers but I don’t know what .NET is, that’s not recruiting.

That’s scavenger hunting.
Volume is the skill.
Quality is the accident.


When you hand anyone a LinkedIn seat and tell them “go find talent,” this is what happens:
-Bad outreach floods good candidates
-Bad screening wastes hiring managers’ time
-Bad job descriptions repel the people you actually want
-Bad incentives encourage speed over accuracy

Candidates think we’re clowns(and a LARGE % of the time, they're right)

Hiring managers think we’re a tax.

And agencies keep doubling down on “more activity” instead of “more skill.”

If this industry took its job seriously, recruiter would mean something:
-Understanding the tech you’re sourcing for, not just the keywords
-Writing job descriptions that attract, not repel
-Market mapping, calibration, and diagnostics with hiring teams
-Measuring retention and quality of hire, not CV volume
-Training rooted in assessment, psychology, and labor market knowledge

It’s not complicated.
It’s just not how the industry is built.

If you run a recruiting team or an agency, ask yourself:
Are you training recruiters to understand the work or just search for words?
Would you trust your own career with the people your shop places?

If the answer makes you uncomfortable, that’s the point.

Zero barrier to entry is not changing.
The bar you set inside your own shop can.

We have several finalists on this. Holding for now. 

Remote - 10-99 - IT Admin role - part time! 
Pay is DOE but targeting 50-75/hour
Role: Part-Time IT Administrator
Engagement: 1099 Contractor
Time Commitment: Part-time, flexible

Location: Remote, EST Time zone preferred, must be US Citizen living in the US. 

Overview
EarthDaily Federal is looking for a part-time IT Administrator to support our internal systems and act as the primary liaison between our internal team and our external IT and security partner.

This role sits at the center of everything technical inside the company. You will own the day-to-day IT administration work while coordinating with ISI on security, compliance, and higher-level infrastructure items.

This is a startup-style environment. Many basic IT processes are either incomplete, undocumented, or need to be cleaned up. The right person is comfortable walking into a messy system and methodically making it better.
Some people love that. Some people hate it. We want the ones who love it.

Core Responsibilities
-Serve as the primary IT point of contact for EarthDaily Federal
-Act as the liaison between internal teams and ISI
-Coordinate requests, troubleshooting, and follow-ups with our external security provider.
-Manage internal user access, permissions, onboarding, and offboarding
-Administer Microsoft 365 environment including SharePoint and Teams
-Support employee endpoint setup and basic troubleshooting
-Maintain and improve internal IT documentation and processes
-Partner with engineering leadership to support basic IT needs as required

Environment and Tools
-Microsoft 365
-SharePoint
-Teams
-Internal SaaS tooling supporting engineering and operations

Preferred Background
-Experience working in small or early-stage environments
-Comfortable operating with limited documentation and evolving processes
-Prior exposure to secure or compliance-driven environments is a plus
-Awareness of CMMC concepts is a bonus but not required
-Strong communication skills and comfort acting as a bridge between vendors and internal teams

What Success Looks Like
-Internal IT issues are triaged quickly and resolved cleanly
-ISI communication is organized, tracked, and effective
-Users know exactly where to go for IT help
-Systems become cleaner, more documented, and easier to manage
-Leadership gains visibility and confidence in the IT function

Interview
Talk to me
Talk to COO
Talk to CTO

Rock and Roll. Looking to get someone in ASAP

Notes
This is not a maintenance-only role.
This role exists to stabilize, clean up, and bring order to foundational systems that grew faster than the structure supporting them.
If you enjoy building order from chaos, this will be a great fit.
If you need everything perfectly defined on day one, it will not be.

3 fully remote roles for Underground Admins clients. 2 Engineering and 1 sales. Please share.

🚂 Production Engineers (x2)
Stop. Don't send me your DevOps resume.
Two Production Engineer roles. Fully remote. $150K-$250K base.

But here's the filter:
If your day is CI/CD pipelines and Jira tickets, this isn't it. If you've never owned a production service end-to-end, this isn't it. If your incident response is "check the runbook," this isn't it.

This is for software engineers who moved into production because they gave a damn about how their code behaved in the wild.

The work:
60-70% hands-on C# on modern .NET, building and owning services
30-40% reliability, observability, SLOs, systems design
Zero L1 support. No on-call circus. No finger-pointing at infra.
Python for tooling. PostgreSQL on AWS. Legacy migrations that don't burn the house down.

Requirements:
3-7+ years owning production systems as a software engineer
Strong C# and Python
U.S. citizen, living in the U.S.

Interview process: Two technical rounds. One alignment conversation. Done.
DM me with the nastiest incident you've ever fixed and what you changed so it never happened again.

🪖 Head of Defense Sales
$200K base. Uncapped commission. And you're building this from zero.
One of my clients needs a Head of Defense Sales to own the entire DoD go-to-market. Not manage existing accounts. Build the function.

This is a closer role, not a farmer role.

What you're walking into:
Full ownership of defense sales strategy
Pipeline you build yourself
Direct line to executive leadership
Future team-build potential when you prove it works

The work:
Identify, qualify, close new DoD logos
Build relationships with primes, integrators, and program stakeholders
Translate complex tech into mission outcomes
Shape capture plans, proposals, pricing
Carry quota. Deliver.

Non-negotiables:
Proven track record selling software into DoD
Experience closing new logos, not just renewing contracts
You understand defense procurement, budgeting, acquisition cycles
Can build pipeline independently in a fast-moving environment

Preferred:
Active or recently lapsed clearance
Background in data, analytics, cyber, AI, or privacy tech
Startup or growth-stage experience
Network in Army, SOCOM, Space Force, Navy, Air Force, or COCOMs

Location: US based. East Coast or DMV preferred. Huntsville, Denver, Colorado Springs, Tampa, San Diego also work.

If you've opened doors and closed complex software deals in defense, DM me.

Underground Admins clients - NOT EDF. If you're interested hit up myself or Amy and we'll set you up with a screen.

Share this with all of the gritty, grindy, grimy hunters: You've sold into DoD. You know what it takes.

You don't live in SAM(dot)gov waiting for RFPs. You go find the opportunities before they exist. You build relationships that turn into requirements. You're in the room shaping the conversation, not responding to it.

The long cycles. The relationship game. The "no" that turns into "not yet" that turns into a $2M contract 18 months later.

You've carried a bag. Built pipeline from nothing. Sat through capability briefs that went nowhere and turned cold calls into warm intros into real money.

EarthDaily Federal is building something. Geospatial intelligence. AI-powered analytics. Real mission impact for Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force.

We've got the tech. We've got the past performance. Now we need hunters who want to eat.

Remote. Competitive comp. No bureaucracy. Small team, big upside.
If you're tired of selling software to people who don't care, come sell something that matters to people who do.

I don't have a range on this yet but honestly, there's a solid base and you probably are more interested in the commission checks anyway. Bene's and remote.

DM me. Let's eat.

This is Chuck. Chuck charges 25% to send you ‘top-tier talent your internal team can’t find.’ 

Because apparently his LinkedIn recruiter seat works differently than yours 

Or his job posts are better because he changed your company name out for “our client” so candidates wouldn’t just apply direct. 


Stop renting Chucks. Hit me up about a better way.

Once you see it as a demonstration and not an audition, everything changes.

You’re not begging for approval.  

You’re showing how you actually work.

Candidates: You’re not “on stage.” You’re giving a preview. And finding alignment. 

Companies: You’re not “judging talent.”  Or “selling an opportunity”. You’re showing what it feels like to be on the inside. And finding fit.

The "trust your gut?" poll results are all in here. How people treat red flags in interviews.

When you've taken a job you already had doubts about, when did the gut feeling hit that it wasn't going to work out? I ran a poll. 442 people answered

Open article: The gut knew. You overruled it. by Richie Lampani • 3 min read

REMOTE - Production Engineer/SWE/SRE opening through Underground Administration Staffing and Recruiting! Share this please

6 month contract to hire - 160-200k+ DOE plus bene's and extras

Global SaaS platform. Zero bureaucracy. Actual engineering work, not ticket triage.

I am looking for someone who can write real backend code and also own reliability end to end.

 If you are a script-only SRE, this is not the role.

 If you are a heads-down SWE who avoids production, also not the role.
I need the rare breed who lives in the middle.

The Work:
 • Write production-grade backend code in Python, Go, or Java(plus C# chops)
 • Support modernization and migration of legacy .NET services into AWS
 • Build internal tools, APIs, and automation
 • Tune Postgres and improve service performance
 • Deploy, monitor, troubleshoot, improve
 • Own services independently with minimal supervision

Bonus Points:
 • Kubernetes experience
 • Rust exposure or willingness to learn
 • Strong observability stack experience with Datadog, Dynatrace, or New Relic

Requirements:
 • Must be a US Citizen
 • Must be physically located in the US
 • No visas or sponsorship
 • Contract to hire
 • Fully remote

Interview Process (fast and simple):
Engineering Manager
Peer interview
Engineering Manager again for final talk and offer

No marathon interview loops. No whiteboard theater. No pointless homework.

If you can build, ship, deploy, break, fix, and improve a service, you will get through this quickly.

If this sounds like you, or you know the complete STUD who can do both SWE and SRE at a high level, let's talk. 

Also have some fun stuff coming up at EDF and Rebel. 

Feels like motion. Let's get people hired.

Nausheen I. Chen

Get clients, investments and influence by speaking confidently | Public Speaking Coach for entrepreneurs and execs | ex-Fortune 50 | My featured section has a gift for you.

You know who gets the most clients and promotions?

The person who can speak the best.

You might be an expert in your domain.
But if you don't speak with confidence, no one will trust you.

Your career and business will suffer because you struggle to speak powerfully.

Your next client will go to the person who presents better than you.
Your next promotion will go to the person who communicates better than you.
Your investor might pass because they are not convinced of your value and worth.

You’ll feel weak and powerless.

It’s crazy because you have a lot to share with the world.

But your speaking skills let you down.

Here’s the good news:
It doesn’t have to be like that.

Now imagine:
You ace sales calls and win dream projects because you speak with confidence.
You get that promotion because you present with clarity in the boardroom.
You build a powerful brand because the world listens when you speak.

I can help you get there.

I’ve helped 500+ entrepreneurs and execs become confident and effective speakers.

• Entrepreneurs like Wes, who had stage fright and went blank when he was in the spotlight.

• VPs like Sarah, whose voice shook every time she presented in the boardroom. But became a confident speaker working with me and secured 2 leads worth $350,000 for her company.

• LinkedIn creators like Jasmin Alić, Ruben Hassid, Lara Acosta, Sophie Miller, Nigel Thomas, Nicholas Boucher, and Mando Sallavanti III who now speak on big stages with credibility, authority, and influence.

I can help you become a confident, powerful speaker too.

Are you ready to stop missing opportunities and start attracting them?

DM me ‘SPEAK’ to find out how.

Who am I:
• 3-time TEDx speaker.
• Award-winning ex-filmmaker.
• Communication skills trainer at Fortune 50 P&G.
• Official LinkedIn Instructor for public speaking courses.
• Coached 500+ execs at Google, Amazon, SAP, AT&T, IBM, Twitch, European Chamber of Commerce.

I'm also a part of the @elgato professional program as well as the LinkedIn Creators program.

Public Speaking Coach for stage and camera

I coach entrepreneurs and execs on how to speak on camera with maximum impact, create a powerful brand and grow professionally.

I was adopted right out of the delivery room.

But this surprised me when I met my biological family:

I met my entire biological family 2 years ago.

(Yes that’s them in the picture).

These 5 things took me by surprise.
(and number 5 was the weirdest one).

1. We had the same feet.

It was the weirdest thing to see.
I was used to seeing feet very different from mine.
Didn’t realize family could have similar feet!

2. Things got awkward (sometimes).

Yes we had a lot to catch up on.
But we didn’t grow up together.
So at times, we had no shared history.

3. I had so much love for my nephews and nieces.

I grew up as an only child.
But now I was “introduced” to nephews and nieces.
I instantly loved them. Even though we’d just met.

4. We had to work on building connection.

Just because we were related by “blood”:
It didn’t mean there would be instant rapport.
We had to build our relationships from scratch.

5. My biological father also loves public speaking.

He loves getting up on stages.
Just. Like. Me.
But I've never lived with him.
Never been “inspired” by his speaking.

I’m not saying “public speaking” runs in the blood.
But it’s something I can’t explain.

PS Ever met anyone else who’s adopted? yes/no?

The CEO’s Public Speaking Coach • ex-Fortune 100 communications trainer • 3-time TEDx speaker • Public Speaking Professor at CEU • LinkedIn Learning Instructor • Founder, The Confidence Accelerator • Keynote Speaker

When you ask someone “Where are you from?” 

What they hear is: “You don’t look like you belong”. 

This makes immigrants feel out of place. 
(Even if you have the best of intentions). 

So instead of: 
“Where are you from?” 
Ask: 
“Where did you grow up?” 

One questions belonging. 
The other shows curiosity. 

Instead of: 
“Your English is so good!” 
Say: 
“You explain things very clearly” 

One implies surprise. 
The other shows respect. 

I made an entire cheatsheet on this. 
(Probably the first ever of its kind on LinkedIn!) 

When you make people feel welcome, 
You rise above differences in skin color or accents. 

You relate to people on a human level. 

And that makes you powerful and unforgettable. 

PS - anything in the cheatsheet surprising for you? 

PPS - and no, asking “But where are you REALLY from?” is worse!

President Obama once froze on stage. 

I know because I asked his speechwriter Terry Szuplat. 

This is what happened: 

Young Obama had delivered speeches before. 

So for his next speech, he thought “no big deal”. 
He didn’t prepare, didn’t practice. 

But this time - he was speaking to a bigger audience. 
Higher stakes. 

Midway through, he lost his train of thought. 

And froze. 

It wasn’t nerves. 
It wasn’t fear. 

It was overconfidence. 

Here’s the real lesson: 

When the stakes are high, you feel out of your depth. 

Just “confidence” won’t save you. 
Preparation will. 

PS follow Terry for amazing stories on public speaking from the White House.

Stop procrastinating on your public speaking goals.

(This is how to tell your story in 2026):

Every day, people tell me:

“Nausheen, I want to speak on stage but…”

→ “I’m not ready”
→ “I don’t feel confident”
→ “I don’t want to disappoint”

When I got my first TEDx acceptance-
I didn’t feel ready either.

But I didn’t let that stop me.

And it helped me launch my entire business.

You can do 3 simple things to get yourself ready:

(Save this so you can remind yourself)

1. Start with low-stakes opportunities:

→ Open mic storytelling events.
→ Share a project that you worked on publicly.
→ Sign up for a career talk at your alma mater.

2. Create a “positive feedback loop”:

→ Every time you do a talk, note what went well.
→ Use that as proof for yourself that you can do more.

3. Build a “big idea” that you stand for:

→ “Systematize” your expertise to prove your value.

Every day that you procrastinate,
Your competition wins.

Don’t wait to feel ready.
Don’t wait to say yes.

Your future self will thank you.

PS - What do you want to speak about on stage?

Stop saying these 5 things to yourself in 2026.

(You’re destroying your confidence)

“I don’t want to brag” → “I’m proud of what I’ve done”
“I made a mistake, I’m dumb” → “I’ll learn from this”
“I don’t know how to sell” → “I know how to help”
“I can’t do this” → “I can experiment with this”
“I’m going to fail” → “I’m going to try this”

We are all stories that we tell ourselves.

If your story doesn’t serve you, change it.

When you change the way you speak to yourself:
You change the way you speak to the world.

→ Save this post so you can remind yourself of this.

P.S. Ever caught yourself saying any of those things?

Your ideal clients don’t know your true worth. 

(That gap is costing you revenue). 

You’re already great at what you do. 
But opportunities don’t reflect that. 

You’re chasing leads. 
Your best clients hesitate. 
Your work isn’t recognized. 

That’s not an expertise problem. 

It’s a communication problem. 

When you speak about your work, you lack impact. 

So I’m hosting a 2-day mastermind in London 
For coaches and entrepreneurs who are experts - 
but under-recognized. 

We’ll work on: 

- Turning your expertise into authority. 
- Owning any stage or room you walk into. 
- How to speak with impact, power and credibility. 

I’m co-hosting this with my own coaches: 
The team who grew my Instagram from 2k to 350k+ (Alessio Bertozzi and Bryan Fischer) 

👉 Join us: https://lnkd.in/dC2Q9wjM 

This isn’t a random event. 
It’s an investment in being taken seriously. 

PS - do you want to learn from me in person?

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