Finding Hiring Managers on LinkedIn Like a Pro
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
If you want to find hiring managers on LinkedIn, stop behaving like a polite tourist and start acting like a professional hunter who knows exactly what they’re tracking. This is where most job hunters blow it: they treat LinkedIn like a giant job board instead of what it really is–a searchable database of people with the authority to say “yes.”
You’re not on LinkedIn to collect “Likes.” You’re there to get in front of the person who can hire you or walk your resume into that person’s office. Once you accept that, the way you use LinkedIn changes fast.
Know who you’re hunting
Before you start clicking around, you need a target. “Hiring manager” is not a job title. In your world, the hiring manager is the person two levels up from where you sit today or want to sit next.
If you’re a senior developer, that might be an Engineering Manager, Director of Engineering, or VP of Engineering. If you’re in marketing, maybe it’s a Director of Marketing or VP of Demand Generation. The point is simple: figure out the real-world titles of the people who could conceivably own the budget for the role you want.
Then you layer in industry and function. You’re looking for “Director of Supply Chain, consumer goods, New York,” not “manager somewhere who might like my resume.” Precision saves time and gets you talking to decision-makers instead of people who can only say, “I’ll pass your resume along.”
Use LinkedIn’s search the right way
Now you go hunting.
Start with the search bar and switch to the People filter. Type in the title you identified–“Director of Engineering,” “VP Sales,” “Head of Product”–then start narrowing. Filter by location, current company, or industry. This is where the database becomes useful.
Next, use the “Current company” filter to zero in on organizations you actually want to work for. Build a short list of 15-30 companies. Run the same title search against each. Now you’ve got a list of real human beings with the authority to help you—not a faceless “careers@company.com” inbox.
If you see someone who looks like they might be too senior, don’t overthink it. Senior people have hiring managers reporting to them. They can refer you down just as easily as someone can refer you up. And often, they’re more responsive than HR because they live with the problem you can solve.
Read profiles like a recruiter
Finding names is step one. The hunters separate themselves by reading profiles with intent.
Look for language that tells you what this leader cares about–growth, cost control, transformation, quality, retention. Their About section, featured posts, and recent activity are gold mines. You’re trying to answer a simple question: “What problem is this person paid to solve?”
Once you know that, you can position yourself as someone who has solved pieces of that problem before. You’re not another “hard worker and team player.” You’re the person who cut onboarding time by 25%, increased lead quality by 18%, or automated a reporting process no one else wanted to touch.
Engage before you pitch
This is where most of you get nervous and start spamming connection requests and resumes. Stop.
You do not start by asking for a job. You start by acting like a peer. Follow the hiring manager. Turn on the bell for their posts. Watch what they talk about. Then you begin to show up intelligently.
Comment on their posts with something that actually adds to the conversation. Not “Great post!” but something like, “Curious how you handled X when Y happened; we ran into that in our rollout and solved it by doing Z.” You’re signaling, “I understand your world. I’ve been in the trenches.” That’s how you get noticed.
Do this consistently for a little while. When your name rings a bell, you’re no longer a stranger. You’re the person who keeps leaving useful comments. That’s a much better place to start a direct conversation.
Reaching out without sounding desperate
When you do reach out, keep it short, direct, and low-pressure. You’re not begging. You’re not dumping your life story into a LinkedIn message.
Something like:
“Hi [Name], I’ve been following your posts about scaling the engineering team at [Company]. I’ve led similar work around [specific result] in [industry]. I’m exploring what might be next for me this year. Open to a brief 10–15 minute conversation to compare notes?”
You’re positioning yourself as a professional talking to another professional. If they say no, fine and you move on. If they say yes, great! You prepare, ask smart questions, and treat it like the beginning of a relationship, not a one-shot chance at a role.
Don’t forget you’re also being hunted
The other side of this is making it easy for hiring managers and recruiters to find you. You want to be hunted on LinkedIn. That means your headline, About section, and experience need to send a clear signal about what you do and what level you play at.
If your headline still says “Seeking new opportunities” or “Open to work,” you’re wasting prime real estate. Use that space to advertise your value: “Senior Product Manager | B2B SaaS | Turn 0–1 ideas into shipped features that move revenue.” That’s language a hiring manager can work with.
Finding hiring managers on LinkedIn isn’t magic. It’s a repeatable process: decide who you need, use the tools like a pro, act like a peer, and show up consistently. Do that, and you stop being just another resume in the stack and start becoming someone decision-makers recognize and respect.
Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 2026
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS Career Advice globally because he makes many things in peoples’ careers easier. Those things can involve job search,
hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, career transition, as well as advice about resolving workplace issues.
He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 3100 episodes.
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