Does the job posting say who the hiring manager is?

Sometimes. A reports-to line or a recruiter name is the most common. Many postings name nobody.

Is the recruiter the hiring manager?

No. A recruiter runs the process, and the hiring manager owns the role. A note to the recruiter is still better than a note to a guessed name.

Guides

Guide

How to find who is hiring for a role

Start with the posting itself, then the company's team page and public writing, then a LinkedIn search for the company and function, and stop at a name you can confirm on a second public page.

Last updated November 9, 2026. winq publishes this page, and winq is one of the options in it.

Where the name can be

The posting. Look for "reports to", a team name, or a recruiter's name.
The company's team, about or leadership page.
The company blog, changelog, engineering posts and press mentions, which carry bylines.
Talks and podcasts, where the speaker's role is listed.
The Hacker News Who's Hiring thread, where posters often name themselves.

Using LinkedIn

Search for the company name together with the function, such as engineering, product or design, and read the profiles that come up. Look for the person who leads that function or the team named in the posting. Reading profiles is enough: you do not need to send anything to learn who is there, though the people you look at may see that you looked.

Confirm before you use a name

A name from one source can be out of date. Check it against a second public page, and check the person still works there. If two sources do not agree, treat the name as unknown.

Never guess

Do not guess a name from a job title, and do not guess an email address from a pattern. A wrong name in a message to a stranger does more harm than the message does good. If you cannot confirm a name, write to the recruiter on the posting, or to the function's leaders, and say which job you mean.

Your options

Search by hand. The steps above. Slow, and the most reliable when you check two sources.
Ask someone inside. A current employee often knows who owns the role. See our guide on getting a referral without knowing anyone.
Use winq. For each job that passes your deal-breakers, winq names a person only when the company's own pages or the posting support it, shows the source, and never guesses.

Questions

Does the job posting say who the hiring manager is?: Sometimes. A reports-to line or a recruiter name is the most common. Many postings name nobody.
Is the recruiter the hiring manager?: No. A recruiter runs the process, and the hiring manager owns the role. A note to the recruiter is still better than a note to a guessed name.