Corinne Friedland

“Make sure you're always curious about the work and align everything to the larger business strategy.”

When Corinne Friedland tells people about working at Etsy, they tend to react the same way: they smile, light up, and share a personal story or experience of their own. Eleven years in, that reaction remains the clearest measure of the mission alignment Corinne loves about the company.

That sense of purpose now sits alongside a team in the middle of what Corinne calls a transformational shift. Etsy's talent acquisition group has used AI to bring market insights and talent intelligence in-house, built its own analytics with Claude Code, and rethought which roles the company needs to open at all. Through all of it, Corinne holds to a philosophy reinforced by Lauren Weinberg, Corinne's current manager: connect everything back to business strategy.

Relationships That Opened Doors

The path began right after college. A good family friend who worked as a recruiter at a technical agency in the financial sector knew Corinne was looking for opportunities, and Corinne joined the agency straight out of school. It soon became a network. Through people met there, Corinne was brought in-house to the ad tech firm Tremor Video, and a connection made at Tremor Video later led to Etsy. Corinne is quick to credit the relationships that kept opening doors.

Chief among them is Matt, who started at the agency at the same time and gave Corinne the chance to interview for that first in-house role. "He took a chance on me," Corinne says, and much of the impact since traces back to that moment. The two still keep in touch, comparing industry best practices, what each is observing, and where the industry seems to be heading.

At Etsy, the education continued through close relationships with countless leaders. Watching them taught specific lessons: how they poke holes, how they think about open headcount, how they staff their teams, which questions they ask candidates, and how interview processes get built. Corinne singles out Mike Fisher, Etsy's former Chief Technology Officer, and Rafe Colburn, now the company's Chief Product and Technology Officer. Lauren, who has moved all across Etsy, stands out for the way she leads and for how she connects everything back to business strategy.

AI With a Human in the Loop

The most striking change AI has brought to Etsy's hiring starts outside recruiting. As the capabilities of Etsy's engineers have shifted, so has the way they spend their time, and that has reshaped which candidates and roles the company opens. Corinne describes it as transformational: the organization can decide it no longer needs certain profiles, backgrounds and skills, and instead dig deep for candidates who up-level the organization and move the needle.

Inside the team, the shift is just as significant. Where talent acquisition once relied on third parties and integrations for market insights and talent intelligence, it now builds and customizes that work itself. The team typically uses Claude and has used Claude Code to build its own analytics and dashboards. "We are the users. We are the TA team," Corinne says, which means the tools fit Etsy precisely. AI also runs throughout hiring, examining interview feedback and surfacing themes and trends to hiring managers and teams.

The biggest lesson is to always keep a human in the loop. AI does not take away the team's value; it is a resource for reaching the next level, freeing recruiters to be more strategic and impactful. That works, Corinne adds, only when its use is intentional, thoughtful, and open and honest about the use case.

Advice for 2027

Corinne's advice for talent leaders heading into 2027 comes in two parts: stay curious about the work, and align everything to the larger business strategy. It is a personal principle and philosophy Corinne wants to carry down to the team, and it echoes both Lauren's habit of tying every decision to the business and the years Corinne has spent watching Etsy's leaders think through headcount, staffing and hiring.