Jason Cerrato
Amentum
“It brought together public relations, marketing, technology, psychology, motivation, interpersonal relations, and behavior. It was the perfect storm of everything I was interested in.”
Jason Cerrato has been named to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, the annual award recognizing up to 100 leaders in each category of talent acquisition. Honorees are nominated by peers or found by committees that look for excellent work wherever it happens, then chosen for the depth of their craft and their impact on hiring. This is Jason's story.
For Jason Cerrato, Senior Vice President, Global Talent at Amentum, recruiting began as a doorway into human resources and quickly became the perfect intersection of everything he cared about.
The path started at Drexel University, where he was studying public relations and corporate communications and, like every Drexel student, owed the program a co-op assignment. His landed him at QVC, the Home Shopping Network, which at the time had a strong connection to Drexel's co-op program. He spent his rotation in internal communications and studio events, and one project in particular involved ghostwriting executive announcements. Among the leaders he supported was the company's CHRO, who was working on QVC's annual employee survey.
That assignment opened Jason's eyes to the world of HR. The deeper he went, the more the discipline pulled at him: employee relations, organizational psychology, motivation, technology, and the broader question of how companies engage and support their people. "I became heavily interested in HR," Jason recalls.
Breaking into the field without experience, however, was not easy. Companies were not necessarily opening doors for entry-level HR manager roles, but they were willing to give him a chance in recruiting, and so recruiting became his way in. Once he started, everything clicked. "It brought together public relations, marketing, technology, psychology, motivation, interpersonal relations, and behavior," he says. "It was the perfect storm of everything I was interested in."
Then came a placement that would shape how he viewed the profession forever. Early in his recruiting career, Jason helped a husband who had moved away for work return home to his family in time to see his son graduate high school. It was more than filling a role. It was a reminder that recruiting can change lives. "I helped somebody get a new job, earn a higher salary, reconnect with his family, and see his son graduate," he says. "I fell in love with that."
Learning the Craft of Recruiting
Jason began his career at Allegis Group, an organization he credits with teaching him the discipline, rigor, and fundamentals of recruiting. Planning the day, building call sheets, maintaining relationships, keeping activity moving forward: the work gave him a strong foundation in the mechanics of talent acquisition, and it built habits of consistency, work ethic, pipeline building, and relationship management that have outlasted any single job.
From agency recruiting he moved into corporate recruiting, progressing over time from recruiter to recruiting manager, program manager, director, and now senior vice president. Along the way he collected mentors, some formal, others who shaped him simply through the way they worked. "I had tons of mentors along the way," he says. "Some of them didn't even know they were my mentors."
By watching how others built relationships, spoke with candidates, supported businesses, and handled complex conversations, Jason developed a style of his own. One lesson held steady throughout: recruiting is most effective when recruiters deeply understand the business they support. That knowledge is what allows a recruiter to give a candidate real insight, not just about the job, but about the company, its culture, and what makes the opportunity different.
The Power of Personal Connection
As his career evolved, Jason became known for the passion, energy, and authenticity he brings into a conversation. Candidates have often told him they were interested first in the role, then in the company, and eventually in the chance to work with him. That kind of connection matters.
It is also why he insists that recruiting has always been both an art and a science, even as technology continues to transform the field. "As much as technology has come into the field, this has always been an art and a science," he says. Relationships create trust, support onboarding, strengthen motivation, and help candidates feel connected before they even join the organization. That personal connection is not something technology can fully replace.
Scaling Talent Through Technology
From his seat as Senior Vice President, Global Talent at Amentum, Jason sees technology and AI as powerful tools for helping recruiting teams scale. AI, in his view, can help talent teams cover more ground, reduce administrative work, and create more time for meaningful human interaction. The goal is not to remove recruiters from the process but to amplify their ability to engage, advise, and connect. "How do we take some of the administrative and transactional work off their plate so they can touch more people, meet more people, and engage with more people?" he says.
Technology, in other words, should buy recruiters more time for the work that matters most: building relationships, understanding candidates, and positioning the company as an employer of choice. When recruiters truly believe in the company and can explain the opportunity clearly, the entire dynamic of the conversation shifts. "You're no longer selling," he says. "You're educating and explaining."
Advice for Talent Leaders Heading into 2026
As recruiting continues to evolve, Jason believes the future belongs to teams that combine operational discipline, strong business understanding, relationship-building, and smart use of technology. AI can create scale, but it cannot replace passion, judgment, trust, or connection. The strongest talent teams will be the ones that use technology to remove friction while preserving the human moments that make recruiting meaningful.
For Jason, the magic is in the mix. By blending business insight, recruiting fundamentals, technology, and authentic human connection, he represents the kind of talent leader helping organizations build stronger teams while keeping people at the heart of talent acquisition.
The Talent 100 exists to celebrate the people shaping the future of how the world hires, and few embody that better than Jason. We are honored to welcome Jason Cerrato to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, and grateful for the experience, perspective, and craft they bring to this community. Congratulations, Jason. Welcome to the Talent 100.
About the Talent 100
The Talent 100 is an annual list spotlighting the leaders who push HR and talent acquisition forward, organized by Noon AI. Honorees are selected through peer nominations and independent selection committees. Selection is entirely merit-based, with no fees or pay-to-play requirements.
