Nicole Seiffert
AWS
“You think about shaping and changing the course of someone's life.”
Nicole Seiffert has been named to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, the annual award recognizing the 100 most exceptional leaders and practitioners in talent acquisition. Honorees are selected by the Talent 100 committee from thousands of nominations and candidates across the industry, chosen for the impact of their work, the depth of their craft, and their influence on the future of recruiting. This is Nicole's story.
Nicole Seiffert didn't stumble into recruiting, she chose it, joining global executive search firm Russell Reynolds straight out of college with little more than curiosity and a willingness to learn. It was an unusual entry point, a research associate seat in the firm's Los Angeles office, and the work quickly revealed itself to be far more than a job.
"You think about just being able to shape and change the course of someone's life with offering a new opportunity or a new role," she says. That sense of purpose became the foundation of everything that followed. From Russell Reynolds she moved progressively into recruiting roles and then into management, building and leading teams. There was a brief detour into business development, working in sales and marketing, but she was eventually asked to return to recruiting, and she did, because by then it had become her passion.
Today she leads recruiting at AWS, where she has spent years embedding talent strategy into one of the world's most ambitious tech organizations.
Early Lessons in Executive Search
One of the most influential figures in Seiffert's career was a partner at Russell Reynolds who led the financial officers practice. At the time, research was largely a back office function, but this partner saw potential in her and handed her opportunities that were not yet common for someone in her seat. He had her interview candidates and attend client meetings. He mentored her on how to build relationships with candidates and customers alike, and he taught her to think holistically about a role and an organization rather than a list of requirements.
"He really helped shape my curiosity of really seeking to understand what a role entails," she says. That foundational training shaped not just her approach to recruiting but her entire professional identity. He also gave her the opportunity to move from Los Angeles to New York, a transition that reshaped her personal life as well.
Learning Empathetic Leadership
Years later, at Fannie Mae, Seiffert worked under a head of HR who became another pivotal mentor and the embodiment of empathetic leadership. She genuinely cared about her team and connected with people in a way that was both strategic and deeply human, and her business acumen was formidable.
Seiffert would watch her in meetings with business leaders, struck by her presence in the room. "It was so inspirational to just see how composed she was, how much value she added to meetings and conversations," Seiffert recalls. What stood out most, though, was how she took care of her people. That lesson in how to lead and build teams left a lasting mark.
Thinking Big at AWS
At AWS, Seiffert has worked alongside several influential leaders, among them the global leader of AWS recruiting, who joined around the same time she did and has since moved on to a new opportunity. From that leader she absorbed the importance of thinking big, not just about the next quarter or the next year, but about how to build an organization for the long term. She learned how to scale, how to embed talent strategy within the business, and how to think deeply about customer needs.
"Just really the ability to think big and think beyond," she says. It was a masterclass in strategic leadership, and it reinforced a lesson she had been learning her entire career: great recruiting is never just about filling roles.
A Career Built on Curiosity
Looking back, Seiffert describes her journey as incredible, a run of privileges that includes working with phenomenal people across multiple organizations. Each role taught her something new. Each leader showed her a different dimension of what it means to lead in talent.
From executive search to corporate recruiting to building teams at one of the world's largest tech companies, the thread connecting it all is curiosity: a desire to understand the role, the organization, the candidate and the business, paired with a commitment to doing work that genuinely changes lives.
The Talent 100 exists to celebrate the people shaping the future of how the world hires, and few embody that better than Nicole. We are honored to welcome Nicole Seiffert to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, and grateful for the experience, perspective, and craft they bring to this community. Congratulations, Nicole. 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.
