The person who will directly manage the successful candidate and holds the final hiring decision.
What is Hiring Manager?
The hiring manager is the individual within an organization who has both the need for the new hire and the ultimate authority to make the final hiring decision. They are typically the person who will be the direct supervisor of the selected candidate. While recruiters and HR professionals manage the process — posting the role, screening resumes in the ATS, conducting initial phone screens, and coordinating interviews — the hiring manager drives the role definition, sets the evaluation criteria, participates in or leads the in-person or technical interviews, and holds the final yes or no decision. Understanding the distinction between recruiters and hiring managers has profound strategic implications for job seekers: the recruiter is your initial gatekeeper and process manager, while the hiring manager is your ultimate customer whose specific needs and pain points the application must address. Researching the hiring manager on LinkedIn before an interview — understanding their career background, technical preferences, recent projects, and leadership style — is one of the highest-value interview preparation activities a candidate can undertake.
Key Takeaways
The hiring manager's pain point — the specific business problem they are trying to solve by filling this role — is the most important thing to understand before any interview.
Research the hiring manager on LinkedIn before your interview: their background, tenure at the company, past roles, and any content they have posted reveals their priorities and communication style.
In a first interview with the hiring manager, ask directly: 'What does success look like in this role at 30, 60, and 90 days?' — this reveals exactly what they are trying to accomplish.
The hiring manager's perspective is fundamentally different from a recruiter's — they care less about format and process and more about whether you can solve their specific team's problems.
If you can identify the hiring manager before the application stage, a targeted cold email or LinkedIn message can create a relationship that elevates your application from anonymous submission to known quantity.
Hiring managers are often the source of the job description — the language they used to write it reflects exactly how they think about the role, making JD analysis even more valuable when you know who wrote it.
In panel interviews that include both the hiring manager and team peers, direct your most substantive technical and impact answers toward the hiring manager — they are the primary decision-maker.
Post-interview, sending a targeted thank-you note to the hiring manager — specifically referencing a key insight from your conversation and reiterating how your background addresses their challenge — is one of the highest-ROI interview follow-up activities.
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