How to Hire for Emerging Roles

Summary:
The job market is changing fast—and so should your hiring strategy. This article breaks down how to recruit top talent for emerging roles like AI prompt engineer or sustainability analyst, even when no perfect résumé exists. From building skills-based profiles to sourcing candidates in non-traditional spaces, you'll learn how to hire for the future with speed and confidence. If you're ready to scale with roles that don’t exist on job boards yet, Riverway can help you find the innovators who will shape what’s next.

Remember when social media manager, cloud engineer, or UX designer weren’t even job titles? The labor market is evolving fast—and now we’re hiring for roles like AI prompt engineer, sustainability analyst, metaverse strategist, and chief automation officer. 

The challenge? Finding people with the right skills when there’s no traditional blueprint. 

Whether you're building a team around new tech, restructuring your org for digital transformation, or trying to keep up with industry disruption, hiring for emerging roles demands a different approach. 

Let’s walk through strategies to identify and recruit top-tier talent for these “next-gen” positions—and how to do it with speed and confidence. 

 Step 1: Start with Skills, Not Titles 

When hiring for an emerging role, there’s often no ideal résumé or predefined path. That’s why it’s crucial to think in skills, capabilities, and potential, not job history. 

Ask: 

• What problems will this person solve? 

• What technical and soft skills are required? 

• What industries or roles may already be training ground for these skills? 

Actionable Tip: Build a “skills map” instead of a job description. Identify core competencies, like “prompt writing for generative AI tools” or “cross-functional collaboration in a digital product environment,” and reverse-engineer a candidate profile. 

Step 2: Look for Learners and Adaptors 

The best hires for emerging roles may not have done the exact job—but they’ve demonstrated the ability to learn quickly and solve novel problems. 

Look for: 

• Cross-disciplinary experience 

• Side projects or certifications in new tech 

• A track record of pivoting or innovating in ambiguous environments 

Actionable Tip: During interviews, ask: 
“Tell me about a time you had to figure something out with no roadmap.” 
This reveals how candidates approach ambiguity—an essential trait for new job categories. 

Step 3: Expand Your Talent Search Channels 

Traditional job boards won’t surface pioneers. You need to dig deeper and look in emerging communities and non-traditional spaces. 

Try: 

• Online communities (e.g., Discords, Substacks, niche LinkedIn groups) 

• Hackathons and pitch competitions 

• Bootcamp alumni networks 

• Tech forums and open-source contributors 

Actionable Tip: Post in targeted communities, and offer exploratory “vision” roles instead of rigid job descriptions. This invites innovative thinkers to co-create their position with you. 

Step 4: Offer Growth, Not Just a Job 

Top candidates for new roles are often motivated by curiosity, purpose, and learning opportunities—more than traditional benefits. 

To attract them: 

• Share how the role will evolve over time 

• Emphasize autonomy and innovation 

• Highlight access to training, new tech, and leadership 

Actionable Tip: In your outreach and job postings, use language like: 
“Be the first to shape this role,” 
“Work on the frontier of [industry change],” 
“Build what doesn’t exist yet.” 

 Step 5: Use a Recruiting Partner Who Knows Where to Look 

Hiring for new roles is hard—and time-consuming. You can’t rely on old playbooks. That’s where partnering with a recruiting firm that understands these shifts makes all the difference. 

Riverway specializes in hiring for modern challenges—and we've already built pipelines for the roles your company is just beginning to explore. 

How Riverway Can Help 

At Riverway, we connect you with top talent for the roles shaping tomorrow’s workforce. Whether you're hiring your first AI specialist or scaling a team of automation-savvy analysts, we’re ready to help you move fast—and get it right. 

Here’s how we support you: 

• We Have the Top Talent to Solve New Problems 
  Our bench includes forward-thinking professionals already trained in cutting-edge tech and systems. 

• Skip the Tedious, Grueling Search 
  We do the hard work—sourcing, screening, and pitching your opportunity to the right people. 

• We Know How to Get Top Talent to Say YES 
  We help you position your role to appeal to innovators, changemakers, and highly sought-after candidates. 

• 60-Day Guarantee 
  If it’s not a fit, we’ll replace the hire at no extra cost—because long-term success is the goal. 

Emerging roles are no longer optional—they’re essential to growth.  

Contact us to talk about how Riverway can help you find top-tier talent today.