A specialist EV charging recruiter should be able to map its work to the part of the charging value chain you operate in and the specific roles you need filled, whether that's a field service technician, a network operations manager or a VP of engineering. Before you appoint one, check its segment experience, its role coverage, its technical screening process, its delivery model and its geographic reach against your actual vacancy, not against its general marketing.
This checklist walks through what to ask and what to look for, in the order it usually matters to a hiring decision.
What counts as an EV charging specialist?
EV charging recruitment spans several distinct business models, and a recruiter worth hiring should be able to name which ones it works with. The main segments are:
• Charge point operators and charging networks, who run the infrastructure
• Charger OEMs and hardware manufacturers, who build the equipment
• Installation contractors and EPC contractors (engineering, procurement and construction firms), who put chargers in the ground
• Service and maintenance providers, who keep networks running
• Fleets and depot operators, who need charging infrastructure for their own vehicles
• Site hosts and infrastructure developers, who host or develop charging locations
• Charging software platforms, who build the systems behind network operations and charging-as-a-service
A field service technician keeping a public network at uptime, a hardware engineer designing charging equipment, and a software integration engineer working on a charging-as-a-service platform are three different hires. A recruiter that can only describe "EV experience" in general terms hasn't told you whether it can staff any one of them specifically.
Which roles should the recruiter actually cover?
Ask for the role families the agency regularly places in, not just a list of job titles it has seen pass through a job board. A useful way to organize the question:
Field, installation and service roles: Field service technicians, EV charger installers, installation engineers, maintenance engineers, commissioning engineers, technical support engineers, electrical qualifying supervisors, high-voltage technicians, CAD designers, civil technicians and permitting specialists.
Engineering, project and network roles: Electrical engineers, hardware design engineers, software integration engineers, infrastructure project engineers, EV project managers, grid connection managers, network operations managers, operations directors and compliance managers.
Commercial and leadership roles: Sales and business development professionals, customer solutions professionals, construction and programme leadership, and VP or C-suite appointments, including confidential board-level searches.
Ask directly: which of these families does the agency place regularly, and who inside the agency actually runs the technical screening for each one? A generalist EV recruiter and a charging specialist can both claim "engineering roles" as a category; the difference shows up in whether the person screening a grid connection manager candidate understands interconnection coordination and utility capacity constraints, not just job titles.
How should a recruiter check technical and field readiness?
For any field-facing role, the screening conversation needs to go past a resume keyword match. Ask whether the agency verifies:
• Electrical licenses, certifications or qualifications relevant to the role, including EVITP certification where applicable
• Hands-on experience with Level 2 chargers, DC fast charging (DCFC), or both
• Familiarity with the specific charging equipment and network platforms in use
• EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment) experience
• OSHA-related safety training where the role requires it
• NEC-compliant EV supply equipment knowledge for installation and commissioning work
• A valid driver's license, travel capacity and readiness for a deployment schedule
• Coverage across the service area if the role spans multiple sites or regions
For engineering, compliance or network operations roles, ask how the recruiter tells the difference between a candidate whose resume uses the right vocabulary and one who has actually worked with authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) approvals, interconnection coordination or live-network uptime requirements. That distinction is the difference between a submitted candidate and a candidate who survives an interview.
Which hiring model fits the work?
Charging hiring rarely fits one engagement type across an organization. Match the model to the work:
• Permanent recruitment fits core hires in engineering, operations, commercial teams and leadership, where you're building long-term capability.
• Contract staffing fits time-bound installation programs, deployment surges and short-term field service needs.
• Contract-to-hire gives you a period to assess a field technician or operations hire's fit before committing to a permanent offer.
• Executive search fits confidential or business-critical leadership appointments, including VP and C-suite roles.
• RPO or multi-hire support fits a larger hiring ramp, such as standing up a regional deployment team at once.
Ask whether the agency handles the parts of the engagement that matter for your chosen model: sourcing, technical screening, interview coordination, offer support, and for contract roles, payroll and compliance.
Can the recruiter support your geography?
US charging hiring can be a single-site hire, a multi-state build, or a national deployment. Ask the recruiter directly whether it can source in each of your target markets, and whether it can run several regions at once without losing screening quality in any one of them.
For a deployment plan specifically, ask how the agency separates local service coverage, where a technician needs to live within a service radius, from travel-based roles, where a technician deploys to multiple sites on a schedule. These require different sourcing and different readiness checks, and a recruiter should be able to explain how it handles each.
What should you receive, and on what timetable?
Before work starts, ask for a written search plan covering:
• The agreed role brief, required qualifications, compensation and timeline
• Where candidates will come from, including any specialist network or targeted outreach
• The assessment criteria used before a candidate is submitted to you
• What's included in each candidate submission: certifications, charging experience, technical capabilities, availability and geographic coverage
• The update cadence for submissions, interviews and feedback
• The commercial terms for the engagement type you've chosen
• Any replacement or placement guarantee, and its conditions
A recruiter who can walk you through how it will find and assess the specific people your role needs is a different proposition from one offering a general statement about sector coverage.
What evidence should you ask for before appointing an agency?
Ask for evidence that matches your requirement, not the size of the agency's wider practice:
• A recent example of a comparable role, team build or charging infrastructure engagement
• The role types and seniority involved
• The charging segment involved, such as network operations, installation, hardware or software
• The locations covered
• The engagement type used, permanent, contract, contract-to-hire, executive or multi-hire
• The qualifications it verified for field roles
• Its submission process and communication cadence
• Its fee structure and any guarantee terms
Questions worth asking on the first call
• Which charging businesses and role families do you recruit for in the US?
• Have you recruited for a role comparable to this one's function, seniority and location?
• How will you assess the technical requirements for this position?
• For field roles, which licenses, certifications, EVSE experience and deployment requirements will you verify?
• Can you support our required states or regions, including multi-site deployment if needed?
• Should this be a permanent, contract or contract-to-hire search, and why?
• Who will run the search and the candidate screening?
• What does a submitted candidate profile include?
• What update schedule, terms and guarantee apply?
What to hand the recruiter you choose
Give the agency a role brief that states the charging business model you operate, the outcomes the role needs to deliver, the technical requirements, the location or travel expectations, the employment model and the hiring timeline. That's enough for a specialist recruiter to tell you, quickly, whether it can cover the search and how it plans to assess candidates against it.
Aym Recruitment works across the EV charging sector, including operations, sales, engineering and executive roles, connecting charge point operators, EVSE manufacturers and installers with the specialists these searches need. If you're weighing up recruiters against a specific vacancy, start with the checklist above and put the same questions to us.
Who does AYM Recruitment place?
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Commercial, product, infrastructure and leadership people across EV charging and grid infrastructure, in every state.