Direct-hire search
Full-cycle recruitment for salaried roles, run with retained-search rigor at an independent's rate.
- Engineering, operations & quality
- Supply chain, HR & commercial roles
- Calibrated shortlists, not resume dumps
Recruiting services · Now booking new clients
Manufacturers don't have a talent shortage. They have a talent-systems shortage.
Erwin Talent Lab is an independent talent-acquisition consultancy for manufacturing and industrial companies — principal-led direct-hire search, fractional TA leadership, and AI-augmented recruiting systems, built by a 20-year operator.
20+ yrsfull-cycle TA across aerospace, defense & advanced manufacturing
60+ hiresin three weeks — fastest production ramp led
23K+LinkedIn following in the manufacturing TA space
100%principal-led — every engagement runs through me
What I build
Four ways to rent a talent function — without hiring one.
Every service line is scoped in a plain-language SOW with transparent pricing. No long-term lock-ins, no junior recruiters learning on your dime.
Fractional TA leadership
Senior recruiting strategy and hands-on execution on retainer — the leadership layer without the full-time headcount.
- Hiring plans tied to operating targets
- Agency & vendor program management
- Weekly reporting your CFO will actually read
TA systems & AI projects
The infrastructure that makes hiring repeatable — built once, owned by you.
- ATS optimization & vendor portal builds
- AI-augmented sourcing workflows
- Hiring-manager enablement & intake systems
Ad hoc consulting
Targeted help for the hiring problems that don't need a full engagement — priced by the project.
- Interview process & scorecard design
- Agency negotiations & fee strategy
- Offer strategy & hiring diagnostics
Where the playbook comes from
Twenty years inside the buildings — not watching from an agency bullpen.
Joby AviationeVTOL manufacturing
Stood up the Dayton manufacturing recruiting engine
Built and led a 20-person TA team through an aggressive production ramp — 60+ hires in roughly three weeks at peak, from technicians to engineering leadership.
WalgreensFortune 50 retail & health
Led global technical sourcing strategy
Designed AI-assisted sourcing programs at enterprise scale, integrating iCIMS and GEM to put data — not gut feel — behind pipeline decisions.
QuEST GlobalAerospace engineering services
Ran TA for tier-one aerospace programs
Recruited engineering talent supporting Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace programs, where quality escapes aren't an option — in hiring or in hardware.
These were in-house roles. That operating experience — ramps, vendor programs, hiring systems built from scratch — is what ETL clients now rent by the engagement.
How engagements start
Three steps from first call to first shortlist.
Intro call
Thirty minutes, no charge. You describe the hiring problem; I tell you honestly whether I'm the right tool for it.
Scoped proposal
A plain-language SOW with deliverables, timeline, and transparent pricing — fixed fee or retainer, agreed before work starts.
Principal-led delivery
I run the work personally, with a standing cadence and reporting you can forward straight to your leadership team.
The name on the door
Matt Erwin, Founder & Principal
I started Erwin Talent Lab because life is too short to do work that doesn't matter — and because manufacturers deserve recruiting partners who've actually carried the badge inside a plant, not just billed against one.
Over two decades I've built talent functions for aerospace ramps, Fortune 50 sourcing organizations, and multi-site industrial operators. I've negotiated the agency MSAs, designed the intake systems, run the assessment-integrated workflows, and stood in the Monday-morning production meetings where an unfilled req is a line-down risk.
Now I bring that operating experience to companies who need it on demand — with AI-augmented tooling that lets one senior operator deliver what used to take a department.
Now booking new clients