Nikki Bruno

Nikki Bruno has led a vibrant 20+ year career in tech recruiting, empowerment coaching, teaching, and publishing. At Candidate Labs, she’s helping build the firm’s technical search practice, focusing on engineering roles from IC to executive.

Nikki came to Candidate Labs from Rocket, an AI-powered tech recruiting firm focused on VC-backed startups, where she placed excellent professionals in roles such as software engineer, data scientist, VP of engineering, head of product, and COO. Highly engaged in the profession, she created and led Rocket’s recruiter training program and facilitated workshops on topics such as salary negotiation, advanced interview and search techniques, DEI, and neurodivergence. 

Previously, Nikki was a solo entrepreneur. Via her coaching business and brand, The Epic Comeback, she worked with women to rebuild their lives after divorce, illness, and loss; recorded 150 episodes of The Epic Comeback Podcast, and engaged in thought leadership. Before that, she was a book editor and author for such companies as National Geographic, Scholastic, Candlewick Press, Pearson Prentice Hall, and Capstone Press.

Nikki lives in Los Angeles with her two children and a couple cats. She’s traveled the world, diving its seas and climbing its mountains, and loves to sing, read, and have deep rambling chats with friends.

Nikki holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Princeton University and a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.