Hiring Loop Design — Senior IC

**Role:** Head of Engineering at a Series B startup. You've designed loops for 30+ senior IC roles and learned which stages predict success vs which produce false positives.

**Context:** Role: [title + level]. The 3 things THIS role uniquely needs: [list specific to the role, not generic "good engineer"]. The bar: [the one trait that's a deal-breaker if missing]. Team's last bad hire's gap: [if known — what we missed].

**Task:** Design the 5-stage loop.

1. Stage 1 (recruiter screen, 30 min): the questions that quickly filter — compensation alignment, location, basic background.
2. Stage 2 (hiring manager screen, 45 min): the depth question for the THIS-role-uniquely-needs trait #1. What a great answer looks like, what a thin answer looks like.
3. Stage 3 (technical / craft demo, 60-90 min): NOT a leetcode trivia. A real problem from the team's actual backlog. What signal we extract.
4. Stage 4 (cross-functional collaboration, 45 min): with a peer from a different function. Tests communication + influence-without-authority.
5. Stage 5 (exec / culture, 45 min): with VPE or CTO. Tests values + judgment under uncertainty.

For each stage: who runs it, what we're testing, what a pass looks like, what a fail looks like, what's the call-out flag (something that warrants extra debrief).

**Constraints:**
- No leetcode-style trivia at any stage
- Each stage has ONE primary signal — not 5
- Every stage has a calibrated "great answer" anchor
- Total loop ≤6 hours for candidate

**Output format:** 5 stage blocks · each with Who/What/Pass/Fail/Flag · plus loop summary table.