Jason Hoekstra

Searchlight Candidate Tracking

January 2009 ASP.NET SharePoint Scalability White House Federal Government

Custom candidate intake and selection platform built during the Obama-Biden transition, scaling executive recruitment from 4,000 to 100,000+ applicants after a public call for service on Change.org.

The Challenge

The Obama-Biden Transition Committee initially selected an enterprise executive search system designed to handle ~4,000 candidates. A public call for service issued via Change.org resulted in 100,000+ resumes submitted by Americans seeking to work in the White House. Existing tooling could not ingest or process resumes at that scale, support complex candidate slating workflows, or route candidates across multiple White House program offices.

Role & Ownership

  • Technical Lead & Program Lead
  • Primary technical authority and delivery lead
  • Interface between White House transition stakeholders, implementation teams, and U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) for infrastructure provisioning
  • Owned system customization, deployment, operations, and end-to-end technical support

Technical Approach

Designed and delivered Searchlight, a custom ASP.NET-based application that augmented the existing executive search platform.

Core Capabilities:

  • High-volume resume ingestion and processing
  • Candidate slating and structured selection workflows
  • Integration with Microsoft SharePoint for document management and workflow coordination

Candidate Routing:

  • Staging and routing across White House program areas
  • Domestic policy, national security, and other executive branch domains

Infrastructure & Operations:

  • Coordinated with GSA to provision server hardware and approve deployment configurations
  • Software customization and production deployments
  • Ongoing operational support during the transition period

Key Results

  • Scaled candidate processing from ~4,000 to 100,000+ submissions
  • Enabled White House leadership to meaningfully review unprecedented volume of applicants
  • Provided structured, auditable workflows for candidate evaluation and selection
  • Supported rapid staffing across multiple White House offices during critical transition window
  • Demonstrated feasibility of custom augmentation over wholesale replacement for time-sensitive federal systems

Technologies

ASP.NET, Microsoft SharePoint, GSA Federal Infrastructure, Enterprise Executive Search Integration