What level does your buddy need to be to successfully pull these strings?
I actually had this happen to me one time, and my buddy was the CEO, got funding, and we worked together in the past. I don't think it would happen in any other setup.
Yeah a CEO can obviously make this happen but VPs of departments, principal/senior engineers, even senior hiring managers can make this happen.
Most don't know this but people in business/operations/HR roles in tech companies have a lot of pull and direct access to CEOs or even boards.
Regional Directors/Heads are also very influential and can get you in e.g. Head of EMEA, Director of APAC, for big tech I have seen these roles based in Ireland, Switzerland and Singapore.
In the AI/ML world, senior researchers can make this happen too, if you were together during research days at university or the senior researcher was your PhD advisor etc.
say a team is working on some core product, consisting of PMs, Engineers, etc. If you are the senior most engineer in that team, you could go up to the right person and say "Hey, someone I know really well just applied and I need that person on this team to make this product a success. No questions asked."
Remember, reputation is everything here. If you get hired this way and not perform, you not only ruined your reputation but the reputation of the person who vouched for you.
I actually had this happen to me one time, and my buddy was the CEO, got funding, and we worked together in the past. I don't think it would happen in any other setup.