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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Director of Talent Acquisition

💰 $140,000 - $220,000

Human ResourcesTalent AcquisitionLeadership

🎯 Role Definition

The Director of Talent Acquisition leads the design and execution of a global hiring strategy that aligns with business goals and workforce plans. This role partners closely with business leaders, HR, compensation and hiring managers to deliver exceptional candidate experiences, scale teams efficiently, and build diverse talent pipelines. The Director owns recruiting operations, vendor relationships, hiring analytics, employer branding, and continuous improvement initiatives to reduce time-to-fill, increase quality-of-hire, and enable strategic workforce growth.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Talent Acquisition Manager / Head of Recruiting
  • Global Recruiting Manager / Lead Talent Partner
  • Strategic Talent Acquisition Partner or Senior Recruiter with leadership scope

Advancement To:

  • VP of Talent Acquisition / VP of Recruitment
  • Head of People / Chief People Officer (CPO)
  • Global Head of Talent Strategy or Chief Talent Officer

Lateral Moves:

  • Director of People Operations
  • Director of Workforce Planning & Analytics

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop and execute a multi-year talent acquisition strategy that supports company growth, product roadmaps, geographic expansion, and critical skills demands while balancing speed, quality, and cost.
  • Lead, mentor, and scale a centralized and/or distributed recruiting organization (managers, sourcers, recruiters, coordinators), including hiring, performance management, career development, and resource planning.
  • Partner with executive leadership and business unit heads to translate strategic workforce planning into prioritized hiring plans, role scoping, and talent pipelines that meet short- and long-term needs.
  • Design and own employer branding and candidate value proposition (EVP) programs—working with marketing and communications—to increase inbound talent, improve candidate experience, and strengthen the company’s talent marketplace presence.
  • Implement recruiting metrics and dashboards (time-to-fill, time-to-offer, quality-of-hire, cost-per-hire, diversity metrics) and use data-driven insights to continuously optimize process, sourcing channels, and resource allocation.
  • Drive diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring strategies through structured sourcing plans, inclusive job descriptions, diverse interview slates, unbiased assessment design, and partnerships with external diversity talent organizations.
  • Manage the applicant tracking system (ATS) and recruiting tech stack (e.g., Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, LinkedIn Recruiter), ensuring configuration, workflows, analytics, and integrations support scale and compliance.
  • Build and maintain talent pipelines for hard-to-fill, technical, and leadership roles using proactive sourcing, talent communities, campus programs, and executive search partnerships.
  • Own vendor and agency strategy including selection, contract negotiation, SLAs, and performance evaluation to ensure consistent quality and cost-effectiveness across contingent and executive search providers.
  • Collaborate with compensation, total rewards, and hiring managers to establish competitive offers and salary benchmarking practices, enabling effective offer negotiation and acceptance rate improvements.
  • Establish and standardize interview and hiring processes, scorecards, and calibration practices to improve hiring predictability, reduce bias, and ensure consistent candidate evaluation across teams and geographies.
  • Lead recruiting operations through process documentation, capacity planning, recruiter-to-hire targets, and recruiter productivity initiatives that optimize throughput and hiring velocity.
  • Partner with HR business partners, legal, and compliance to maintain hiring policies, immigration support, background checks, onboarding handoffs, and employment law adherence across jurisdictions.
  • Oversee campus recruiting and early talent programs (internships, rotational programs), set campus engagement strategy, and measure conversion and retention of early-career hires.
  • Drive strategic initiatives such as talent mapping for critical roles, succession planning collaboration, and internal mobility programs to retain high-potential employees and reduce external hiring need.
  • Champion candidate experience improvements by standardizing communication, interview logistics, feedback timelines, and post-offer touchpoints that elevate employer brand and offer acceptance.
  • Create and manage recruiting budgets, forecasting, and headcount planning; advise finance and people ops on hiring spend and cost optimization opportunities.
  • Lead change management related to hiring model transformations (e.g., centralized vs. decentralized recruiting, RPO transitions, new ATS rollouts), including stakeholder communications, training, and adoption metrics.
  • Serve as a key hiring advisor during M&A activities and high-growth scaling events, providing rapid assessment of talent needs, integration hiring plans, and retention strategies for acquired teams.
  • Conduct regular talent reviews, recruiting post-mortems, and hiring funnel analysis to identify root causes of hiring challenges and implement corrective action plans with measurable outcomes.
  • Present recruiting strategy, progress, and outcomes to the executive team and Board as needed, articulating hiring risks, pipeline health, and plans to meet strategic headcount goals.
  • Ensure sourcing strategies include passive candidate engagement, employee referral programs, social recruiting, and channel diversification to reduce over-reliance on any single source.
  • Lead recruitment marketing campaigns and measurement, working cross-functionally to create content, careers site optimizations, and SEO-driven job postings to increase organic traffic and applicant quality.

Secondary Functions

  • Act as a cross-functional partner on HR systems projects that impact recruiting data flows and reporting, contributing subject-matter expertise and acceptance criteria.
  • Coach hiring managers on interviewing skills, candidate selection, compensation positioning, and onboarding handoffs to reduce time-to-productivity for new hires.
  • Manage and optimize the offer approval workflow and stakeholder sign-offs to speed decision-making and reduce candidate drop-off during offer stage.
  • Facilitate periodic recruiter training programs covering sourcing, diversity hiring, behavioral interviewing, and employer branding best practices.
  • Support ad-hoc strategic initiatives such as workforce scenario planning, skills gap analysis, and market mapping for competitive hiring insights.
  • Establish and maintain partnerships with professional organizations, universities, bootcamps, and community groups to strengthen employer presence and diversify talent channels.
  • Perform ongoing vendor audits and ROI assessments for RPOs, assessment providers, and sourcing tools to ensure best-in-class recruiting investments.
  • Lead risk mitigation and continuity planning for high-volume hiring waves, ensuring contingency sourcing and recruitment operations to manage spikes in demand.
  • Contribute to employee engagement and retention efforts by feeding hiring market intelligence into compensation and talent development conversations.
  • Maintain knowledge of competitive market trends, labor market supply/demand shifts, and regulatory changes that impact recruiting and employment practices.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Talent acquisition strategy development and execution for enterprise and high-growth environments.
  • Deep experience with ATS and recruiting platforms (e.g., Greenhouse, Lever, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS) including workflow design and analytics configuration.
  • Recruiting metrics and workforce analytics: building dashboards, funnel analysis, forecasting headcount and measuring ROI of recruiting channels.
  • Executive search and senior leadership hiring, including owner-level sourcing, assessment, and compensation alignment.
  • Advanced sourcing techniques: Boolean search, X-ray, social recruiting, candidate engagement at scale, and passive talent mapping.
  • Employer branding and recruitment marketing, including careers site optimization, job SEO, content campaigns, and social strategy.
  • DEI recruiting program design and implementation, including structured interviewing, diversity sourcing partnerships, and outcomes measurement.
  • Compensation and offer structuring knowledge to craft competitive packages and negotiate complex offers across geographies.
  • Vendor management for staffing agencies, RPOs, and assessment providers with contract negotiation and SLA oversight.
  • HRIS integrations, data governance, and compliance for candidate data privacy (GDPR, CCPA) and background check processes.
  • Project management skills for large cross-functional rollouts (ATS migrations, RPO transitions, hiring model redesign).

Soft Skills

  • Strategic leadership with the ability to translate business objectives into measurable talent acquisition plans.
  • Strong stakeholder management and influence skills; proven experience advising executives and hiring managers.
  • Exceptional communication and presentation abilities for conveying data-driven insights and strategy to senior audiences.
  • Coaching and people development mindset to mentor recruiting teams and elevate recruiting capabilities across the organization.
  • High emotional intelligence and bias-awareness in hiring to promote fair, inclusive recruiting practices.
  • Problem solving and critical thinking with a continuous improvement orientation.
  • Negotiation and persuasion skills to close offers, manage vendor contracts, and gain organizational alignment.
  • Change management aptitude to lead adoption of new processes, tools, and ways of working.
  • Time management and prioritization skills to balance strategic initiatives with day-to-day operational demands.
  • Resilience and adaptability to perform in fast-paced, ambiguous, and high-growth environments.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Psychology, Communications, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Human Resources, Organizational Psychology, Business Administration (MBA), or related advanced certification (e.g., SPHR, SHRM-SCP).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Human Resources Management
  • Organizational Development
  • Industrial/Organizational Psychology
  • Business Administration
  • Communications / Marketing

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 8–15+ years in talent acquisition/recruiting with at least 3–5 years in a senior leadership role directing recruiting teams and strategy.

Preferred:

  • 10+ years of progressive TA leadership experience supporting multiple functions and geographies, including experience scaling recruiting in high-growth or technical organizations; demonstrated success with ATS implementation, recruiting ops, DEI programs, executive hiring, and cross-functional partnership.
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