Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Nurse Recruitment Campaign Specialist

🎯 Role Definition

The Nurse Recruitment Campaign Specialist owns end-to-end recruitment marketing and sourcing campaigns to identify, engage, and convert high-quality nursing candidates across local, national, and international markets. This role partners with clinical hiring managers, workforce planning, HR operations, and external agencies to build scalable pipelines, reduce time-to-fill, improve offer-acceptance rates, and elevate the employer brand among nursing professionals. Key activities include campaign strategy, paid and organic candidate acquisition (LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, job boards), ATS/CRM management, candidate nurturing, analytics and reporting, compliance awareness (licensure, credentialing, visa sponsorship), and continuous optimization to meet hiring velocity and quality KPIs.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Recruitment Coordinator (Healthcare)
Talent Acquisition Sourcer
Nursing Workforce Planner
Recruitment Marketing Coordinator

Advancement To:

Senior Nurse Recruitment Specialist / Lead Recruiter
Recruitment Marketing Manager (Healthcare)
Talent Acquisition Manager – Clinical Hiring
Director, Clinical Talent Acquisition

Lateral Moves:

Employer Brand Specialist (Healthcare)
Clinical Workforce Planning Analyst
International Nurse Mobility Coordinator

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop, launch and manage targeted multichannel recruitment campaigns (LinkedIn Recruiter, Facebook/Instagram Ads, Google Ads, programmatic job advertising, niche nursing boards) to generate qualified nurse candidate pipelines aligned to volume hiring goals and specialty needs.
Design and execute employer branding content and creative assets (video, landing pages, testimonials, nurse spotlight stories) to increase awareness and attraction among RNs, LPNs/LVNs, NPs, CRNAs and specialty nursing populations.
Build, segment, and maintain talent pools and nurture campaigns inside the ATS/CRM (e.g., Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Avature) with tailored outreach, email sequences, and SMS to reduce time to hire and improve candidate conversion rates.
Partner with clinical hiring managers and nursing leaders to translate staffing needs into campaign briefs, candidate personas, sourcing strategies, and measurable hiring targets by unit, specialty and shift.
Execute end-to-end paid media campaigns including audience targeting, bid and budget management, creative A/B testing, and ongoing optimization to maximize cost-per-hire efficiency and lead quality for nursing roles.
Source passive nursing talent using advanced boolean search, LinkedIn Recruiter, nursing forums, niche job boards (Nurse.com, AAPPR, NurseFly), and professional associations to surface hard-to-find specialty clinicians.
Coordinate candidate screening and intake with recruiters and hiring managers to ensure consistent assessment criteria, clinical credential verification, and a smooth candidate experience from first touch to offer.
Track and analyze recruitment funnel metrics (applicants, qualified candidates, interviews, offers, hires, time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, source-of-hire) and produce weekly/monthly dashboards for TA leadership and nursing leadership.
Implement and monitor diversity and inclusion sourcing strategies to attract underrepresented nursing candidates and support organizational DEI hiring goals.
Manage relationships with external staffing agencies, international recruitment partners, and relocation vendors; negotiate SLAs, pricing, and campaigns to supplement internal pipelines when necessary.
Ensure all recruitment campaigns and candidate communications comply with healthcare hiring regulations, licensure verification requirements, state nursing board rules, and, when applicable, visa/immigration sponsorship processes.
Optimize recruitment landing pages and job descriptions for SEO (nurse job keywords, specialty phrases, geographic targeting) to improve organic discoverability and job board performance.
Run campus and community outreach programs, attend nursing school career fairs, and coordinate virtual hiring events and webinars to build a steady entry-level and graduate nursing pipeline.
Develop and execute referral incentive campaigns for current nursing staff and alumni networks, track referral performance, and iterate incentives to drive high-quality referrals.
Lead recruitment marketing experiments—creative variations, channel mix, copywriting, and CTA testing—to continuously improve candidate response rates and reduce cost-per-applicant.
Oversee candidate experience improvements including scheduling automation, interview communication templates, and feedback loops to increase offer acceptance and reduce drop-off.
Collaborate with total rewards and HRBP teams to craft targeted compensation, sign-on bonus, and benefits messaging for campaign creative that addresses nurse market drivers (shift differentials, tuition reimbursement, loan repayment).
Provide training and enablement for hiring managers and internal recruiters on sourcing best practices, campaign briefs, and effective nurse interviewing to improve conversion and hiring velocity.
Manage recruitment campaign budgets, track spend by channel, forecast needs based on hiring plans, and drive ROI-focused decisions across paid media and agency engagements.
Conduct competitive market research and benchmark analyses on nurse compensation, employer value propositions, and campaign performance to inform strategic hiring decisions.
Coordinate background checks, credential verifications, drug screenings, and onboarding handoffs with HR operations to ensure seamless candidate transitions and rapid start dates.
Document and share best practices, playbooks and SOPs for high-volume nursing campaigns to enable scale and repeatability across hospital units and geographic regions.
Respond rapidly to surge staffing needs (COVID surges, seasonal peaks, unit expansions) by standing up emergency sourcing campaigns, expedited interviews, and contingency agency support.

Secondary Functions

Maintain and enrich candidate data hygiene in the ATS/CRM to improve segmentation accuracy and reporting.
Support ad-hoc reporting and exploratory analysis requests from TA leadership and nursing operations for workforce planning and budget forecasting.
Contribute to the organization’s recruitment marketing strategy and roadmap by identifying new channels, technologies and workflow improvements.
Collaborate with business units to translate clinical staffing projections into monthly campaign budgets and resourcing plans.
Participate in sprint planning and agile hiring initiatives within the talent acquisition team to prioritize campaign work and continuous improvement efforts.
Audit job descriptions and hiring workflows for consistency, compliance and SEO-best practice alignment across nursing roles.
Liaise with internal communications and marketing teams to amplify nursing-focused campaigns across corporate channels and employee networks.
Assist with vendor evaluations and procurement for recruitment tools, advertising platforms, and candidate verification services.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

ATS/CRM proficiency (Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Avature or similar) — campaign setup, pipeline management, reporting and automation.
Recruitment marketing platforms and paid media experience (LinkedIn Recruiter/Ads, Facebook Business Manager, Google Ads, Indeed Sponsored Jobs, ZipRecruiter).
Sourcing techniques: advanced boolean search, X-ray search, LinkedIn Recruiter, niche nursing boards and professional association sourcing.
Marketing analytics and dashboarding (Google Analytics, Tableau, Power BI, Excel pivot tables) to measure channel performance and hiring KPIs.
SEO best practices for job descriptions and recruitment landing pages to increase organic candidate traffic.
Email automation and CRM nurture campaign tools (Salesforce, HubSpot, Braze, or ATS-integrated sequences).
Experience managing budgets, bidding strategies, and cost-per-hire optimization across paid channels.
Familiarity with credentialing and licensure verification processes for RNs, LPNs/LVNs, APRNs and specialty certifications.
Knowledge of immigration/visa sponsorship processes where applicable (H-1B, EB pathways, or nurse-specific sponsorship programs).
Event and campus recruiting management tools (virtual career fair platforms, webinar production, booth logistics).

Soft Skills

Strong stakeholder management — ability to align hiring managers, clinical leaders, HR operations and external vendors toward campaign goals.
Excellent written and verbal communication for persuasive candidate messaging, detailed campaign briefs and executive reporting.
Data-driven mindset — able to translate analytics into action, prioritize tests, and iterate campaigns for measurable improvement.
Project management and organizational skills to run multiple concurrent campaigns and urgent staffing initiatives.
Creative problem solving — designing bespoke sourcing strategies for hard-to-fill specialties (ICU, OR, NICU, behavioral health).
Resilience and adaptability in a fast-paced clinical hiring environment with shifting priorities.
Coaching and enablement — ability to train hiring teams and recruiters on sourcing, interviewing and closing techniques.
Negotiation and vendor management skills for agency contracts, advertising buys, and vendor SLAs.
Empathy and candidate-first orientation to deliver a high-quality experience for nursing applicants.
Attention to compliance, confidentiality and ethical hiring practices in healthcare.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Marketing, Communications, Healthcare Administration, Business, or related field — or equivalent experience in recruitment.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree with coursework in marketing, data analytics, public health, or healthcare management.
Certifications such as AIRS, LinkedIn Certified Professional–Recruiter, SHRM-CP, or HR-related certifications are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Human Resources / Talent Acquisition
Marketing / Recruitment Marketing
Healthcare Administration / Nursing Leadership
Business Analytics / Data Science

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3–7 years of progressive experience in recruitment, recruitment marketing, or talent acquisition with at least 2 years focused on clinical or nursing hiring campaigns.

Preferred:

5+ years experience running high-volume and specialty nurse recruitment campaigns across digital channels and direct sourcing.
Demonstrated success with ATS/CRM campaign automation, paid media acquisition, and hiring metrics improvement in a healthcare setting.
Experience with international nurse recruitment, licensure verification, and relocation/immigration coordination considered a strong advantage.