Director of Talent Acquisition

About the Role

The Director of Talent Acquisition provides strategic and hands-on leadership for Westcliff University's talent acquisition function. Reporting to the Vice President of Human Resources, this role leads and develops a team of Talent Acquisition Partners while directly managing searches for leadership and other high-impact positions and providing interim support for other roles as needed. The Director builds scalable, innovative, and data-informed recruiting practices that strengthen candidate quality, improve speed and efficiency, and support University growth. A key focus is advancing recruitment automation, modern sourcing strategies, reporting and analytics, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) throughout the talent acquisition lifecycle.

Key Relationships & Leadership

• Reports to the Vice President of Human Resources and serves as the functional leader for Talent Acquisition
• Directly supervises Talent Acquisition Partners and is responsible for their coaching, development, prioritization, and performance
• Partners regularly with the President/CEO, executive leadership, deans, department leaders, and hiring managers on leadership and strategic hiring needs
• Collaborates with HR Business Partners, HR Operations, Payroll, Compensation, and other HR team members to support an effective end-to-end hiring and onboarding experience
• Builds productive relationships with candidates, external search partners, sourcing vendors, professional associations, and talent communities

Essential Job Functions

• Lead the University's talent acquisition strategy and day-to-day recruiting operations in alignment with institutional growth, workforce planning, and talent priorities
• Manage, coach, and develop two Talent Acquisition Partners; establish clear performance expectations, workload allocation, service standards, and accountability for recruiting outcomes
• Personally lead full-cycle recruitment for executive, leadership, and other critical or difficult-to-fill positions, including intake, market mapping, sourcing, assessment, candidate management, offer development, and closing
• Partner with the Vice President of Human Resources, senior leaders, deans, hiring managers, and HR colleagues to define talent needs, role requirements, selection strategies, and competitive recruiting approaches
• Design and implement innovative sourcing strategies that expand qualified talent pipelines through direct sourcing, passive-candidate outreach, professional networks, referrals, events, social platforms, and targeted market research
• Advance automation across recruiting workflows to reduce administrative burden, improve response times, strengthen candidate communication, and create a more consistent hiring-manager and candidate experience
• Identify, evaluate, and implement responsible uses of AI in recruiting, including sourcing support, market intelligence, job-content optimization, workflow automation, candidate engagement, and recruiting analytics, with appropriate human oversight and compliance controls
• Develop recruiting dashboards and metrics that provide actionable insight into time-to-fill, time-to-hire, source effectiveness, pipeline conversion, candidate quality, offer acceptance, hiring-manager experience, and other key performance indicators
• Use recruiting data and market intelligence to identify trends, diagnose bottlenecks, recommend process improvements, and advise leadership on talent availability and hiring strategy
• Continuously improve recruiting processes, interview practices, selection tools, candidate communications, and technology to increase quality, consistency, speed, and scalability
• Build external talent networks and employment-brand visibility to position Westcliff University as an employer of choice across higher education and other relevant industries
• Manage relationships with external search firms, staffing partners, job boards, technology vendors, and other recruiting resources; monitor quality, cost, and return on investment
• Promote structured, equitable, and job-related selection practices and partner with Human Resources to support compliance with applicable employment laws, University policies, and recordkeeping requirements
• Support recruiting-related projects associated with organizational growth, new campuses, acquisitions, integrations, and other strategic initiatives
• Handles other projects and tasks as needed

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Leadership, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience
• Minimum 7 years of progressive talent acquisition/recruiting experience, including demonstrated success recruiting leadership and difficult-to-fill professional roles
• Minimum 2 years of direct people-leadership or recruiting-team leadership experience
• Demonstrated experience building or improving recruiting processes, sourcing strategies, and recruiting metrics/reporting
• Hands-on experience with applicant tracking systems, recruiting technologies, sourcing platforms, and data/reporting tools
• Demonstrated ability to use or implement AI-enabled and automation tools in a professional recruiting environment with sound judgment, appropriate human oversight, and attention to compliance and candidate experience
• Strong executive presence and consultative skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders and advise hiring managers on talent strategy and selection decisions
• Excellent written and verbal communication, organization, project management, and stakeholder-management skills
• Ability to manage multiple searches and priorities in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment while maintaining attention to quality, confidentiality, and candidate experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Leadership, or a related field
• Talent acquisition experience within higher education, healthcare, professional services, technology, or another complex multi-site organization
• Experience supporting executive searches, organizational expansion, acquisitions/integrations, or rapid-growth environments
• Experience designing dashboards or using analytics/BI tools to translate recruiting data into executive-level insights
• Professional certification such as SHRM-CP/SCP, PHR/SPHR, or related credential