Vice President of Talent Acquisition

About the Role

Our client is a growing field services company with approximately 4,000 employees, the large majority of whom are skilled labor, including a significant H2B and seasonal workforce. The company has grown steadily through acquisition and is now looking for a VP of Talent to build a talent function equal to that growth. Recruiting today is handled by a team of six recruiters who are effective at day-to-day, hand-to-hand field recruiting but are operating without a broader strategy, formal structure, or modern tooling. This is a newly elevated, executive-level position reporting to the CHRO.

Why This Role Matters

• Strategic build, not a staffing role: The team can already execute reqs — what's missing is a talent strategy, succession planning, and the infrastructure to scale.
• No legacy systems or playbook to inherit: The mandate is to design the talent operating model from first principles, not optimize something that already exists.
• The company has no formal succession planning, internal mobility pathways, or leadership development programming in place today across its skilled-labor and field workforce.
• Leadership is treating this as a priority hire and is prepared to pay for the right level of talent — the company is ready to hire immediately.

What You'll Do

Build the Function

• Design the company's talent operating model from scratch — sourcing strategy, interview architecture, hiring manager enablement, ATS/technology stack, and reporting infrastructure.
• Create proprietary channels for sourcing, tracking, and developing talent, particularly for skilled trades and visa/seasonal pipelines that generic job boards don't serve well.
• Apply structured problem-solving and process design to build a scalable, repeatable talent system rather than a collection of ad hoc practices.
• Establish clear metrics, dashboards, and a funnel/pipeline view of hiring and talent performance (time-to-fill, conversion by stage, source effectiveness, quality of hire) to give leadership real visibility.

Own Workforce & Succession Planning

• Design and lead a scalable strategy for workforce planning, addressing a recurring operational challenge.
• Build and manage a succession planning process to identify and prepare future leaders across field and corporate roles.
• Create internal mobility pathways so employees — especially high-potential field talent — have real routes for growth within the company.

Develop People & Culture

• Implement leadership development programs and career paths aligned with the company's growth plans.
• Standardize performance management, including talent calibration and development planning, across a workforce that has operated without consistent process.
• Help shape and reinforce culture as the company continues to integrate newly acquired businesses and their teams.

Lead & Develop the Recruiting Team

• Manage and coach the current recruiting team, elevating their capability and strategic fluency.
• Bring structure and process discipline to a team that is strong operationally but has been working without a playbook.
• Drive a strong candidate experience and build effective partnerships between recruiters, hiring managers, and field operators.

Partner at the Executive Level

• Operate as a credible, structured thought partner to HR leadership and business-unit operators, translating growth and workforce priorities into a coherent talent plan.
• Use talent analytics to inform decisions on hiring, internal movement, and succession — not just report on activity after the fact.
• Support integration of talent and workforce planning as the company continues to grow through acquisition.
• Partner with HR leadership on compensation benchmarking and equity as it relates to attracting and retaining talent, particularly in competitive skilled-trades markets.

What We're Looking For

The Core Profile

• 10+ years in talent leadership, with a proven track record of driving transformational change in a high-growth or acquisitive environment.
• Has already served as a VP of Talent (or equivalent senior talent leader) within a field services or comparable skilled-labor business.
• A genuine builder's mentality: comfortable with ambiguity, energized by designing systems and processes from nothing, and able to translate structured thinking into durable operating infrastructure.
• Expertise spanning the full talent lifecycle: recruiting strategy, leadership development, succession planning, internal mobility, and performance management — not recruiting alone.
• Experience with workforce planning is a strong plus given the scale of that population here.
• Comfortable operating strategically while still willing to be hands-on when needed — this is fundamentally a strategy and structure-building hire, not a tactical recruiting role.
• Track record standing up talent infrastructure, succession planning, and reporting where little to none existed before.

Also Valued

• Experience integrating talent functions through prior acquisitions.
• Working knowledge of labor and employment law relevant to a skilled-trades workforce, along with DEI best practices.
• A demonstrated ability to develop and elevate an existing team rather than replace it.
• Strong executive presence and influence — able to shape thinking with the CEO, HR leadership, and operators, not just execute their direction.