Talent Research & Sourcing Partner, Marketing, Brand & Communications

Talent Research & Sourcing Partner, Marketing, Brand & Communications

Location: San Francisco, CA preferred; open to remote

Work Type: Onsite, hybrid, or remote

Remote Time Zone Requirements: Open to any U.S. time zone

Contract Length: 12-month W2 contract with potential to extend

Pay Rate: $135–$150/hour

Interview Process: Up to 3 rounds

About the Role

Russell Tobin is supporting a leading AI research and technology company in hiring a Talent Research & Sourcing Partner, Marketing, Brand & Communications . This role will support recruiting for highly nuanced marketing, brand, communications, creative, editorial, and related talent segments.

This is not a high-volume sourcing role. The ideal candidate brings an executive search mindset and excels at uncovering, engaging, and nurturing hard-to-find passive talent. This person will focus on deep research, talent mapping, long-term pipeline development, candidate engagement, and talent intelligence to help build relationships with exceptional candidates who are rarely active on the open market.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute specialized sourcing strategies for hard-to-fill roles across marketing, brand, communications, creative, media, editorial, and related talent areas.
• Identify, engage, and nurture passive candidates who may not be actively looking or applying through traditional channels.
• Build and maintain long-term talent pipelines for current and future hiring needs.
• Conduct deep talent research, market mapping, profile enrichment, and talent intelligence gathering.
• Partner closely with recruiters and business stakeholders to understand team needs, role requirements, talent profiles, positioning, tone, and hiring priorities.
• Build and maintain living talent maps for priority searches so recruiting teams understand where exceptional candidates are before a requisition opens.
• Design and execute long-term candidate engagement strategies to keep top passive talent warm over time.
• Create referral channels and proactive talent networks using executive search, VC talent network, and relationship-driven recruiting methodologies.
• Tap into founder, VC, creative, editorial, media, operator, and niche professional networks to identify talent that may not surface through standard sourcing methods.
• Use AI tools to improve sourcing, research, outreach, profile enrichment, workflow efficiency, and talent intelligence.
• Craft thoughtful, targeted outreach that resonates with highly specialized passive candidates.
• Maintain recruiting reports, analytics, dashboards, and pipeline updates to keep recruiters and business leaders informed.

Time Allocation

• Specialized sourcing for Marketing, Brand & Communications roles: Approximately 60%
• Talent pipeline and referral engine building: Approximately 35%
• Reporting, analytics, and dashboards: Approximately 5%

Required Qualifications

• Experience recruiting or sourcing for niche, nuanced, or hard-to-find talent segments.
• Strong passive candidate sourcing experience, including targeted outreach, relationship building, and market mapping.
• Exceptional research and analytical skills.
• Proven ability to identify non-obvious talent pools and develop data-driven sourcing strategies.
• Experience building and managing long-term talent pipelines.
• Experience with candidate identification, profile enrichment, CRM management, engagement strategies, and talent intelligence gathering.
• Demonstrated proficiency using AI tools to improve sourcing, research, outreach, or recruiting workflows.
• Strong curiosity, adaptability, and desire to learn new talent markets.
• Ability to attract and engage passive candidates without relying heavily on employer brand recognition.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience sourcing for marketing, brand, communications, creative, editorial, media, or related talent segments.
• Experience with executive talent mapping and long-term candidate engagement programs.
• Fluency in recruiting and talent metrics, reporting, dashboards, and pipeline analytics.
• Experience working within or alongside VC talent networks, founder networks, or executive search environments.
• Experience supporting recruiting for fast-moving technology, AI, research, startup, or highly innovative environments.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Strategic, research-driven, and highly curious.
• Comfortable finding exceptional people in unexpected places.
• Experienced in building talent maps from scratch.
• Skilled at engaging passive candidates through thoughtful, personalized outreach.
• Able to partner closely with recruiters and stakeholders to turn market intelligence into high-quality pipeline.
• Analytical and creative in approach.
• Comfortable using AI and data to sharpen sourcing strategies.
• Strong at building trust with candidates over time.

Russell Tobin offers eligible employee’s comprehensive healthcare coverage (medical, dental, and vision plans), supplemental coverage (accident insurance, critical illness insurance and hospital indemnity), 401(k)-retirement savings, life & disability insurance, an employee assistance program, legal support, auto, home insurance, pet insurance and employee discounts with preferred vendors.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Russell Tobin is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of the race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, reproductive health decision making, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Fair Chance Employment

Russell Tobin is a Fair Chance employer. We consider all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable state and local Fair Chance laws and ordinances, including, the California Fair Chance Act and all applicable local Fair Chance ordinances.

Accommodations

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, or to perform the essential functions of this role, please contact us.

Only applicable for San Francisco Candidates : Under the San Francisco Lactation in the Workplace Ordinance, we will provide written notice of lactation accommodation rights, and this notice will automatically be given upon hiring, any inquiry of parental leave or lactation accommodation.