Talen Acquisition Center of Excellence Director

Primary Responsibilities

Talent Acquisition Strategy and COE Ownership

· Own and deliver UCCU’s enterprise talent acquisition strategy, operating model, standards, processes, tools, service expectations, and continuous-improvement roadmap.

· Define and document recruiting roles, responsibilities, decision rights, service levels, and handoffs for hiring managers, recruiters, HR Business Partners, HR Generalists, Compensation, HR Operations, Learning and Onboarding, and other participants.

· Define which positions receive dedicated recruiter support, what that support includes, and how recruiting capacity and priorities are allocated.

· Build and maintain UCCU’s staffing guidebook and selection toolkit, including intake, job descriptions, sourcing strategies, interview guides, assessments, selection documentation, offer templates, candidate communications, and onboarding handoffs.

· Drive accountability for process adoption, quality, speed, fairness, consistency, and a seamless client and candidate experience.

Head Recruiter for Key Roles

· Personally lead full-cycle recruiting for critical, senior, pivotal, specialized, and difficult-to-fill roles, as well as other roles assigned based on business need and team capacity.

· Lead intake meetings with hiring managers and involve the appropriate HR Business Partner and HR Generalist to clarify outcomes, scope, selection criteria, sourcing strategy, stakeholders, and timeline.

· Personally identify and proactively reach out to passive prospects rather than relying only on applications or posted openings.

· Build long-term relationships with high-potential talent and maintain pipelines before vacancies occur.

· Source, screen, assess, create qualified shortlists, coordinate interviews, support selection decisions, manage candidate communication, help close top candidates, and keep the process moving quickly.

· Develop enough understanding of the business and each key role to credibly advise hiring leaders, challenge unclear requirements, and accurately represent the opportunity to candidates.

Selection Process and Hiring-Manager Capability

· Own an effective selection process and the practical tools required to execute it, including intake forms, job-description templates, interview guides, assessments, structured evaluation, reference practices, and offer templates.

· Train and coach hiring managers in effective intake, structured interviewing, fair and consistent assessment, candidate selling, and timely decision-making.

· Ensure hiring managers use job-related evidence and consistent criteria while retaining ownership of the final selection decision.

· Monitor process quality and remove bottlenecks without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

Proactive Recruiting, Pivotal-Role Pipelines, and University Relations

· Create proactive sourcing and pipeline strategies for pivotal, recurring, growth-critical, and difficult-to-fill roles.

· Own and deliver UCCU’s university relations strategy, including priority schools, relationship ownership, events, internships or early-career pipelines as applicable, and measurable outcomes.

· Use LinkedIn Recruiter and other sourcing technology, professional networks, referrals, community relationships, associations, and direct outreach to expand access to talent.

· Partner with the Senior Recruiter on university, school, community, branch, Service Center, Hire Ahead, and new-site recruiting strategies.

Employer Value Proposition, Employer Brand, and Candidate Experience

· Define and drive UCCU’s Employee Value Proposition in partnership with HR and business leaders.

· Own the careers page, application experience, recruiting communications, and candidate-facing technology and content.

· Improve the quality and speed of the candidate experience from first contact through disposition, offer acceptance, and handoff to Learning and Onboarding.

· Ensure candidates receive responsive communication, a realistic and compelling understanding of UCCU and the role, and respectful closure.

Recruiting Technology, Data, Metrics, and Governance

· Own recruiting technology strategy and workflows, including the applicant tracking system, LinkedIn Recruiter or comparable sourcing tools, career-site integrations, automation, and reporting.

· Own the quality, definitions, governance, and use of talent acquisition data.

· Establish dashboards and operating reviews for pipeline health, source effectiveness, conversion, aging, time to fill, offer acceptance, starts, quality of hire, early retention, candidate experience, hiring-manager experience, and recruiter capacity.

· Use labor-market insights, process data, business outcomes, and stakeholder feedback to improve decisions, investments, and results.

Team Leadership and Portfolio Management

· Lead, coach, and develop the Senior Recruiter, Hire Ahead, Service Center & Branches and the Recruiting Coordinator.

· Establish clear recruiting portfolios, priorities, operating rhythms, service expectations, escalation paths, and accountability.

· Balance the Director’s hands-on recruiting portfolio with COE leadership responsibilities and reallocate work as business priorities and capacity change.

· Build one coordinated Talent Acquisition team that shares standards, tools, information, and accountability.

Cross-Functional Partnership and Handoffs

· Partner with HR Business Partners and leaders on workforce needs, pivotal positions, organization plans, and future capabilities.

· Partner with Compensation on job architecture, level, market pricing, range, internal equity, pay guidance, and required offer approvals.

· Partner with HR Operations on requisitions, systems, records, reporting, pre-employment requirements, written offers, and controls.

· Manage candidate communication and coordinate verbal offers as agreed; after verbal acceptance, ensure HR Operations has what is needed for the written offer and system actions.

· Hand accepted candidates to Learning and Onboarding for Day 1 readiness and the 90-Day Fast Start while keeping the hiring manager and HR partners informed.

What Year-One Success Looks Like

· A comprehensive UCCU staffing guidebook clearly defines the end-to-end process, responsibilities, decision rights, service levels, tools, metrics, and handoffs for every participant.

· Core tools are standardized and consistently used, including intake, job descriptions, sourcing plans, interview guides, assessments, selection documentation, offer templates, and candidate communications.

· A proactive recruiting strategy is operating for pivotal, recurring, senior, specialized, and difficult-to-fill roles, supported by direct outreach, active talent relationships, and ready pipelines.

· The Director personally demonstrates success recruiting and closing key positions while also building the COE infrastructure and developing the team.

· A university relations strategy is defined and operating with clear priorities, relationships, activities, ownership, and measures.

· UCCU’s Employee Value Proposition, careers page, application experience, and recruiting communications clearly communicate why talented people would want to build their careers at UCCU.

· The applicant tracking workflow, LinkedIn Recruiter or comparable sourcing technology, automation, dashboards, data definitions, and operating reviews are established and producing useful insights.

· Hiring managers are more capable and confident in intake, interviewing, assessment, selection, candidate selling, and timely decisions.

· Recruiting portfolios, service expectations, capacity priorities, and handoffs are clear, and the Senior Recruiter and Recruiting Coordinator operate as one coordinated team.

· Candidate experience, hiring speed, pipeline health, offer acceptance, hiring-manager experience, quality of hire, and early retention are measured and show visible improvement.

Who You Are

You live our Five Behaviors and are an enterprise-minded talent acquisition leader who can build the system, advise executives and hiring managers, lead a team, and personally recruit. You are an active headhunter and relationship builder who will proactively reach out to exceptional talent, represent UCCU credibly, and follow through until priority positions are filled with the right people.

What You Bring

· Seven or more years of progressive talent acquisition or recruiting experience, including substantial full-cycle recruiting for senior, specialized, pivotal, or difficult-to-fill roles.

· Demonstrated experience building or materially improving talent acquisition strategy, processes, tools, technology, governance, data, and metrics.

· Strong direct-sourcing and passive-candidate outreach capability, including the ability to build relationships and pipelines before openings exist.

· Strong intake, interviewing, assessment, executive communication, consulting, candidate-selling, offer-closing, and project-management skills.

· Experience leading and developing recruiters or recruiting coordinators and balancing team leadership with a personal recruiting portfolio.

· Experience with applicant tracking systems, LinkedIn Recruiter or comparable sourcing platforms, analytics, employer brand, university relations, and external recruiting partners.

· Working knowledge of applicable employment laws and structured, fair, and legally compliant selection practices.

· Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience considered.

What Makes This Role Attractive to Top Talent

· You get to build UCCU’s first ever, future-state Talent Acquisition Center of Excellence while personally recruiting the key people who will shape UCCU’s growth.

· You will have the autonomy to create a proactive, modern recruiting engine rather than simply administer job postings and applications.

· The role combines enterprise strategy, executive partnership, team leadership, technology, data, employer brand, and hands-on headhunting.

· You can materially improve how candidates and hiring leaders experience UCCU while building pipelines for a vibrant $10 billion future.

The Company: Utah Community Credit Union

Who We Are

Founded in 1955 with $35 and a cast-iron tub for a vault, UCCU has grown into a member-owned credit union serving more than 270,000 members through 27 branches, with more than $4 billion in assets and an ambition to become a vibrant $10 billion institution by 2033. Our founding philosophy remains unchanged: people helping people.

Our mission is to: Help as many people as possible improve their financial strength, achieve their goals and dreams, and love where they bank.

Why UCCU

Members often say UCCU feels different. They are not treated like a number, but like a neighbor and member-owner whose goals and financial well-being genuinely matter. That experience begins with our employees and the High-Performing Culture of Care we create inside UCCU.

As a not-for-profit credit union, the value we create is reinvested in better experiences and opportunities for members, employees, and the communities we serve. We are growing from a position of strength, giving talented, purposeful people the opportunity to build, develop, make a meaningful impact, and help shape what UCCU becomes next.

Employee Value Proposition

Our commitment is to create an environment where employees say: “I LOVE working here because I LOVE who I am becoming while inspiring people to LOVE where they bank.”

We invest in clarity, coaching, development, recognition, opportunity, and rewards because we believe that to win in the marketplace, we must first win in the workplace. From the boardroom to the family room, and from the bank to the backyard, UCCU helps people become their best while helping others become theirs.

The Five Behaviors of The UCCU Way

At UCCU, how we achieve results matters just as much as the results we achieve. This role is expected to live and model the Five Behaviors:

Caring Deeply: We are purposeful people who genuinely care about those we serve, the people we work with, and the mission that unites us.

Listening Humbly: We are active listeners who seek to understand before being understood, welcoming coaching, feedback, and different perspectives with humility and respect.

Winning As One: We are united by a shared purpose to serve our members, so we think, act, and win as one UCCU.

Owning the Outcome: We are people who uncover the need, take responsibility, make commitments, and over-deliver.

Always Growing: We are talented people who master our craft, becoming our best while helping others become theirs.

Compensation

Compensation will be based on experience, qualifications, and market alignment. The total package includes a competitive base salary, annual incentive opportunity tied to personal and organizational performance, and comprehensive benefits consistent with UCCU's commitment to its employees.