Director of Talent Acquisition

Director Of Talent Acquisition

At Westcliff, we are constantly striving to be the best while valuing each of our team members as human beings and succeeding together!

Westcliff is a leader in innovative global education. We are respected for our transformative, technologically advanced programs and initiatives with a focus on excellence, social responsibility, and diversity. Our tagline – "Educate. Inspire, Empower." – is a summary of our Mission Statement. As it suggests, the main focus of our University is to strive to enhance the opportunities of our students and employees to enjoy success through empowerment, as a result of their education and hard work.

By joining the Westcliff team, you'll be playing a significant role in our growth, having an opportunity to put your personal touch on Westcliff's progress as we grow and succeed together!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Limitations and Disclaimer:

The above job description is meant to describe the general nature and level of work being performed; it is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required for the position. All job requirements are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health and safety of themselves or other employees. This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee occupying this position. Employees will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform other job-related duties requested by their supervisor in compliance with Federal and State Laws. Requirements are representative of minimum levels of knowledge, skills and/or abilities. To perform this job successfully, the employee must possess the abilities or aptitudes to perform each duty proficiently. Continued employment remains on an at-will basis, unless otherwise contractually bound.