Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist

You will lead the end-to-end recruitment of senior internal roles, focusing primarily on director and C-level positions. Acting as the company’s first point of contact for these candidates, you will manage intake sessions directly with founders and department heads, providing strategic guidance and challenging briefs that may not yield the desired hires. This role requires autonomy and strategic thinking rather than coordination or following pre-set search plans.

Key Responsibilities
- Manage multiple searches simultaneously, from junior specialists to C-level executives, ensuring each is executed thoroughly and professionally.
- Build and nurture talent pipelines proactively, engaging candidates months in advance of open roles to maintain their interest over time.
- Represent the employer brand authentically, articulating compelling reasons for senior candidates to consider a move to the company.
- Provide strategic advisory to hiring managers and founders, including realistic market insights, salary expectations, and candid feedback on role briefs.
- Conduct intake and calibration meetings with senior stakeholders, including constructive disagreements when necessary.
- Serve as the primary contact for senior candidates, maintaining engagement and preventing drop-offs throughout the hiring process.
- Source candidates directly when pipelines or inbound interest are insufficient.
- Deliver clear, written candidate evaluations that enable decision-making without additional follow-up.
- Oversee quality control on shortlists prepared by the delivery team, testing and iterating on job titles, post copy, and sourcing channels based on candidate quality rather than volume.
- Design and execute structured assessments, including scorecards and one-way evaluations, to maintain a high hiring bar.

Required Qualifications
- Minimum of six years’ experience in talent acquisition, with at least three years in-house, embedded, or RPO roles; agency-only backgrounds will not meet the criteria.
- Proven experience recruiting senior or leadership roles, with a focus beyond volume hiring.
- Demonstrated success hiring for the US or UK markets, effectively representing employers in those regions.
- Near-native fluency in spoken and written English, with the ability to improvise confidently during live interactions with senior candidates.
- Experience managing senior stakeholders, including the ability to productively challenge them.
- Strong direct sourcing skills with measurable response rates.
- Comfortable working as an independent contractor, managing invoicing and tax obligations.
- Flexibility to work across UAE, UK, and US East Coast time zones, including routine calls outside standard business hours.
- Track record of building talent pipelines ahead of demand and maintaining candidate engagement over extended periods.
- Ability to articulate and adapt employer value propositions tailored to different audiences.
- Experience designing and implementing structured candidate assessments such as scorecards, structured interviews, and psychometric tools.
- Demonstrated ability to test and refine job postings with clear evidence of impact.
- Active and credible LinkedIn presence with regular posting and engagement recognized by peers in the market.

Preferred Qualifications and Benefits
- Experience managing multi-country or multi-entity hiring processes.
- Proven ability to build recruitment processes from scratch rather than only executing existing frameworks.
- Experience as the sole recruiter in an organization, managing full-cycle recruitment independently.
- Background in coaching or overseeing junior recruiters.
- Data-driven approach to A/B testing job titles, posts, and sourcing channels.
- Hands-on experience with AI-assisted sourcing and outreach tools such as Clay, HeyReach, n8n, or Exa, with demonstrable projects built using these technologies.
- Success in building talent pipelines that result in hires months after initial contact.
- Experience working in organizations without established employer brands, creating compelling reasons for candidates to join.

Compensation and Benefits
- Competitive contractor compensation up to $80,000 annually, commensurate with experience.
- Direct access to company founders, enabling close collaboration without intermediary layers.
- Daily use of a sophisticated AI recruitment stack integrated into workflows, with opportunities to innovate and build new tools.
- A role that rewards building and improving recruitment frameworks, with lasting impact on company hiring practices.

Hiring Process
Candidates will undergo an application review, a one-way video submission, a short written exercise, a structured interview with the Global Head of People & Talent, and a working session with a founder. Feedback is provided transparently at every stage.