Director of Leadership Recruiting

Position Overview

Vaco by Highspring is seeking a strategic and results-oriented Director of Leadership Recruiting to spearhead the process of sourcing, assessing, and hiring top-tier executive and leadership talent within its Talent Solutions division. Reporting directly to the Chief People Officer and working closely with the President and Executive Partners, this role focuses on recruiting senior leaders such as Executive Partners, Managing Partners, and other line-of-business leadership roles.

Key Duties

• Oversee end-to-end recruitment for senior leadership roles across the Talent Solutions segment, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives.
• Collaborate with senior executives including the Chief People Officer, President, and HR leaders to synchronize recruiting efforts with workforce planning, succession plans, and business expansion goals.
• Formulate and implement effective leadership recruitment strategies aimed at attracting high-caliber candidates from talent solutions, workforce solutions, and professional services industries.
• Maintain and cultivate robust pipelines of passive leadership candidates to meet current and future organizational needs.
• Execute structured evaluations of candidates emphasizing leadership aptitude, industry experience, cultural fit, business impact, and potential for sustained success.
• Promote inclusive and equitable hiring practices through diverse sourcing methods, standardized interview procedures, and impartial candidate assessments.
• Manage leadership search operations from requisition to offer negotiation, ensuring clear communication, stakeholder consensus, prompt feedback, and seamless onboarding experiences.
• Advise leadership on market dynamics, competitor insights, compensation standards, and availability of top talent.
• Create an engaging and respectful candidate journey for senior executives throughout the hiring process.
• Develop and monitor recruitment metrics such as pipeline health, time-to-fill, hire quality, and stakeholder feedback to drive continual improvement.
• Maintain precise documentation and candidate data within applicant tracking systems to support transparency and reporting.
• Continuously refine recruitment processes, assessment techniques, and employer branding to enhance attraction of outstanding leadership talent.
• Support internal mobility and succession planning by ensuring fair and transparent consideration of internal candidates where applicable.
• Represent the company externally through industry networking, association participation, referrals, and targeted outreach to raise awareness of leadership openings.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Human Resources, Organizational Development, or a related field is preferred.
• A minimum of 7 years’ experience in recruitment, including significant exposure to hiring leadership talent within talent or workforce solutions sectors.
• At least 3 years in a senior-level role such as lead or director within recruiting functions.
• Proven track record of successfully filling management, director, VP, and executive roles.
• In-depth understanding of talent solutions organizational structures, covering local operations, recruiting functions, and business development.
• Ability to influence and serve as a trusted advisor to senior business leaders.
• Strong presence, communication, negotiation, and stakeholder engagement capabilities.
• Experience building proactive leadership talent pipelines.
• Familiarity with applicant tracking systems (ATS), customer relationship management (CRM) tools, LinkedIn Recruiter, and executive search platforms.
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills for managing multiple high-impact searches and stakeholder relationships.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in executive or retained search and leadership talent acquisition management.
• Understanding of succession planning and leadership evaluation methods.
• Well-established network of leaders within the talent solutions industry.
• Experience working with multi-site talent solutions companies.

Core Values and Competency Alignment

• Earns trust and builds credibility with senior leaders, candidates, and internal teams through sound judgment, openness, and reliable follow-through.
• Takes ownership of search results, candidate experience, process integrity, and partnership effectiveness.
• Focuses on attracting and assessing top leadership talent by considering business impact, cultural alignment, and sustainable success.
• Demonstrates resilience, adaptability, and urgency in a fast-moving, relationship-centric environment.
• Leverages market knowledge, data-driven insights, and informed decisions to enhance recruitment outcomes.

Additional Information

Travel requirements are approximately 10% of the time.