Connecticut Children's

Director, Talent Acquisition - Full Time - Hartford, CT

Show

Position Summary

The Director of Talent Acquisition leads a high-performing team of recruiting and onboarding professionals responsible for sourcing, selecting, and onboarding talent across Connecticut Children's clinical, operational, and administrative functions.

This role serves as a strategic partner to senior leaders across the organization, driving recruiting excellence, improving candidate and hiring manager experience, and owning the end-to-end pre-employment process — including health clearance in partnership with Occupational Health. The Director reports to the VP, HR Operations and plays a key role in workforce planning and talent pipeline strategy.

Role Responsibilities

Strategic Talent Acquisition Leadership (20%)

  • Develop and execute a multi-year talent acquisition strategy aligned to organizational workforce needs
  • Lead the design and evolution of recruitment models, sourcing strategies, and workforce planning initiatives
  • Build strong talent pipelines across critical roles and hard-to-fill positions

Pre-Employment Clearance & Compliance (20%)

  • Oversee the pre-employment clearance and onboarding process, including occupational health, background checks, licensure verification, and other regulatory requirements
  • Ensure clearance processes are timely, compliant, and tightly integrated with onboarding and HR systems
  • Build long-term strategic plans for clearance, credentialing workflows, and operational efficiencies

Contingent Workforce Strategy (10%)

  • Define and manage strategies for contingent labor entry into the organization, including process design, policies, and vendor partnerships
  • Partner with HR, legal, finance, and supply chain to optimize contingent workforce governance

Analytics, Metrics & Operational Excellence (20%)

  • Develop and sustain data-driven recruiting processes and performance dashboards
  • Monitor, evaluate, and communicate key hiring and funnel metrics (e.g., time-to-fill, time-to-start, funnel conversion, vacancy impact)
  • Identify opportunities and drive initiatives to accelerate hiring cycle times and increase quality of hire
  • Use analytics and trend data to evaluate workforce needs and improve decision making

Cross-Functional Collaboration (10%)

  • Partner closely with Compensation, HR Systems & Analytics, Occupational Health, Compliance, hiring leaders, and other stakeholders to streamline hiring and onboarding workflows
  • Work with HR Systems leaders to enhance ATS and clearance systems, data flows, and reporting capabilities

Team Leadership (20%)

  • Lead and develop a high-performing Talent Acquisition team and clearance specialists
  • Foster a culture of service excellence, data-driven decision-making, and continuous improvement
  • Provide coaching, training, and performance management for TA team members

Performs other job-related duties as assigned.

Education and Experience Required:

Required

  • Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, or related field.
  • 8 years of progressive talent acquisition experience, 3 years of leadership experience
  • Proven experience managing pre-employment processes and compliance-driven hiring environments
  • Experience with ATS platforms (e.g., Oracle, Workday, iCIMS) and recruiting analytics tools
  • Demonstrated track record of using data and insights to optimize recruitment strategies and drive cycle-time improvements
  • Experience working cross-functionally with HR Centers of Excellence (compensation, HRIS, benefits)

Preferred:

  • Master’s Degree in Business or Human Resources
  • Healthcare or regulated industry experience
  • Experience leading contingent workforce programs

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Knowledge

  • Healthcare talent acquisition principles, including clinical and non-clinical recruiting workflows, licensure/credentialing requirements, and healthcare regulatory compliance (Joint Commission, CMS, state licensure bodies)
  • Pre-employment clearance processes including occupational health integration, background screening, and onboarding compliance frameworks in a healthcare setting
  • Contingent workforce governance models, including vendor management, co-employment risk, staffing agency partnerships, and policy design
  • HR technology ecosystems including ATS platforms, HRIS integration, data flows, and reporting architecture
  • Employment law and healthcare-specific regulatory requirements relevant to hiring, credentialing, and contingent labor

Skills

  • Designing and executing multi-year talent acquisition strategies aligned to organizational workforce plans, with demonstrable outcomes in time-to-fill and quality of hire
  • Building and sustaining recruiting analytics frameworks — dashboards, funnel metrics, conversion tracking — and translating data into leadership-ready narratives
  • Leading cross-functional process improvement initiatives across HR, Compliance, Finance, Legal, and clinical operations
  • Negotiating and managing vendor and staffing agency relationships, including contract oversight and performance accountability
  • Developing and coaching high-performing TA teams, including goal-setting, performance management, and capability building
  • Communicating complex workforce and hiring data clearly to senior and executive stakeholders

Abilities

  • Operate simultaneously at the strategic and operational level — setting multi-year direction while maintaining accountability for day-to-day hiring performance
  • Build credibility and trusted relationships with senior clinical and operational leaders, influencing without direct authority
  • Navigate ambiguity and competing organizational priorities without losing momentum on core delivery commitments
  • Drive sustainable process change across functions with varying levels of readiness or buy-in
  • Hold a team accountable to high service standards while maintaining a culture of operational excellence and continuous growth
  • Adapt sourcing and recruiting strategies rapidly in response to market shifts, workforce trends, or organizational pivots