Executive Director, Talent Acquisition
Description
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Our client is a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing a differentiated pipeline of innovative therapies designed to address serious diseases and improve patients’ lives. The company is entering a pivotal growth phase as it continues to mature from a clinical-stage organization toward future commercial readiness.
The organization has a strong scientific foundation, a values-driven culture, and a collaborative leadership team focused on building a high-performing company with exceptional talent. This is a rare opportunity to join at a consequential stage of growth and help shape the people engine that will support the company’s next chapter.
THE OPPORTUNITY
This is a mission-critical leadership role for an accomplished Talent Acquisition executive who can operate at both strategic and executional levels.
The Executive Director, Talent Acquisition, will own the full talent acquisition function, lead an already high-performing team, and partner closely with senior People leadership and executive stakeholders to translate business strategy into proactive workforce and hiring plans.
This is not a maintenance role. The mandate is to strengthen and scale an existing TA foundation by bringing greater rigor to workforce planning, building proactive pipelines for critical roles, improving analytics and systems, and ensuring Talent Acquisition is tightly connected to the company’s long-term growth strategy.
The ideal candidate brings deep biotech or pharma recruiting experience, strong executive presence, comfort operating in dynamic environments, and a genuine passion for building companies through exceptional talent.
Location
Greater Boston, MA Area
Responsibilities
Workforce Planning & Strategic Leadership
Lead the company’s workforce planning strategy with clear ownership, rigor, and accountability. Partner closely with senior leaders, People Business Partners, and Finance to anticipate hiring needs and ensure talent plans are aligned with business priorities.
Responsibilities include:
- Own and lead annual and rolling workforce planning processes in partnership with senior People leadership and business executives.
- Translate company objectives into practical, proactive hiring strategies.
- Build talent pipelines for critical and hard-to-fill roles, including senior clinical, medical, scientific, commercial-readiness, and leadership positions.
- Develop forward-looking hiring playbooks to prepare the organization for future growth and potential commercialization needs.
- Build trusted relationships across functions and levels, engaging directly with leaders to anticipate needs before requisitions become urgent.
- Ensure Talent Acquisition is viewed as a strategic business partner, not only a delivery function.
Talent Acquisition Leadership & Execution
Lead, develop, and scale a talented TA team while remaining close enough to the work to maintain visibility into candidate quality, hiring manager experience, and candidate experience.
Responsibilities include:
- Manage, coach, and develop a high-performing Talent Acquisition team.
- Create a leadership layer that effectively connects day-to-day recruiting execution with executive-level business priorities.
- Own select senior-level or business-critical searches directly as needed.
- Improve recruiting processes, interview structures, and assessment methods to support faster, more equitable, and more data-driven hiring decisions.
- Partner with hiring leaders to raise the bar for talent while maintaining speed and accountability.
- Ensure an exceptional candidate experience that reflects the company’s culture, mission, and values.
- Balance process discipline with a right-sized, practical approach appropriate for a growing biotech company.
Analytics, Reporting & Systems
Build the intelligence layer that enables Talent Acquisition to operate as a strategic business function.
Responsibilities include:
- Establish executive-ready reporting and analytics, including pipeline health, time-to-fill, capacity planning, offer acceptance, requisition status, source effectiveness, and demographic trends.
- Use data to identify bottlenecks, improve decision-making, and forecast hiring capacity.
- Optimize ATS usage, workflow automation, and recruiting operations to improve efficiency and consistency.
- Evaluate AI and automation tools that can meaningfully improve recruiter productivity, candidate engagement, sourcing, reporting, or process quality.
- Bring curiosity and pragmatism to technology adoption, with a focus on tools that create measurable value.
Employer Brand & Early Talent
Partner with internal stakeholders to strengthen the company’s external talent presence and build early-career talent communities.
Responsibilities include:
- Collaborate with Communications, People & Culture, and business leaders on employer branding and talent marketing.
- Help ensure the company’s story reaches the right candidates at the right moments.
- Build or expand internship, co-op, student, and early-career programs aligned with the company’s growth stage and future talent needs.
- Develop relationships with academic institutions, scientific communities, and professional networks relevant to the company’s pipeline and talent strategy.
Qualifications / Requirements
QUALIFICATIONS
The successful candidate will bring:
- 10+ years of talent acquisition experience, including at least 3 years leading a TA function end-to-end.
- Full-cycle recruiting experience in biotech, pharma, or a closely related life sciences environment.
- Demonstrated success building talent strategies for clinical-stage or high-growth life sciences organizations.
- Experience recruiting and pipelining senior clinical, scientific, medical, and leadership talent, including MDs, late-stage development profiles, and succession-oriented leadership roles.
- Proven ability to own workforce planning proactively, not simply respond to requisitions.
- Experience building fit-for-purpose recruiting analytics, dashboards, reporting cadences, and systems.
- Strong executive communication skills and the ability to influence credibly with C-suite and senior leadership stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to lead, develop, and motivate recruiting teams.
- Comfort operating in a fast-paced, evolving environment where priorities may shift and processes need to scale thoughtfully.
- A practical, business-minded approach to process improvement.
- Genuine curiosity about AI, automation, and emerging tools that can improve Talent Acquisition outcomes.
Ideal Profile
This role is well suited for a Talent Acquisition leader who is both strategic and hands-on. The right person will be comfortable sitting with executives to discuss workforce strategy in the morning, coaching recruiters in the afternoon, and personally engaging with senior candidates when the business need calls for it.
The strongest candidates will have helped biotech or pharma organizations prepare for meaningful growth, whether through clinical expansion, late-stage development, commercial readiness, or broader organizational scaling.
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