Senior Associate Director, Talent Acquisition

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $88,000 - $98,000

Position Summary

Columbia Business School is seeking a dynamic and strategic talent acquisition leader to join its Human Resources team to help build and continuously elevate best-in-class recruitment practices. This role offers the opportunity to shape how one of the world’s leading business schools attracts and hires exceptional talent, while delivering an innovative, high-quality and consistent experience for candidates and hiring managers. 

This is an opportunity for a talent acquisition professional who is energized by both execution and innovation who is excited to deliver strong searches, while also advancing, scaling, and modernizing hiring practices across the School.

Reporting to the Director, Talent Operations and Human Resources, the Senior Associate Director, Talent Acquisition combines hands-on recruitment delivery with the opportunity to enhance and scale talent acquisition practices across the School. This role will lead full-cycle recruitment for a portfolio of roles, while partnering closely with senior leaders to align hiring strategies with evolving organizational priorities, workforce needs, and a forward-looking, innovation-driven approach to talent. 

As a trusted advisor, this individual guides hiring managers through structured, equitable, and insight-driven hiring processes, elevating decision-making and ensuring strong talent outcomes. The role also plays a key part in building proactive talent pipelines, strengthening the employer brand, and continuously improving recruitment operations through process optimization, data insights, and scalable solutions.

Beyond recruitment delivery, this position contributes to broader HR Initiatives and plays an integral role in advancing CBS’s overall talent strategy. The ideal candidate brings a balance of executional excellence, strategic thinking, and a passion for creating a best-in-class hiring experience. This role plays a critical part in elevating the consistency and quality of talent across the School through strong stakeholder partnerships within CBS and across the broader University.

About CBS

For over a century, Columbia Business School has helped develop leaders and builders of enterprises who drive value for their stakeholders and society at large through our MBA, MS, PhD, and Executive Education programs. We are equally committed to cultivating new scholars and teachers, and to creating and disseminating pathbreaking knowledge, concepts, and tools which advance the understanding and practice of management through our faculty research and PhD programs.

Our vision is simple: to develop ideas and leaders that transform the world—from the very center of business. Our ever-evolving curriculum - featuring pioneering courses, STEM certification, and immersive experiential learning -prepares students to excel in key areas such as digital transformation, entrepreneurship, and innovation, twenty-first century finance, the intersection of business and society, and climate and sustainability. The CBS administration enables CBS’ educational and scholarly mission through strategic and operational guidance and support, optimizing School resources through well-designed, transparent processes with a culture of respect for all.

Responsibilities

Recruitment Strategy, Search Management & Advisory Partner 

• Leads and manages end-to-end recruitment processes for a portfolio of roles, ensuring a structured, consistent, and high-quality hiring experience.
• Partners with hiring managers to define role scope, leveling, and search strategy aligned with business needs. 
• Designs and implements comprehensive recruitment plans, including sourcing strategies, interview frameworks, evaluation criteria, and timelines. 
• Guides structured and equitable hiring practices, incorporating competency-based interviewing, and standardized assessment approaches. 
• Facilities alignment across stakeholders, including interview panel design, feedback calibration, and final decision making.
• Proactively identifies and addresses risk, delays, and gaps in hiring processing to maintain momentum and quality outcomes.

Talent Sourcing & Pipeline Development

• Develops and executes innovative and targeted sourcing strategies to build strong, diverse candidate pipelines across a range of roles, leveraging a variety of channels including professional networks, referrals, job boards, and targeted outreach to identify candidates whose experience and professional values align with CBS. 
• Proactively identifies opportunities to engage talent aligned with current and future hiring needs. 
• Leverages insights across searches to strengthen outreach strategies and improve pipeline quality.

Data, Insights, & Process Improvement 

• Partners closely with HR Analytics, to interpret recruiting metrics including time-to-fill, pipeline health, source effectiveness, hiring outcomes, and translates insights into actionable improvements that enhance hiring quality and the overall recruitment experience. 
• Synthesizes data into clear, actionable narratives that inform decision-making and drive continuous improvement across recruitment processes. 
• Identifies opportunities to enhance efficiency, consistency, and candidate quality across searches; partners with HR team members to implement enhancements, including the thoughtful use of technology and tools. 
• Supports the development and adoption of scalable, standardized tools, templates, and workflows that strengthen recruitment operations, while ensuring documentation is accurate, complete, and aligned with compliance standards.

Manager Support & Capability Building

• Partners with Talent Development, to support hiring manager capability through coaching on structured interviewing, inclusive hiring practices, and effective use of recruitment tools. 
• Coaches hiring managers on best practices, including inclusive hiring, structured assessments, and usage of TA tools. Contributes to and supports informational sessions, toolkits, and resources that  promote consistent and high quality hiring practices across departments.

Additional Responsibilities

• Contributes to strategic talent acquisition initiatives including process improvements and projects that support workforce planning efforts. 
• Conducts benchmarking and research to inform best practices within higher education and related sectors to inform improvements.
• Contributes to broader HR priorities, including peak-period operational needs.
• Performs additional responsibilities and strategic assignments as required.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.  Minimum of 4-6 years related experience required. 
• Demonstrated experience in full-cycle recruiting, including but not limited to, sourcing, screening, assessment, and candidate management. 
• Strong knowledge of talent acquisition best practices, competency-based interviewing and behavioral assessment techniques.
• Experience using recruiting technologies and systems (Ie. ATS, LinkedIn, etc) to source and manage candidates.
• Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present and engage effectively both externally with candidates and internally across the  School’s diverse constituencies, including faculty, administrators, and students. 
• Proven ability to manage multiple searches, projects, and priorities in a fast-paced environment with competing deadlines. 
• Strong relationship management skills, with the ability to build trust and work effectively across a matrix environment. 
• Demonstrated analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills, with strong attention to detail. 
• Ability to innovate, think creatively, and foster dialogue across diverse stakeholders.
• Ability to exercise sound judgement, discretion, and confidentiality when handling sensitive information and interacting with the School partners. 
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and Google Suite required.
• Willingness to work evenings as needed during peak periods.

Preferred Qualifications

• Foundational knowledge in Human Resources practices, policies, and procedures with experience as an HR generalist, strongly desired
• Experience in higher education, non-profit, or similarly complex environments 
• Experience developing or supporting employer branding and outreach strategies 

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.