Associate Recruiting Partner

Grey Search + Strategy; Minnetonka (MN); On-site; USD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Grey Search + Strategy is seeking an Associate Recruiting Partner to drive successful searches for growth-oriented clients across industries. You’ll source, screen, and engage top talent, building trusted relationships with partners, candidates, and clients.

You’ll own the candidate journey from initial contact to offer, while collaborating with senior leaders to refine strategies. You thrive in a fast-paced environment, love the hunt, and bring strategic thinking, curiosity, and strong

Qualifications

• Four-year degree or equivalent professional experience.
• 3–5+ years of sourcing and/or recruiting experience, ideally in a retained search firm, agency, or high-volume in-house environment.
• Demonstrated experience conducting candidate phone screens or interviews.
• Deep knowledge of online recruiting platforms, Boolean search, and social media recruiting channels.
• Exposure to market mapping, competitive intelligence, or talent research methodologies is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

• Source high-caliber candidates using internet resources, AI platforms, social media, Boolean search.
• Manage an active pipeline across up to 6–8+ search projects with rigor.
• Build a network of future candidates within niche or hard-to-fill verticals.
• Identify best sources for each engagement and develop talent maps and market research reports.
• Conduct initial phone screens to assess fit and communicate insights to partners.
• Support Partners, Senior Partners, and Directors as an integrated team member and share market intelligence.

Skills

Self-motivation

Intellectual curiosity

Initiative-driven

Verbal & written communication

Organization & follow-up

Strategic thinking

Self-directed & agile

Collaboration

Fun & humility

Education

Four-year degree or equivalent

Job description

Grey Search + Strategy provides customized retained search and consulting services for growth-oriented companies across a wide range of industries. Unlike traditional firms that focus more on “fill” than “fit,” Grey dives deeper to understand our clients’ operations, embrace their brand and assess their needs, helping us customize a strategy for delivering new team members that drive their business and thrive in their culture. We are a dedicated, dynamic team with skillsets that allow us to grow and evolve with our clients’ needs. In all we do, we blend passion with professionalism, intelligence with integrity, and focus with fun—all in the name of client satisfaction and personal fulfillment.

ABOUT YOU

As our Associate Recruiting Partner, you are the engine behind every successful search. You bring a blend of strategic thinking, intellectual curiosity, and a relentless drive to uncover exceptional talent. You love the hunt—whether that means mapping a competitive landscape, crafting a clever outreach strategy, or picking up the phone to connect with a candidate for the first time. You don’t wait to be told what to do; you see a gap and you fill it.

You are hungry to learn and grow, openly sharing ideas and absorbing feedback from the partners around you. Priorities shift and timelines compress—you don’t miss a beat. The relationships you build with teammates, candidates, and clients reflect your authenticity and professionalism, and make us proud to have you on the team.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

Sourcing & Talent Identification

• Creatively source high-caliber candidates by maximizing internet resources, AI platforms, social media, Boolean search, and emerging sourcing tools
• Manage an active pipeline across up to 6-8+ concurrent search projects, maintaining rigor and attention to detail across all
• Build and maintain a proactive network of future candidates with desirable skill sets, especially within niche or hard-to-fill verticals
• Identify and assess the candidate market to determine the most effective recruiting sources for each engagement
• Develop competitive talent maps and market research reports that inform search strategy and client conversations
• Contribute to defining search strategies, including skillset and industry analysis, compensation benchmarking, and identification of supplemental sourcing tools
• Conduct business reviews with senior leadership that include market trends, talent availability insights, and risk flags
• Serve as a trusted internal and external subject matter expert on market conditions and candidate landscape

Candidate Screening & Engagement

• Conduct initial phone screens to assess candidate qualifications, cultural alignment, and interest level—delivering a concise, insight-rich summary to Recruiting Partners, Senior Partners, and Directors
• Deliver a consistently positive candidate experience through responsiveness, transparency, and professionalism at every touchpoint
• Participate in client calls and shadow candidate interviews with Partners, Senior Partners, and Directors to continuously sharpen your ability to assess fit
• Support Recruiting Partners, Senior Partners, and Directors as an integrated member of the Grey search team
• Freely share ideas, sourcing discoveries, and market intelligence to elevate the team’s collective performance
• Proactively develop your skill set, tools fluency, and industry knowledge—always looking for smarter ways to get better results

YOUR EDUCATION + EXPERIENCE

• Four-year degree or equivalent professional experience
• 3–5+ years of sourcing and/or recruiting experience, ideally in a retained search firm, agency, or high-volume in-house environment
• Demonstrated experience conducting candidate phone screens or interviews
• Deep knowledge of online recruiting platforms, Boolean search, and social media recruiting channels
• Exposure to market mapping, competitive intelligence, or talent research methodologies is a strong plus

YOUR SKILLS + ATTRIBUTES

• Hungry and self-motivated—you set your own bar high and hold yourself to it
• Intellectually curious—you ask great questions, dig beneath the surface, and love learning something new every day
• Initiative-driven—you identify what needs to be done and do it, without waiting to be asked
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to build rapport quickly over the phone and in writing
• Highly organized with strong follow-up habits, attention to detail, and comfort managing multiple projects simultaneously
• Strategic thinker who can translate market data into actionable sourcing decisions
• Self-directed and agile—you adapt quickly when priorities shift and stay focused under pressure
• Collaborative and open—you share what you know, ask for help when you need it, and make the people around you better
• Ability to have fun, be humble, be kind, work with urgency, and push yourself and others to be better

Our Values

• GRIT: Whatever it takes, we will get it done.
• EXCELLENCE: We are passionately focused to do the best work every day.
• ACCOUNTABILITY: We hold each other accountable to our mission, our values and our goals.
• FUN: We work hard and we enjoy the ride!
• AUTHENTIC: At our core we are a boutique firm that is reliably honest and uniquely transparent with our team, our clients and our candidates.
• CURIOSITY: We ask the next question, not just the first. We seek to understand.