Background Investigator and Recruiting Supervisor

Travis County Sheriff; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office seeks a seasoned supervisor to lead the Recruiting and Background Investigations Team in Austin. You will provide strategic oversight for agency-wide hiring of sworn positions across bureaus, build talent pipelines, and partner with managers, colleges, and community partners to ensure a strong candidate experience.

You will oversee full-cycle recruitment and background investigations, ensuring legal compliance and policy adherence while mentoring investigators

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Personnel Management, Human Resources Management, Public Administration, Business Administration or a directly related field and five (5) years of experience in sourcing and/or recruiting.
• Any combination of education and experience equivalent to the stated education and experience sufficient to perform duties.

Responsibilities

• Supervise and evaluate the daily activities of Background Investigators and Recruiters.
• Manage full cycle recruiting, application, and background process for candidates, ensuring a positive candidate experience.
• Develop sourcing strategies to leverage diverse candidates and prescreen candidates for qualifications.
• Oversee Background Investigations to ensure compliance with laws, agency policies, and accreditation standards.

Skills

Online sourcing

Recruiting

Policy development

Project management

Communication (verbal/written)

HR consulting methods

Organization skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Personnel Management/HR/Business Admin or related field

5 years experience in sourcing/recruiting

Tools

HRIS

ATS systems

Job description

This position is responsible for supervising the Recruiting and Background Investigations Team. The supervisor provides strategic oversight and direction for TCSO recruiting efforts agency-wide, including sworn positions in our Corrections, Administration and Support, and Law Enforcement Bureaus. This position is responsible for building effective working relationships with hiring managers, cross-functional departments, colleges, universities, and other community partners that benefit TCSO recruiting efforts; and build employer brand awareness and talent pipelines. This position will develop and implement effective sourcing and recruiting strategies; proactively consults with Command Staff to identify recruitment needs and build talent pools through online sourcing, networking, and referrals; manages the full cycle recruitment, applicant, and background process to ensure smooth and favourable candidate experience. This position also oversees the Background Investigations Unit, ensuring compliance with legal and agency standards, conducts quality assurance reviews, and provides hiring recommendations for command staff. The supervisor plays a critical role in maintaining the integrity and professionalism of the agency’s hiring process. This position ensures investigations are conducted thoroughly, objectively, ethically, and in compliance with federal, state, and local laws, as well as agency policies and accreditation standards.

Distinguishing Characteristics

• Supervise and evaluate the daily activities of Background Investigators and Recruiters.
• Assign and monitor caseloads to ensure investigations are completed accurately and within established timelines.
• Provide guidance and direction regarding investigative procedures, hiring standards, and applicant suitability.
• Communicate policy updates, procedural changes, and operational expectations.
• Develop investigators through coaching, training, and performance evaluations.
• Manages the full cycle recruiting, application, and background process for candidates, ensuring a positive candidate experience.

• Regularly attend recruiting events with recruiting team.
• Develops recruitment and selection policies, metrics, and reports to ensure transparent, fair, equitable, and successful recruiting practices.
• Effectively manages the timeliness of background investigations; ensures the accuracy of all completed background investigations prior to scheduled interviews.
• Applies advanced knowledge of recruiting platforms that attract suitable applicants.
• Consults with hiring managers to understand their recruitment needs, develops sourcing strategies to leverage diverse candidates, and prescreens candidates to assess their qualifications.

• Develops creative and innovative recruitment strategies to attract qualified applicants and develops recruiting metrics to measure recruiting success and best practices.
• Develops a recruitment and selection policy to ensure a transparent and fair hiring process that can assist in selecting successful candidates based on merit and relevance with the position being recruited.
• Develops a working knowledge of TCSO to quickly identify critical hiring needs.
• Develops pipeline of talent, specifically for frequently filled positions.
• Sources candidates and builds a strong network of candidates through expert use of online sourcing techniques, networking, and referrals.
• Implements new initiative to increase pipeline and builds employer brand awareness.
• Actively utilizes social media forums, attends career fairs, makes cold calls, visits local college campuses or universities and any other creative methods to locate qualified individuals.

• Serves as TCSO’s Subject Matter Expert (SME) on best practices in recruitment strategies.
• Maintains and utilizes data reports and performance metrics on a regular basis.
• Records management.
• Performs other job‑related duties as assigned.

Education and Experience

Bachelor's degree in Personnel Management, Human Resources Management, Public Administration, Business Administration or a directly related field AND five (5) years of experience in sourcing and/or recruiting candidates or related field.

OR,

Any combination of education and experience that has been achieved and is equivalent to the stated educationandexperienceandrequiredknowledge,skills,andabilitiessufficienttosuccessfullyperformthe duties and responsibilities of thisjob.

Licenses, Registrations, Certifications, or Special Requirements

Valid Texas Driver’s License.

Preferred

Experience working with Law Enforcement agency or closely related industry.

Experience with Background Investigations Procedures/Practices, Employment Law, and/or Law Enforcement & Corrections Operations.

Working knowledge and/or experience with Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) regulations.

Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR); OR, Professional in Human Resources Certification (PHR).

Society of Human Resources Management Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP); OR, Society of Human Resources Management Certified Professional (SHRM-CP).

Knowledge of

• Federal,StateandLocalregulations,codes,andlaws:TitleVIIofCivilRightsAct,EqualPayAct,FLSA, ADA, FMLA, EEOC,I-9.
• Diverse recruitment strategies and sources for Corrections and Law Enforcement
• Recent Human Resources developments and currentliterature.
• HRISand ATSsystems.
• Human Resources rules, policies, and procedures.
• Corrections and Law Enforcement training programs
• County policies, procedures, andterminology.
• Officemanagement.
• Service oriented leadership and hands onpractitioner.
• Computer equipment to include word processing, spreadsheets, databases, and a variety of software packages.
• Business letter writing, grammar and punctuation, and report preparation.

Skill in

• Online or social medica sourcing and recruitingtechniques.
• Projectmanagement.
• Applying Human Resources and consultingmethods.
• Developing sourcing and recruiting policies, metrics, andreports.
• Excellent organizationskills.
• Problem-solving and decision-making and conflict resolution.Explaining complicated technical problems in simple non-technicallanguage.
• Both verbal and written communication.

Ability to

• Evaluate recruiting challenges and industry trends.
• Interpret policies, procedures, and Federal, State and Local applicablelaws.
• Exercise sound judgment and makedecisions.
• Respond toinquiries.
• Work independently and as part of a team.
• Convey complex ideas and concepts verbally and inwriting.
• Communicate goals to a wide and diverse audience.
• Prepare and conducttraining.
• Effectively manage time and workload, perform multiple tasks, and organize diverse activities.
• Make appropriate and effective publicpresentations.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with departmental clientele, representatives of outside agencies and providers, other County employees and officials, and the general public.

Physical requirements include the ability to lift/carry up to 20-50 pounds occasionally, visual acuity, speech and hearing, hand and eye coordination and manual dexterity necessary to operate a computer and office equipment. Subject to standing, walking, sitting, repetitive motion, reaching, climbing stairs, bending, stooping, kneeling, crouching, crawling, pushing, pulling, balancing, client/customer contact, squatting to perform the essential functions.

Travis County employees play an important role in business continuity. As such, employees can be assigned to business continuity efforts outside of normal job functions.

Work Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM; May be required to work additional hours, including weekends, nights, or holidays.

Location: Austin, TX

Department: Sheriff

Criminal, Driving, Education, and Employment Background Checks Required. Drug and Alcohol test required.

For updates or questions on this position, contact: [e-mail].

This job description is intended to be generic in nature. It is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities. The essential duties, functions and responsibilities and overtime eligibility may vary based on the specific tasks assigned to the position.