Director of Talent

ETI Professional Search; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

ETI Professional Search is conducting a confidential search for a Director of Talent – Midwest. This hybrid, portfolio-wide leadership role will set recruiting strategy, own executive pipelines, and drive talent enablement across our Midwest portfolio with travel around 40% across the region and to TX headquarters.

You will partner with portco HR leaders, vendors, and firm leadership to build pipelines, optimize processes, and elevate hiring quality while maintaining speed and rigor in searches.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in talent acquisition, with 3+ years leading talent strategy across multiple businesses or sites.
• Proven track record building candidate pipelines and filling director+ searches.
• Experience with retained and contingent search firms and RPO partners.
• Strong sourcing expertise including Boolean/x-ray, talent mapping, and AI-assisted tools.

Responsibilities

• Set portfolio-wide recruiting strategy and own executive talent pipelines across Midwest portfolio.
• Lead partner relationships with portco HR and external vendors, balancing insourcing vs outsourcing.
• Build dashboards, analytics, and reports on pipeline velocity, quality of hire, and cost per hire.
• Drive employer branding and recruiting marketing across the portfolio to sustain pipelines.

Skills

Talent acquisition

Leadership

Sourcing

Analytics

Education

Bachelor's Degree in HR/Business

MBA preferred

Tools

ATS platforms (Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Smart Recruiters, Workday)

Candidate CRM tools (Gem, Avature, Beamery)

LinkedIn Recruiter, SeekOut, hireEZ, ZoomInfo

BI/Analytics tools (Power BI, Tableau)

Job description

Director of Talent – Midwest

Confidential retained search conducted exclusively by ETI Professional Search

Location: Midwest-based (Hybrid)

Travel: Approx. 40% across the Midwest portfolio and Texas headquarters

Reports to: Head of Portfolio Operations

About This Search

ETI Professional Search has been exclusively retained by a Texas-headquartered private equity firm to lead this search.

Why You Want This Seat

Most talent leaders spend years asking for a seat at the table; in this role, you start with one. This is a high-impact, hands‑on talent leadership seat with a small, operationally focused private equity firm where recruiting strategy, candidate pipelines, and critical hires directly influence portfolio performance.

• Impact you can point to. A lean firm where one talent leader moves the needle across an entire portfolio. No bureaucracy, and no layers between you and the decision maker.
• Growth mode, not deal churn. Given where the market is today, the firm is focused on building up what it owns and strengthening every portfolio company with the right people rather than chasing continuous acquisitions. Your pipelines and your hires are the growth strategy.
• Operators, not spectators. You will work alongside people who have owned, run, and grown real businesses. They respect the craft of hiring because they have lived how hard it is to get right.
• A calling card that opens doors. Recruiting on behalf of a firm with exceptional returns and a reputation for operational excellence makes every candidate conversation easier, and it makes this a career-defining platform.

About the Firm

Our client is a Texas-headquartered private equity firm with a strong portfolio of companies across the Midwest. They are small by design and operational by DNA. Their team knows what it takes to own, run, and grow a business because they have done it themselves. Their returns speak for themselves, and their current focus is squarely on growth: strengthening and scaling the companies they own. They believe talent is the single greatest lever for value creation, which is why they are hiring a Director of Talent to serve as the north star for talent strategy, execution, and enablement across the Midwest portfolio.

The Opportunity

This is a hybrid player‑coach role for a talent leader who can set portfolio-wide recruiting strategy while personally sourcing, engaging, screening, and closing priority candidates. You will build proactive pipelines, partner selectively with high‑performing vendors, and turn talent acquisition into a competitive advantage across the portfolio.

You will operate as a true partner to portfolio company (portco) HR leaders, enabling them with tools, playbooks, technology, and communication rhythms while setting the standard for what great talent acquisition looks like across the platform.

What You’ll Do

• Drive value creation through talent. Connect recruiting strategy, critical searches, and process improvements directly to portfolio growth and business performance.
• Own the portfolio talent operating model. Set the standards, cadence, playbooks, scorecards, and communication rhythms that portco leaders use to hire with speed and quality.
• Build and convert priority pipelines. Create always‑on candidate flow for executive, leadership, and hard‑to‑fill roles, and personally source, engage, screen, and help close candidates when needed.
• Manage external partners with discipline. Build a bench of exceptional search firms, RPOs, and staffing partners, negotiate terms, measure outcomes, and decide when to insource versus outsource.
• Enable technology, analytics, and talent intelligence. Evaluate and optimize the talent tech stack, run market mapping and competitive insights, and report on pipeline velocity, quality of hire, referral conversion, vendor ROI, and cost per hire.
• Build durable recruiting channels. Develop employer brand, recruitment marketing, referral programs, and Midwest talent networks that the portfolio can draw on for years.

Support the growth agenda. Partner with firm and portco leadership on organizational design, talent assessments, and hiring plans that support expansion and scaling across the existing portfolio.

What You Bring

• 10+ years of progressive talent acquisition experience, including 3+ years leading talent strategy across multiple business units, sites, or companies. Private equity portfolio, holding company, or multi‑brand experience strongly preferred.
• A proven record of building candidate pipelines from scratch and personally filling director‑level and above searches. You are a player‑coach, not just a program manager.
• Deep sourcing craft like an OG, including Boolean and X‑ray search, talent mapping, competitive intelligence, and modern AI‑assisted sourcing techniques. AI tools and other abilities to work quickly and efficiently.
• Experience selecting, negotiating with, and managing retained and contingent search firms and RPO partners, with a track record of reducing reliance on them over time.
• Demonstrated success partnering with and enabling HR teams you do not directly manage. Influence, credibility, and communication are your currency.
• Recruitment marketing and employer branding experience, including building or revitalizing employee referral programs.
• Strong analytical skills. You are comfortable building dashboards and telling the story behind the numbers.
• Willingness and energy to travel approximately 40% across the Midwest and to Texas headquarters.

Bachelor’s degree in human resources, Business, or a related field, or equivalent experience. Master's or MBA a plus.

Technology & Tools

Hands‑on fluency with a modern talent stack is essential, including tools such as:

• ATS platforms: Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Smart Recruiters, or Workday Recruiting, including implementations and migrations across multiple companies.
• Candidate CRM and engagement: Gem, Avature, Beamery, or similar pipeline and CRM tools.
• Sourcing and talent intelligence: LinkedIn Recruiter, SeekOut, hireEZ, ZoomInfo Talent, and AI‑enabled sourcing and screening tools.
• Assessment and interviewing: Predictive Index, Hogan, Plum, or structured interview platforms such as BrightHire or Metaview.
• HRIS familiarity: Workday, UKG, ADP, Paylocity, or similar. Enough to partner effectively with portco HR on integrations and reporting.

Analytics and productivity: Excel or Google Sheets, Power BI or Tableau, and modern AI productivity tools applied to recruiting workflows.

Education & Certifications (Preferred)

• Bachelor's Degree, MBA preferred
• SHRM‑SCP or SHRM‑CP, and/or SPHR or PHR (HRCI).
• AI‑forward adopter and practical embracer of modern recruiting technology, with the judgment to apply new tools thoughtfully across sourcing, screening, analytics, and candidate engagement.
• Talent analytics or recruitment marketing certifications a plus.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive executive compensation package, PTO, and benefits aligned with the seniority and portfolio impact of the role.
• Hybrid work model with autonomy and direct access to firm leadership.
• High‑impact role with visibility across the firm and its portfolio companies.

Equal Opportunity

Our client is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.