Director of Talent Acquisition

829-Studios-; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote Workplace

Paid Time Off

401K + Match

Life Insurance

Short Term Disability

Healthcare

Commuter Benefits

Continuing Education

Job summary

829 Studios is seeking a Director of Talent Acquisition to lead and player-coach our recruiting team in Boston. You will run your own desk while shaping strategy for senior sales, executives, and experts, and you’ll build a scalable TA system across the team.

You will partner with senior leadership on workforce planning, bring market intel, and own an always-on hiring strategy that aligns with revenue growth. This role requires international recruiting experience and strong leadership.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in talent acquisition and experience managing recruiters.
• Track record of closing senior-level, sales, account management, and performance marketing roles.
• Experience recruiting internationally (Canada, UK, LATAM).
• Strong experience partnering with executive leadership.
• Hands-on with recruiting tech and process optimization.

Responsibilities

• Manage, coach, and develop recruiters as a player-coach; oversee own req load.
• Set goals, run pipeline reviews, maintain sourcing targets and hires.
• Build a scalable TA structure to support headcount growth.
• Own full-cycle recruiting for sales, strategic, and executive roles.
• Lead high-volume outbound sourcing; partner with managers on role scoping and offers.
• Own recruiting process in Ashby; create dashboards for leadership visibility.
• Evaluate and roll out AI sourcing, screening, and outreach tools.
• Maintain KPIs: sourcing activity, submissions, conversion, time-to-fill.

Skills

Talent acquisition

People management

Strategic sourcing

Executive recruiting

ATS proficiency

Tools

Ashby ATS

AI recruiting tools

Job description

We're hiring a Director of Talent Acquisition to lead that effort. This is a player-coach role - you'll run your own recruiting desk with a focus on strategic roles spanning sales, senior subject matter experts, and executives while also managing and developing the recruiters on the team. You’ll need to be comfortable owning and achieving direct sourcing goals while simultaneously managing a recruiting and TA strategy upward to agency executives and building / operating a TA system across your team of recruiters.

What You'll Do

Team Leadership

• Manage, coach, and develop our recruiters as a true player-coach - carry your own req load and set the standard for how the team executes

• Set goals, run regular pipeline reviews, and hold the team accountable for sourcing targets, submission volume, quality, and hires

• Build a TA structure that can scale with us as we grow headcount 2x over the next four years

Strategic Partnership

• Partner with senior leadership on workforce planning, hiring forecasts, and talent strategy tied to our revenue and growth goals

• Bring market intelligence - comp benchmarks, the competitive talent landscape, sourcing trends - into planning conversations

• Advise and execute an “always-on” hiring strategy, ensuring that talent pipelines are built and nurtured over time

Full-Cycle Recruiting

• Personally own full-cycle recruiting for sales, strategic and key executive roles from intake through close

• Run a high-volume outbound sourcing strategy - self-sourced pipeline, targeted outreach, market mapping - that directly supports revenue growth

• Partner with hiring managers on role scoping, candidate experience, and offer strategy

Systems, Process & AI

• Own and improve our recruiting process inside Ashby, from req intake through offer

• Build and maintain recruiting reports and dashboards so leadership has real visibility into pipeline health and team performance

• Be the team's go-to person on recruiting tech - evaluate and roll out AI tools for sourcing, screening, and outreach that help the team move faster

Metrics & Accountability

• Own the team's KPIs: sourcing activity, submissions, submission-to-offer conversion, offer-accept rate, time-to-fill, and roles closed

• Report on performance on a regular cadence and adjust the approach when the numbers say to

• Treat new-hire retention as a recruiting metric - work with the rest of HR to close quality-of-hire gaps

What You'll Bring

• 10+ years in talent acquisition, including experience managing and developing recruiters

• A track record of personally closing senior-level, sales, account management, and performance marketing roles - agency experience preferred

• Strong ATS skills; hands-on Ashby experience preferred

• Comfortable with AI recruiting tools, or quick to pick them up

• Equally comfortable presenting to executive leadership and running your own desk

• A process builder - you'd rather fix a broken workflow than work around it

• A metrics-driven approach to managing a team

• Experience recruiting internationally, with a track record of hiring in Canada, the UK, and LATAM

• Experience recruiting in a fast-growing company is a plus

How We’ll Measure Success (First 6 Months)

• The team is consistently hitting sourcing and submission targets, and you can see it in the reporting

• Open roles are being filled against the headcount plan, with visible progress toward growth targets

• There's a documented, repeatable process from intake to close that the team actually uses

• Time-to-fill and offer-accept rate improve

• New-hire retention improves

• Recruiters on the team are retained and growing, not just the people they place

• Reliance on outside agencies and contingency spend goes down as the in-house team scales

• A regular workforce-planning cadence with senior leadership is established and running

• AI tools are part of how the team sources and screens candidates

Benefits and Perks We Provide

• Remote Workplace. You have the option to work at our office in Boston or remotely in one of these states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, ID, IL, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MO, NV, NH, NJ, NY, NC, SC, OH, OK, PA, RI, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA.

• Paid Time Off. Receive generous paid vacation benefits that increase each year you’re with us, 14 Company Holidays, and Summer Fridays from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

• 401K + Match. 401K plan with 4% Safe Harbor employer match after one year of employment and financial literacy services provided through our retirement provider.

• Life Insurance Benefit. No-cost coverage to ensure peace of mind for your family.

• Short Term Disability Benefit. We've got you covered if you need to be OOO with an illness or injury that keeps you out of work.

• Healthcare. Choose from several competitive healthcare plans for you and your family with 80% employer coverage for all medical and dental premiums, 100% employer coverage for vision, and the option to participate in the FSA program.

• Commuter Benefits. Allocate pre-tax funds towards your commute to save up to 40% per year in transportation expenses.

• Continuing Education. Access to monthly team-led webinars, exclusive 829-cohort based learning, digital course platforms, and funding opportunities to attend national conferences and events.

What We Believe

At 829 Studios, we boldly embrace diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity. Our goal: a team rich in backgrounds, perspectives, and talents. Why? Because inclusivity powers our brilliance and client success. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer that is committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, religion, creed, color, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, disability, mental illness, age, ancestry, genetic information, military service, or any other status protected under applicable federal, state, or local laws.

Who We Are

829 Studios is a Boston-based integrated digital marketing agency with a mission to propel organizations to unlock their full potential and accomplish their most ambitious goals. We harness the power of logic with magic – a balance of data-driven strategy and brand-focused creative. We partner with diverse organizations across various industries and our client list encompasses venture-backed start-ups, publicly traded companies, non-profits, and more. By committing not only to our growth as a company, but the development of our employees and teams’, we have created a collaborative environment that fosters ingenuity and promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging values within our community. 829 has been recognized as one of the nation’s top agencies by the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Privately Held Companies, Adweek 100 Fastest-Growing Digital Agencies, Boston Business Journal's Fast 50 (Massachusetts' 50 Fastest-Growing Private Companies), HubSpot's Top Digital Agencies list, and a we are and employee-certified Great Place to Work.