Director of Talent and HR

ESB Technologies; New Jersey; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Paid time off

Hybrid schedule

Travel to school locations

Job summary

ESB Technologies is hiring a Director of Talent & HR for our client, a fast-growing national art education franchise with 15+ locations and ambitious expansion. You’ll design scalable talent systems and hiring playbooks franchisers can run, turning part-time teachers into tomorrow's leaders while sharpening people operations for rapid growth.

You will lead a two-person payroll/HR team, modernize processes, and own multi-state compliance.

Qualifications

• Experience building scalable talent systems for multi-site or fast-growing brands.
• Extroverted, people-oriented with analytical decision-making.
• Mid-career with ability to shape strategy and execute.

Responsibilities

• Design end-to-end recruitment playbooks for franchise schools.
• Advise franchise owners on hiring practices and tools.
• Continuously improve the playbook across the network.
• Build development pathways to promote part-time staff to full-time.
• Source and adapt training and coaching curricula.
• Partner with school leadership to spot and nurture talent.
• Own recruiting for corporate roles and create non-traditional pipelines.
• Design recruitment approaches focusing on energy, mindset and behavior.
• Lead payroll and HR administration; modernize HR operations.
• Oversee multi-state compliance and performance management.

Tools

ADP Workforce Now

Job description

We are hiring a Director of Talent & HR for our client.

About the client

A fast-growing national art education franchise with 15+ locations and an ambitious expansion plan is transforming art education. With a growing network of schools across the country and six new franchise locations signed this year alone, they're building a company where creativity and community come together. Our mission is to become the best place to work in the arts

About This Role

This is a builder's role, not an administrator's.

Their day-to-day HR operations are in good hands: you'll inherit a two-person team that manages payroll, onboarding logistics, and ADP administration. What they don't have; and what you'll create is the strategic layer: scalable talent systems that work not just for our corporate team, but for a national network of franchise schools.

You'll design hiring playbooks our franchise owners can run themselves. You'll build the pathway that turns our best part-time teachers into tomorrow's full-time leaders. And you'll make our people operations sharper, faster, and ready for significant growth.

What You'll Own:

• Design end-to-end recruitment playbooks for franchise schools: sourcing channels, job posting templates, structured screeners, interview guides, and audition-style teaching demos
• Advise franchise owners on hiring practices and tools (ATS platforms, assessments such as Predictive Index) - you build the system; they make the hires
• Continuously improve the playbook based on what's working across the network

Talent Development & Internal Mobility

• Build a development pathway that identifies high-potential part-time employees (we have ~250 part-timers, many promotable) and grows them into full-time roles
• Source and adapt training and coaching curriculum - you don't need to write it from scratch, you need to find what's great and make it ours
• Partner with school leadership to spot and develop emerging talent
• Own recruiting for corporate roles as they open, building non-traditional pipelines through art schools, universities, and creative communities
• Design recruiting approaches that evaluate energy, mindset, and behavior - not just credentials

HR Operations & Team Leadership

• Lead a team of two handling payroll and HR administration
• Modernize our HR operations: reduce manual processes (I-9 verification, handbook signing, onboarding paperwork) through better use of technology
• Oversee multi-state compliance, employee relations, and performance management with sound judgment and care

How They'll Measure Success (Year One)

• Improved retention across our school teams
• Faster time-to-hire, at corporate and across the franchise network
• More part-time team members promoted into full-time roles

Who You Are

• Experienced in a multi-unit, multi-location, or fast-growing brand - this matters more than the titles you've held
• A proven builder: you can point to systems, programs, or playbooks you created that others now run
• Extroverted and genuinely people-oriented, and equally analytical - you make talent decisions with data, not just instinct
• Mid-career, hungry, and coachable, with real room and ambition left to grow
• Comfortable with a creative workforce - our teams are artists, and you know how to bring structure without crushing spirit
• ADP Workforce Now experience strongly preferred (your team lives in it daily)
• Performance bonus eligibility
• Health, dental, and vision insurance; paid time off
• Hybrid schedule: 2 days per week in Englewood and Montclair, NJ offices (with flexibility toward 1 day per week after onboarding for longer commutes), plus travel to school locations a few times per month

A creative, mission-driven environment and a role you'll build in your own image