Manager, Leadership Recruiting & Strategic Search

通用磨坊股份有限公司; Minneapolis (MN); On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

General Mills in Minneapolis is seeking a Manager, Leadership Recruiting & Strategic Search to identify, engage, and hire predominantly Director-level talent across the organization. This role combines executive search expertise with strategic talent advisory and hands-on recruiting leadership.

The Manager will partner with senior leaders to shape search strategy, build diverse pipelines, and guide leaders through assessment, selection, offers, and transitions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of progressive recruiting, executive search.

Responsibilities

• Lead full-cycle recruiting for Director-level roles and new leadership capabilities across segments and functions.
• Develop and execute tailored search strategies for complex, confidential, leadership positions.
• Partner with senior leaders and HR Partners to clarify business needs, role scope, leadership capabilities, and success measures.
• Build diverse, high-quality candidate pipelines through proactive sourcing, market research, referrals, and external search partners when appropriate.
• Assess candidates against defined requirements, leadership capabilities, cultural contribution, and potential for sustained impact.
• Manage multiple searches simultaneously while maintaining strong candidate and stakeholder experiences.
• Provide timely, informed recommendations throughout the search process and manage risks and market realities.

Skills

Executive recruiting

Strategic search

Leadership advisory

Stakeholder management

Talent pipelines

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Job description

COMPANY OVERVIEW

We exist to make food the world loves. But we do more than that. Our company is a place that prioritizes being a force for good, a place to expand learning, explore new perspectives and reimagine new possibilities, every day. We look for people who want to bring their best - bold thinkers with big hearts who challenge one another and grow together. Because becoming the undisputed leader in food means surrounding ourselves with people who are hungry for what's next.

OVERVIEW

Talent is our competitive advantage at General Mills. The Manager, Leadership Recruiting & Strategic Search is responsible for identifying, engaging, and hiring predominantly Director-level talent across the organization. This role combines executive search expertise, strategic talent advisory, and hands-on recruiting leadership to help General Mills build exceptional leadership teams and strengthen its long-term talent pipeline.

The Manager will serve as a trusted advisor to senior business and HR leaders, bringing market insight, disciplined search strategy, and a high-touch candidate experience to complex and confidential searches. The role will manage the full recruiting lifecycle, from intake and search strategy through assessment, selection, offer, and transition.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Lead Director-level recruiting and strategic searches

• Lead full-cycle recruiting for predominantly Director-level roles and new capabilities across business segments and functions.
• Develop and execute tailored search strategies for complex, confidential, and high-impact leadership positions.
• Partner with senior leaders and HR Business Partners to clarify business needs, role scope, leadership capabilities, and success measures.
• Build diverse, high-quality candidate pipelines through proactive sourcing, networking, market research, referrals, and external search partners when appropriate.
• Assess candidates against defined requirements, leadership capabilities, cultural contribution, and potential for sustained impact.
• Manage multiple searches simultaneously while maintaining strong candidate and stakeholder experiences.
• Provide timely, informed recommendations throughout the search process and proactively manage risks, trade‑offs, and market realities.

Serve as a strategic talent advisor

• Advise leaders on talent markets, competitive intelligence, candidate availability, compensation considerations, and recruiting implications.
• Challenge and influence search assumptions to ensure roles are designed to attract the talent needed now and in the future.
• Partner with HR Business Partners and Global Talent Org teams to connect external hiring with broader talent, succession, and organizational priorities.
• Bring an enterprise perspective to leadership hiring and help leaders make thoughtful, equitable, and evidence-based talent decisions.
• Use data, insights, and market knowledge to shape recruiting recommendations and inform workforce and talent strategies.

Drive high-quality assessment and selection

• Establish clear search criteria and structured evaluation approaches with hiring leaders and interview teams.
• Facilitate effective, consistent, and equitable assessment and selection practices.
• Coach leaders on interviewing, candidate engagement, decision-making, and bias disruption.
• Lead candidate review and decision discussions, consolidating feedback and ensuring alignment to agreed‑upon criteria.
• Maintain appropriate confidentiality and discretion throughout sensitive searches.
• Partner with leaders and HR colleagues to support compelling, competitive, and well‑informed offers.

Deliver an exceptional candidate experience

• Build trusted relationships with candidates and serve as a knowledgeable ambassador for General Mills.
• Clearly communicate role expectations, leadership culture, organizational priorities, and the candidate journey.
• Partner with leaders to ensure a compelling and consistent candidate value proposition.
• Maintain strong relationships with finalist and silver-medalist candidates to strengthen future leadership pipelines.

Strengthen recruiting capability and ways of working

• Contribute to the evolution of leadership recruiting practices, tools, processes, and technology.
• Share market intelligence, sourcing approaches, and lessons learned across the Talent Acquisition community.
• Cultivate and nurture effective partnerships with external search firms and other talent providers when specialized expertise is needed.
• Use recruiting data and analytics to monitor search progress, identify opportunities, and improve outcomes.
• Support initiatives that advance talent acquisition effectiveness, simplification, inclusion, and candidate experience.
• Represent Leadership Recruiting in cross‑functional projects and enterprise talent initiatives.
• Act as a key member of the Talent Acquisition Leadership Team, working across pillars to bring additional projects, mentorship, and process improvements to life.

KEY CAPABILITIES

• Strategic influence: Shapes decisions by connecting talent recommendations to business priorities.
• Executive presence: Builds trust and communicates effectively with senior leaders and candidates.
• Search expertise: Applies sophisticated sourcing, market mapping, assessment, and selection practices.
• Business mindset and insights: Understands the business context and uses data to guide action.
• Credible partnership: Creates strong relationships across leaders, HR, candidates, and external partners.
• Situational agility: Adapts approach to changing priorities, markets, and stakeholder needs.
• Candidate advocacy: Delivers an engaging, transparent, and respectful candidate experience.
• Inclusive leadership: Promotes fair, equitable, and consistent talent practices.
• Executional excellence: Delivers high-quality outcomes with rigor, urgency, and sound judgment.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of progressive recruiting, executive