Principal Specialist - Recruitment

Maximus; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Maximus is seeking a Principal Recruiter to advance talent acquisition outcomes across corporate and shared services. You will partner with Talent Acquisition leadership and cross-functional teams to lead strategic recruiting for executive and professional roles, leveraging labor market insights and AI-enabled approaches.

The role emphasizes stakeholder advisory, candidate experience, and compliance as you drive workforce planning and transformation across HR, Finance, IT, Legal, Contracts, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead recruiting for highly specialized, executive, confidential, business-critical roles across the Professional Talent Stream.
• Provide labor market intelligence and recruiting recommendations to senior stakeholders.
• Support enterprise talent initiatives and transformation efforts across TA COE and adjacent Talent Streams.

Skills

Strategic recruiting

Stakeholder advisory

Labor market intelligence

Data-driven decision making

Talent acquisition

Consulting

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Job description

The Principal Recruiter, Professional Talent Stream serves as a senior individual contributor responsible for advancing talent acquisition outcomes across Maximus' corporate and shared services functions. This role supports the Professional Talent Stream by providing deep recruiting expertise, stakeholder advisory support, labor market intelligence, and strategic leadership for complex and business-critical hiring initiatives.

The Principal Recruiter partners closely with Talent Acquisition leadership, business stakeholders, and cross-functional Talent Acquisition teams to support hiring priorities across HR, Finance, IT, Legal, Contracts, and Program Support, as well as talent pipeline and strategy support across Talent Acquisition's Centers of Excellence. This individual influences outcomes through expertise, consultation, and enterprise partnership rather than formal people leadership.

The ideal candidate is a strategic, data-informed talent acquisition professional who brings operational discipline, stakeholder credibility, and advanced recruiting expertise. This individual will help advance professional recruiting toward a more consultative, agile, and AI-enabled operating model while maintaining focus on candidate experience, compliance, and recruiting excellence.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Professional Talent Acquisition

• Lead recruiting efforts for highly specialized, executive, confidential, business-critical, and difficult-to-fill positions across the Professional Talent Stream.
• Support execution of Professional Talent Stream priorities by developing and implementing recruiting strategies aligned with current hiring demand and future workforce needs.
• Build and maintain pipelines for critical professional talent segments and emerging skill areas.
• Partner with recruiters and hiring leaders to address complex hiring challenges and improve recruiting outcomes.
• Support talent acquisition efforts across corporate functions, shared services, adjacent Talent Streams, and Talent Acquisition Centers of Excellence, including but not limited to enterprise talent programs and international professional hiring.
• Serve as a strategic recruiting lead for professional hiring initiatives and provide talent pipeline and strategy support across Talent Acquisition's Centers of Excellence and adjacent Talent Streams, as needed.
• Partner with internal and global Talent Acquisition stakeholders to support program objectives, talent attraction strategies, and workforce priorities.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen professional talent pipelines and improve program effectiveness.
• Support enterprise talent initiatives aligned to business growth and workforce planning objectives.

Stakeholder Advisory and Market Intelligence

• Serve as a trusted advisor to business leaders by communicating labor market realities, hiring risks, pipeline insights, and recruiting recommendations with credibility and business context.
• Translate labor market intelligence, talent availability, compensation trends, competitor activity, skills demand, and workforce constraints into actionable recruiting strategies.
• Partner with Workforce Planning, HR Business Partners, and Talent Acquisition leadership to provide workforce insights and talent market guidance.
• Support strategic workforce discussions through market intelligence and talent acquisition expertise.

Operational Excellence and Transformation

• Promote consultative recruiting practices that improve hiring decisions, stakeholder outcomes, and candidate experience.
• Support adoption of AI-enabled recruiting practices, workflow improvements, and evolving recruiting technologies.
• Utilize recruiting data, talent intelligence, and labor market insights to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Contribute to initiatives that improve recruiting effectiveness, process efficiency, quality of slate, and talent acquisition outcomes.
• Serve as a change champion for recruiting best practices and enterprise transformation efforts.

Talent Acquisition Center of Excellence Partnership

• Partner with the Talent Acquisition Center of Excellence (TA COE) to support enterprise recruiting standards, governance, tools, and best practices.
• Provide practitioner expertise to support development of recruiting policies, processes, training materials, and capability-building initiatives.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for enterprise recruiting projects, pilot programs, and transformation efforts.
• Contribute insights and recommendations that improve consistency, scalability, recruiter effectiveness, and stakeholder experience across Talent Acquisition.
• Support evaluation and adoption of emerging recruiting technologies, skills-based hiring practices, and AI-enabled solutions.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Collaborate across the Talent Acquisition and Total Talent ecosystems, including adjacent Talent Streams, Learning & Development, Communications and Marketing, Sourcing, TA Operations, HRIS, and Workforce Planning, to ensure alignment and consistent execution.
• Build strong partnerships with HR Business Partners to align recruiting strategies with workforce priorities, organizational needs, and talent plans.
• Partner closely with Talent Stream leaders where roles, skills, workforce strategies, or shared sourcing pipelines intersect.
• Participate in enterprise initiatives requiring strategic recruiting expertise, stakeholder engagement, and cross-functional coordination.

Successful candidates will demonstrate the ability to influence at an enterprise scale through expertise, credibility, and partnership.

• Translate enterprise talent acquisition priorities into actionable recruiting strategies and recommendations.
• Advise senior stakeholders, communicate hiring risks, and influence talent decisions through data and market intelligence.
• Lead projects, initiatives, and cross-functional efforts without formal managerial authority.
• Stay current on AI-enabled recruiting practices, labor market dynamics, skills-based hiring, and evolving assessment approaches.
• Model respect, collaboration, accountability, innovation, customer focus, and sound judgment through periods of change.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.

• 10+ years of progressive experience in talent acquisition, recruiting operations, or human resources.
• Demonstrated experience supporting enterprise-scale professional recruiting initiatives and complex hiring needs.
• Experience supporting professional hiring programs across corporate functions, shared services, Talent Acquisition Centers of Excellence, adjacent Talent Streams, and/or international recruiting.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders, manage competing priorities, and communicate hiring recommendations effectively.
• Experience utilizing labor market intelligence, recruiting analytics, and workforce data to guide talent decisions and improve hiring outcomes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in government contracting or large professional services environments.
• Familiarity with skills-based hiring and evolving assessment practices.
• Experience supporting implementation of AI-enabled recruiting tools or talent acquisition technologies.
• Experience partnering with Talent Acquisition Centers of Excellence or supporting enterprise recruiting transformation initiatives.
• Recognized expertise in professional talent acquisition and talent advisory practices.

What You'll Bring

We are looking for a talent acquisition professional who combines strategic perspective with operational follow-through. The strongest candidates will be comfortable advising senior stakeholders, solving complex talent challenges, improving recruiting practices, supporting enterprise initiatives, and influencing outcomes through expertise, collaboration, and trusted partnership.

EEO Statement

Maximus is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information and other legally protected characteristics.

Pay Transparency

Maximus compensation is based on various factors including but not limited to job location, a candidate's education, training, experience, expected quality and quantity of work, required travel (if any), external market and internal value analysis including seniority and merit systems, as well as internal pay alignment. Annual salary is just one component of Maximus's total compensation package. Other rewards may include short- and long-term incentives as well as program-specific awards. Additionally, Maximus provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and paid time off. Compensation ranges may differ based on contract value but will be commensurate with job duties and relevant work experience. An applicant's salary history will not be used in determining compensation. Maximus will comply with regulatory minimum wage rates and exempt salary thresholds in all instances.

Accommodations

Maximus provides reasonable accommodations to individuals requiring assistance during any phase of the employment process due to a disability, medical condition, or physical or mental impairment. If you require assistance at any stage of the employment process—including accessing job postings, completing assessments, or participating in interviews,—please contact People Operations at [e-mail] .