Senior Recruiting Lead, Life Sciences & Cell Therapy

Socket.dev; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Neurona Therapeutics is seeking an Associate Director, Recruiting to lead hands-on talent acquisition across R&D, clinical operations, regulatory, quality, manufacturing and corporate functions in a fast-moving cell therapy environment.

You will partner with hiring managers, source and assess candidates, shape roles, and build pipelines, while ensuring compliant practices and delivering a superior candidate experience.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent relevant experience.
• 10+ years of progressive full-cycle recruiting in biotech/life sciences.
• Experience recruiting across scientific, technical, clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, and corporate functions.
• Experience recruiting within cell therapy, gene therapy, ATMP, regenerative medicine, or similar modalities preferred.
• Ability to independently manage complex, specialized searches.
• Strong recruiting judgment to evaluate direct hands-on vs transferable experience.
• Experience using structured interviewing, scorecards, assessments, and debriefs.
• Strong passive sourcing skills and a broad network in life sciences talent markets.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to produce clear assessments.
• Operate with independence, urgency, discretion, accountability.
• Understand California and federal employment requirements for recruiting.
• Comfortable partnering with hiring managers and technical leaders.
• Experience with Paycor or similar ATS/recruiting technology preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting across Neurona - from intake and role definition through sourcing, screening, interviewing, offer, negotiation, and close - personally managing the process end-to-end.
• Partner closely with hiring managers to understand business needs, define effective search strategies, calibrate candidate profiles, and provide thoughtful recruiting counsel.
• Own interview scheduling and candidate logistics, including coordinating interview panels, communicating next steps, preparing interview teams, and ensuring a smooth and timely candidate experience.
• Personally source and engage exceptional talent, including passive candidates in cell therapy, ATMP, CMC, clinical development, regulatory, quality, manufacturing and other specialized life science disciplines.
• Bring strong technical recruiting judgment to candidate evaluation, including distinguishing direct hands-on experience from adjacent/transferable experience.
• Help strengthen the hiring process through structured intake meetings, consistent phone screens, interview guides, scorecards, candidate assessments, and disciplined debriefs.
• Provide clear and objective candidate assessments that help hiring managers understand strengths, gaps, level, relevant experience, and potential risks.
• Build and maintain strong talent pipelines for current and anticipated hiring needs, focusing on difficult-to-fill technical and scientific positions.
• Manage multiple searches with independence, maintaining momentum, prioritization, communication, and follow-through.
• Advise hiring managers on market conditions, candidate availability, compensation expectations, and recruiting strategy.
• Manage the candidate experience from first contact through close, representing Neurona with professionalism and transparency.
• Maintain recruiting metrics and reporting, giving leadership visibility into open positions, pipeline health, time-to-fill, recruiting activity, and hiring progress.
• Partner with HR and business leaders on workforce planning and headcount alignment, ensuring recruiting priorities stay connected to business needs.
• Ensure recruiting practices comply with applicable employment laws and company policies, including California and federal requirements.
• Help improve recruiting tools, processes, and practices, including thoughtful use of technology and AI where it can improve efficiency, sourcing, assessment, and candidate experience.

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

Sourcing

Interviewing

Candidate assessment

Stakeholder management

Communication

Independent work

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Paycor

Job description

Neurona Therapeutics is seeking an Associate Director, Recruiting to lead hands-on talent acquisition across R&D, clinical operations, regulatory, quality, manufacturing and corporate functions in a fast-moving cell therapy environment.

You will partner with hiring managers, source and assess candidates, shape roles, and build pipelines, while ensuring compliant practices and delivering a superior candidate experience.