Position: Senior Manager to Associate Director, Talent Acquisition (Construction Industry)
Reports To: Executive Leadership (People / HR Leadership)
Location: Chicago (Hybrid)
Travel: Occasional travel to project sites and affiliated entity locations to support field hiring
Compensation: Competitive base salary commensurate with experience, plus a performance-based bonus, participation in the company's Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), and a comprehensive benefits package.
We're partnering with a rapidly growing Chicago-based general contractor with 200+ employees, and a clear trajectory to grow to more than 500 employees and over $1B in revenue to find an exceptional Sr. Manager of Talent Acquisition to join their HR team. This is a newly created role established to get ahead of that growth: the requisition load has moved from fewer than ten a year ago to roughly twenty to twenty-five today and is projected to reach thirty-five or more as additional awards land. The company is seeking a builder to own hiring end to end and to establish talent acquisition as a company-wide standard and Center of Excellence.
Core Profile: alignment with the following is required to get you in the conversation
- Function Ownership & Executive Partnership: You will own talent acquisition end to end and serve as the single, all-encompassing owner of hiring across the organization, partnering directly with executive leadership, project executives, and field leaders. You will operate as a strategic advisor on workforce planning and go-to-market for talent rather than a transactional order-taker, establishing TA as a recognized company-wide standard and cultural attribute. Over a six to eighteen month horizon you will grow from hands-on operator into the leader of a Talent Acquisition Center of Excellence with runway across additional entities and future acquisitions.
- Hands-On Full-Desk Builder: You will be a full-desk operator from day one, personally sourcing, screening, and closing high-touch and confidential searches while you build the function around you. You will earn credibility with hiring managers and field leaders by delivering results in the seat, not by delegating the work. You understand that this is a role that rewards rolling up your sleeves now in exchange for a clear path to a strategic Associate Director or Director seat.
- TA Infrastructure & Systems Ownership: You will stand up the infrastructure that a scaling TA function requires rather than execute an existing playbook, taking personal ownership of the build across the applicant tracking system and workforce-planning tools, structured interview guides, employer brand, candidate experience, and quality-of-hire calibration. You will push structured, criteria-based hiring down to hiring managers and field leaders, moving the organization away from gut-feel decisions toward defined behavioral and technical evaluation. You will treat these systems as your own initiatives to design and land, not projects to hand off.
- Award-Driven Staffing Command: You will command award-driven staffing in a federal construction environment, building pipelines ahead of contract award, running kickoff and mobilization staffing, and forecasting a growing requisition load without falling into a reactive posture. You will recruit across both corporate roles and niche field roles, including superintendents, QC managers, safety and SSHO personnel, estimators, and project managers, and you will manage the mandatory QC and safety hiring cadence that federal awards require. You will build durable pipelines that anticipate demand rather than chase it.
- Builder's Mindset & Cultural Fit: You will bring an authentic builder's mindset and a genuine appetite for the growth trajectory this role offers, valuing the title and the path to leadership while embracing the hands-on work required to get there. You will thrive in a fast-moving, award-driven environment and take ownership of outcomes tied directly to project delivery. A candidate who wants only strategic oversight and will not personally carry a desk, or who operates reactively and waits for requisitions to arrive, will not succeed in this role.
Core Responsibilities & Scope of Work:
Talent Acquisition Strategy & Executive Partnership
- Function Ownership: Serve as the single, all-encompassing owner of hiring across the organization, consolidating requisition recruiting, program hiring, and future entity needs under one accountable leader.
- Executive Partnership: Partner with executive leadership, project executives, and field leaders to translate business strategy and contract wins into workforce plans and hiring priorities.
- TA as a Standard: Establish talent acquisition as a recognized company-wide standard and cultural attribute, setting the operating rhythm, service levels, and expectations for how hiring is done.
- Center of Excellence: Design and, over time, lead a Talent Acquisition Center of Excellence with the capacity to support additional company entities, self-performance operations, and future acquisitions.
Full-Cycle & Award-Driven Recruiting
- Full-Desk Execution: Personally source, screen, and close candidates across high-touch, confidential, and hard-to-fill searches, carrying a live desk while building the broader function.
- Corporate & Field Hiring: Recruit across both corporate positions and niche field roles, including superintendents, QC managers, safety and SSHO personnel, estimators, and project managers.
- Award-Driven Cadence: Build pipelines ahead of contract award, run kickoff and mobilization staffing, and manage the mandatory QC and safety hiring cadence tied to federal project awards.
- Pipeline Forecasting: Forecast and manage a growing requisition load projected to move from roughly twenty to twenty-five today toward thirty-five or more, staying ahead of demand rather than reacting to it.
TA Infrastructure, Systems & Process
- ATS & Tools: Own the selection, implementation, and optimization of the applicant tracking system and workforce-planning tools that support pre-award and post-award staffing.
- Structured Interviewing: Build structured interview guides and criteria-based scorecards, and push disciplined, criteria-driven hiring down to hiring managers and field leaders.
- Quality of Hire: Design a quality-of-hire program, including calibration of hires against defined performance tiers, to improve top-of-funnel targeting and reduce mis-hires and early attrition.
- Candidate Experience & Brand: Develop the employer brand and candidate experience that position the company to compete for scarce construction and AEC talent in a full-employment market.
Program Ownership & Talent Pipelines
- Internship Program: Absorb and elevate the existing internship program currently owned outside of TA, integrating it into a unified, TA-led early-talent pipeline.
- Veteran & SkillBridge Hiring: Own and build out the DoD SkillBridge and veteran-transition program, creating structured pathways for transitioning service members into field and corporate roles.
- Early-Talent Strategy: Connect internships, SkillBridge, and veteran hiring into a coherent early-career and pipeline strategy that feeds the company's long-term workforce needs.
- Community & Sourcing Channels: Develop and maintain the sourcing channels, partnerships, and talent communities most relevant to federal construction and a scaling commercial business.
Leadership, Enablement & Recruiter Development
- Team Leadership: Partner with and, over time, lead and grow the recruiting team, providing mentorship, coaching, and structure as the function scales.
- Hiring Manager Enablement: Train and enable hiring managers and field leaders to interview against defined criteria, improving the quality and consistency of hiring decisions company-wide.
- Incentives & Metrics: Help design recruiter incentives and performance metrics tied to quality of hire rather than volume alone, and report on pipeline health and hiring outcomes.
- Cross-Entity Scale: Build the processes and playbooks that allow talent acquisition to extend across additional entities, self-performance operations, and future acquisitions without loss of quality.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in HR, Business, or a related field, or equivalent experience; professional certification (SHRM-CP or SCP, PHR or SPHR, or AIRS) a plus but not required.
- Typically eight to twelve or more years of full-cycle talent acquisition experience with progressive growth in scope and responsibility.
- Three to five or more years leading, mentoring, or developing recruiters, or a demonstrated readiness to step into a first-time leadership and function-building role.
- Recruiting experience within construction or AEC firms of meaningful scale, such as heavy civil, general contracting, or design-build; closely adjacent industries that hire similar talent (for example civil or heavy engineering) are welcome.
- Experience recruiting across both high-volume project staffing and niche field roles, including superintendents, QC managers, safety and SSHO personnel, estimators, and project managers.
- Federal government-contracting (GovCon) recruiting experience strongly preferred, including the QC and safety (QCSSHO) hiring cadence tied to project awards; commercial recruiting experience a plus as that side of the business scales.
- Command of award-driven staffing: building pipelines ahead of contract award, running kickoff and mobilization staffing, and forecasting a growing requisition load without a reactive posture.
- In-house or corporate TA experience preferred; an agency-plus-corporate blend is welcome, though pure-agency experience without in-house ownership is a weaker fit.
- Proven track record of building or standing up TA programs and infrastructure, including employer brand, candidate experience, structured interview guides, ATS and workforce-planning tools, and quality-of-hire calibration.
- Ability to establish TA as a company-wide standard, push structured hiring down to hiring managers and field leaders, and design recruiter incentives tied to quality of hire rather than volume alone.
- Comfort operating as a full-desk recruiter from day one while growing into a strategic Associate Director or Director role over a six to eighteen month horizon.
- Interest in owning adjacent programs, including internships and DoD SkillBridge and veteran-transition hiring, as part of a unified talent function.
- Strong communication, stakeholder-management, and influencing skills, with the ability to partner credibly with executives, project leaders, and field teams.
About Our Client
Our client is a rapidly growing general contractor based in Chicago. With a current team of 200 people, they have built a reputation for excellence through an unwavering commitment to quality and innovative project management. The company specializes in both commercial and residential projects and are on a mission to build the most dynamic and efficient spaces where people can work smarter, heal faster, and live happier. By harnessing the power of technology, they amplify human potential while nurturing a people-first culture. The company's core purpose, building to solve the world's greatest challenges, extends to their employees, with the company actively investing in their health and well-being. They have been consistently recognized as one of the most entrepreneurial, fastest growing and best places to work in the construction industry, reflecting their exceptional leadership, innovation, strong workplace culture and commitment to employee satisfaction. The company Values are Transparency, Gratitude, Resilience, Excellence & Adventure.
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