Director of Talent Acquisition

FRONTSTEPS•Denver, CO

1d•$150,000 - $190,000•Onsite

About The Position

FRONTSTEPS, a profitable, high-growth industry leader, is hiring its first Director of Talent Acquisition to partner directly with the CEO and build the best team in the game. This is a hands-on recruiting role, not a management layer. The role involves carrying requisitions, working the phones, and closing candidates. The primary goal is to raise talent density by bringing in exceptional talent across all functions, faster and better than the competition. This role requires acting with urgency and conviction to address talent gaps. This is not an HR role. Benefits, payroll, compliance, employee relations, and HR administration are handled by a PEO and a separate HR Generalist contractor. Performance management and talent development are owned elsewhere. The Director of Talent Acquisition will focus 100% of their time on recruiting, with the sole mission of attracting, assessing, and closing exceptional talent. The role reports directly to the CEO, sets the recruiting philosophy, and builds a world-class recruiting function. This is a high-accountability position for a recruiter seeking scope and measurable results.

Requirements

Proven full-cycle recruiter who has personally sourced and closed VP-level talent without agency dependency, at a pace of at least 20 hires per year.
AI-first mindset with hands-on experience using AI across sourcing, screening, and outreach to increase leverage, paired with strong judgment to verify and challenge its output.
Deep sourcing craft: outbound, referrals, networks, and market mapping.
Experience recruiting in a growth-stage, private equity-backed company of roughly 75 to 100 employees, where you are the entire recruiting function.
A track record of recruiting technical, sales, and leadership roles, with credibility in the room with hiring executives.
Command of recruiting metrics: time-to-fill, source of hire, quality-of-hire, offer acceptance, and agency spend reduction.
Fluency with compensation benchmarking, leveling, and offer strategy, plus the financial literacy to model fully loaded headcount costs.
Executive presence and analytical rigor, with the ability to communicate clearly with the CEO, defend a point of view, and stand behind data-driven recommendations.

Nice To Haves

Prior staffing agency or large in-house recruiting experience preferred.

Responsibilities

Full-cycle recruiting, end to end and on-site, including sourcing, screening, assessing, and closing talent from individual contributor through VP and executive leadership.
Proactive outbound sourcing of passive, top-performing candidates and building a standing bench of talent for future business needs.
Partnering with hiring managers to set the bar, write scorecards, run the process, and maintain quality standards.
Developing offers and closing candidates using market data, leveling, and offer construction.
Managing recruiting operations and employer brand, including the ATS, sourcing stack, metrics for data-driven hiring decisions, and the company's value proposition for potential hires.
Owning time-to-fill, quality-of-hire, and the reduction of agency spend.