Director, Talent Acquisition

Dispatch Bio • Philadelphia, PA

20h • $190,000 - $275,000

About The Position

Dispatch is seeking a Director, Talent Acquisition to lead how the company attracts, assesses, and hires people who will advance its purpose. During a period of growth, this role is accountable for the full hiring process, from the candidate’s first experience of the company through offer acceptance, and for scaling the recruiting function while preserving Dispatch’s culture.

Reporting to the Chief People & Culture Officer, the Director will advise leaders and hiring managers across research, development, technical operations, and corporate functions. The role leads a small recruiting team, including part-time and contract recruiting resources, and manages relationships with external partners. This is a hands-on leadership position: it sets recruiting strategy and builds repeatable processes, tools, and training, while also personally conducting searches, particularly for senior and hard-to-fill roles.

Dispatch is developing novel cancer therapies and describes its culture as determined, ownership-minded, collaborative, and grounded in feedback. The Director will help make that purpose, culture, and values clear to candidates throughout the hiring experience.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree.
• At least 10 years of recruiting experience, including significant in-house talent acquisition experience in biotech, pharmaceutical, or life sciences companies.
• Demonstrated success recruiting across scientific, clinical, technical operations, and corporate functions, including senior- and executive-level searches.
• Experience building or scaling a talent acquisition function in a startup or high-growth environment, including designing hiring processes, tools, and interviewer training.
• Strong understanding of compensation, including base pay, bonus, and equity, and experience building and negotiating competitive offers.
• Experience selecting and managing external partners such as search firms and recruiting technology vendors, and developing and managing a recruiting budget.
• Hands-on experience with applicant tracking systems and LinkedIn Recruiter, and comfort using data to measure and improve hiring outcomes.
• Collaborative approach and credibility and influence to advise senior leaders and hiring managers.
• Excellent organizational, problem-solving, and time-management skills, with the ability to manage many searches and priorities at once.
• Positive attitude, dedicated work ethic, and flexibility in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to tell the company’s story in a way that resonates with candidates.
• Demonstrated leadership skills, including communicating, coaching, mentoring, and developing employees, and giving and receiving feedback with clarity and kindness.

Nice To Haves

• Experience hiring for a clinical-stage company, including clinical development and clinical operations roles.
• Experience recruiting for cell or gene therapy, immuno-oncology, or other novel therapeutic modalities.
• Hands-on experience using AI tools to improve recruiting efficiency and quality, such as sourcing, candidate outreach, interview design, or recruiting analytics, and curiosity about how new technology can improve hiring.
• Experience recruiting across multiple sites, particularly in the Philadelphia and San Francisco Bay Area talent markets.
• Experience leading employer brand initiatives with an external creative or branding partner.
• Experience managing employment-based immigration for candidates in partnership with outside counsel.
• Experience with Greenhouse.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end hiring process from application through offer acceptance, ensuring it is efficient, rigorous, and consistent, with a smooth handoff to People & Culture Operations for preboarding and onboarding.
• Advise hiring managers on role definition, sourcing strategy, interview design, candidate evaluation, and hiring decisions, using market insight and constructive feedback.
• Develop structured interview guides, scorecards, interviewer training, and other assessment processes and tools to support fair, well-informed hiring decisions and assess both capability and alignment with company values.
• Create a thoughtful, timely, and respectful candidate experience that reflects Dispatch and leaves candidates with a positive impression whether or not they are hired.
• Identify and adopt AI tools to improve recruiting across sourcing, outreach, scheduling, interview preparation, and reporting, keeping human judgment central and helping recruiters and hiring managers use the tools responsibly.
• Proactively identify talent for critical scientific, clinical, and technical roles, including relevant companies, adjacent talent pools, and emerging leaders, and develop workforce plans aligned with business priorities.
• Lead employer brand strategy with the creative and branding partner across the careers page, LinkedIn, job postings, and other channels.
• Use knowledge of base pay, bonus, and equity to develop competitive offers within pay ranges, advise hiring managers and candidates, close talent, and partner with People & Culture Operations on market data and pay ranges.
• Select and manage external partners, including search firms, immigration counsel, LinkedIn, Greenhouse, and the creative and branding partner, holding them accountable for quality, responsiveness, and cost.
• Develop and manage the annual talent acquisition budget, including agency fees, job advertising, tools, and branding, and determine when to use external partners versus internal resources.
• Own Greenhouse, including its vendor relationship, configuration, and recruiting workflows, and partner with People & Culture Operations on integration with Rippling.
• Define and report hiring metrics, including time to fill, pipeline health, offer acceptance rate, and source effectiveness, to drive improvement and inform leadership.
• Build sourcing strategies that reach broad and diverse talent pools and ensure hiring practices comply with applicable employment laws, including pay transparency and fair hiring requirements in Pennsylvania and California.
• Lead and develop the recruiting team, including coaching, mentoring, and developing employees and fostering clear, kind feedback.

Benefits

• Highly competitive compensation package with meaningful ownership through equity.
• Medical insurance coverage.
• Vision insurance coverage.
• Dental insurance coverage.
• 401(k) with generous contribution.
• Life insurance.
• Flexible PTO policy.
• Additional substantial benefits.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director