Talent Acquisition Advisor – Contract

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center • New York, NY

1d • $77,100 - $119,400 • Hybrid

About The Position

This is a six-month contract to start, with extension based on performance. If a full-time role opens on our team and your work supports it, there’s a real path to converting and growing with us. Either way, it’s the same work, the same team, and the same expectations as any Advisor here.

At MSK, TA success = Speed × Quality × Partnership. You’d be the one making all three happen:
Speed: move with purpose. Keep searches moving with clear steps and quick decisions, and never leave candidates hanging.
Quality: make the right choice. The person you hire does well and stays. Use data, then use your judgment.
Partnership: share the ownership. You and the hiring manager own the outcome together, and you bring the market insight.

Miss one and it falls apart. Fast without quality means fast mistakes. Quality without speed means we lose the candidate. Both without partnership means results nobody trusts.

You’re not an administrator or a resume pipeline. You’re a partner with the same goal as your hiring managers: getting the right person hired, someone who moves team capability, culture, and our mission forward.

That means you:
Want to learn about MSK beyond the roles you recruit on: how the hospital runs, how clinical and research teams work together, and what our leaders are trying to solve.
Can recruit for anything. volume, niche, leadership, corporate or clinical - you believe a great recruiter can pivot. You either know what works in each or have the scrappiness to figure it out.
Make decisions based on evidence, not hunches or “how we’ve always done it.”
Have honest, direct and empathetic conversations, even when it’s not what someone wants to hear.
Know you guide and leaders decide. Sometimes a leader has to learn the hard way. You stay steady, protect the relationship, and trust your own judgment until they’re ready to listen. Eventually you’ve earned the trust to say “remember when we talked about this?”

You’re a healthy skeptic
You’re not cynical, just not gullible. You get below the surface, because that’s where good hiring decisions come from.
A candidate says they “led the project.” You ask what they owned, who they managed, and what changed because of them.
A hiring manager says “there’s no one out there.” You check the market data before you agree.
A candidate asks for a big jump in pay. You find out what’s really behind it: base, bonus, a competing offer, or something else entirely.
A candidate from big tech says they’re ready for a change. You make sure they understand what a move to a nonprofit cancer center really looks like, and that they genuinely want the pivot.
A referred candidate seems perfect on paper. You still check how they actually operate, because what’s on paper and how someone shows up aren’t always the same.
Asking one more question up front saves a bad hire, a declined offer, or a broken relationship later.

Work is evolving, and we have no choice but to evolve with it. The people who do best on our team:
Adapt to change. Priorities shift, leaders change their minds, and so do candidates. You roll with it and figure out the next move.
Live in the gray. Most things don’t tie back to policy or a formula. You’re comfortable making a judgment call and explaining why.
Think critically. You connect the dots, question what doesn’t add up, and land on a recommendation, not just a list of options.
Storytellers. You paint a real picture of the role, what’s great and what’s not so great, so the right people get excited for the right reasons. And you can turn data into a story a leader actually remembers and acts on.
Scrappy and creative. When the usual approach isn’t working, you try something different.
Can fly by the seat of their pants. You think on your feet when things come up last minute, without dropping the ball.
Stay good under pressure. When a leader needs something yesterday, you stay calm and keep it moving.
Know how to prioritize. You can’t do everything at once. You know what matters most right now and help your partners figure out what can wait.
Would rather walk over and see a leader than send another email. You're flexible about working across our NYC sites, you like being visible, and hiring events are something you genuinely love jumping into.

You’ll love it here if you
Get a little competitive when someone says “let’s go to an agency.” You know the org, the culture, and what will land, and you enjoy proving you’re the better partner.
Can coach a hiring manager through unrealistic expectations and land on “here’s what we can do now, and here’s what we can chip away at together.”
Enjoy building an attraction strategy that makes someone want to leave a good job for this one.
Know “how many people applied?” feels like 2018. In an oversaturated market, applicant volume is a meaningless number. You care about quality over quantity, and you’d rather tell a hiring manager who the strongest people are, how they compare to the market, and where the search is getting stuck.
Know pay isn’t black and white. You can talk a candidate through where the market lands, how it compares to internal equity, what they’re asking for, and what the budget allows, and get to what actually makes sense. You don’t negotiate just for the sake of it when it’s not the right call.
Use AI and tech to work smarter and still trust your own judgment and critical thinking skills

Work that matters. Every hire you make helps people with cancer, directly or behind the scenes.
Autonomy. We treat you like the mature professional you are. With that level of respect comes an expectation that you deliver.
Variety. Clinical, research, operations, corporate, shared services, front line, and leadership roles, so you’ll never get bored and you’ll keep learning about how MSK operates.
A way in. We have a clear Advisor ladder, from Associate Advisor to Lead Advisor. If a permanent seat opens and you’ve shown us what you can do, you’d be in a strong position for it.
Time to learn. Protected learning time and coaching from a team that cares about getting better.
Updated stack of tools in the last year+. Workday, HiredScore, Paradox, Braintrust and more, so you can focus on judgment and relationships.

Requirements

• Ability to recruit for anything: volume, niche, leadership, corporate, or clinical roles.
• Ability to make decisions based on evidence, not hunches.
• Ability to have honest, direct, and empathetic conversations.
• Ability to guide and let leaders decide, while maintaining relationships and trust.
• Ability to get below the surface to understand candidates and hiring needs.
• Ability to check market data.
• Ability to investigate the reasons behind pay increase requests.
• Ability to ensure candidates understand the realities of a non-profit cancer center.
• Ability to verify how candidates actually operate.
• Ability to adapt to change.
• Ability to make judgment calls and explain them.
• Ability to think critically and connect dots.
• Ability to paint a real picture of roles.
• Ability to turn data into stories.
• Scrappy and creative approach to problem-solving.
• Ability to think on your feet.
• Ability to stay calm under pressure.
• Ability to prioritize tasks.
• Flexibility to work across NYC sites.
• Ability to coach hiring managers through unrealistic expectations.
• Ability to build attraction strategies.
• Focus on quality over quantity in candidate sourcing.
• Ability to discuss market rates, internal equity, candidate requests, and budget.
• Ability to use AI and tech to work smarter.
• Trust own judgment and critical thinking skills.
• Ability to provide work samples that highlight thinking and problem-solving.
• Remove confidential or candidate information from work samples.
• Experience with Workday, HiredScore, Paradox, Braintrust or similar tools is a plus.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a Talent Acquisition Advisor role.
• Experience in the healthcare or non-profit sector.
• Familiarity with MSK's mission and operations.
• Experience with AI and tech in recruitment.
• Experience with candidate attraction strategies.
• Experience negotiating offers.
• Experience analyzing market data and talent supply.
• Experience developing search strategies.
• Experience navigating difficult conversations with hiring managers or candidates.
• Experience analyzing recruitment search outcomes and identifying learnings.

Responsibilities

• Turn common recruiter challenges into better conversations.
• Ensure TA success through Speed, Quality, and Partnership.
• Keep searches moving with clear steps and quick decisions.
• Never leave candidates hanging.
• Make the right hiring choices, ensuring hires perform well and stay.
• Use data and judgment to make hiring decisions.
• Own the outcome of recruitment with hiring managers.
• Bring market insight to hiring managers.
• Recruit for a variety of roles including volume, niche, leadership, corporate, and clinical positions.
• Make decisions based on evidence.
• Conduct honest, direct, and empathetic conversations.
• Guide hiring managers while respecting their final decision.
• Get below the surface to understand candidates and hiring needs.
• Check market data before agreeing with hiring manager assessments.
• Investigate the reasons behind candidate requests for pay increases.
• Ensure candidates understand the realities of working at a non-profit cancer center.
• Verify how candidates actually operate, not just what's on paper.
• Adapt to changing priorities, leader decisions, and candidate changes.
• Make judgment calls and explain the reasoning.
• Connect dots, question inconsistencies, and provide recommendations.
• Paint a real picture of roles, including both positive and negative aspects.
• Turn data into memorable stories for leaders.
• Try different approaches when usual methods aren't working.
• Think on your feet for last-minute issues without dropping the ball.
• Stay calm and keep things moving under pressure.
• Prioritize tasks effectively.
• Work across MSK's NYC sites and participate in hiring events.
• Coach hiring managers through unrealistic expectations.
• Build attraction strategies to encourage candidates to leave good jobs.
• Focus on quality candidates over quantity.
• Compare strongest candidates to the market and identify search bottlenecks.
• Discuss market rates, internal equity, candidate requests, and budget.
• Use AI and tech to work smarter while relying on judgment and critical thinking.
• Provide work samples highlighting thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Pull together market or talent insights (e.g., comp benchmarks, talent supply, competitor landscape) and make recommendations.
• Develop search strategies or proposals (e.g., kickoff plans, talent attraction strategies, cases for changing approaches).
• Navigate tough conversations (e.g., resetting expectations, pushing back on decisions, delivering unwelcome news to candidates).
• Handle offers requiring judgment (e.g., balancing candidate desires with internal equity and budget).
• Analyze searches that didn't go as planned, identify learnings, and determine different approaches.

Benefits

• Potential for contract extension.
• Potential path to convert to a full-time role.
• Protected learning time.
• Coaching from a supportive team.
• Access to updated recruitment tools (Workday, HiredScore, Paradox, Braintrust, etc.).

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed