Talent Acquisition Manager - Power & Utilities

CARIAN•Somerset, NJ

4d•$85,000 - $115,000•Hybrid

About The Position

CARIAN is seeking a highly hands-on Talent Acquisition Manager to lead and strengthen the company's recruiting team while personally recruiting for priority and hard-to-fill positions. This is a player-coach role. Approximately 75% of the role will remain directly focused on recruiting and sourcing, including personally owning CARIAN's most difficult technical, professional, and leadership searches. The remaining focus will be on directly managing and developing the Talent Acquisition team, reviewing pipelines, improving sourcing and candidate quality, strengthening hiring-manager partnership, maintaining recruiting discipline and accountability, and ensuring recruiting activity translates into hires. This is not a role for someone looking to move away from recruiting. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable sourcing a difficult candidate personally, reviewing a recruiter's pipeline, challenging an unrealistic requirement, advising leadership on compensation and market conditions, and closing a high-value candidate.

Requirements

8+ years of progressive experience in talent acquisition, corporate recruiting, technical recruiting, executive search, staffing, or a related field
Demonstrated success personally sourcing and closing difficult professional and technical positions
Experience recruiting professional and technical talent within AEC, engineering, utilities, energy, infrastructure, construction, management consulting, technical professional services, or a specialized staffing/search firm serving these markets required
Demonstrated experience directly managing or formally leading recruiters, including responsibility for pipeline review, coaching, performance, and accountability
Strong passive-candidate sourcing capability and demonstrated proficiency with LinkedIn Recruiter or similar platforms
Demonstrated success recruiting engineering, project/program management, project controls, construction and field services, technical consulting, business development, or comparable specialized talent
Strong candidate-assessment and interviewing judgment
Demonstrated ability to advise and constructively challenge hiring managers
Strong understanding of compensation discussions, candidate motivation, offer management, counteroffers, and closing
Experience using applicant tracking and recruiting systems
Strong analytical, organizational, communication, judgment, and follow-through skills
Ability and willingness to remain personally involved in day-to-day sourcing and recruiting
Bachelor's degree preferred; equivalent relevant experience will be considered
Ability to work on-site at CARIAN's Somerset, NJ office three days per week

Nice To Haves

Direct recruiting experience within electric or gas utilities, power delivery, transmission and distribution, energy, or infrastructure
Experience recruiting within an engineering, AEC, technical consulting, management consulting, or specialized search environment
Experience recruiting both specialized individual contributors and senior leadership positions
Experience with Ashby or another modern applicant tracking system
Experience using AI-enabled sourcing, research, recruiting, and productivity tools effectively
Experience improving recruiter performance through direct coaching, pipeline review, sourcing calibration, and accountability

Responsibilities

Personally own priority, difficult, technical, leadership, and confidential searches from intake through accepted offer
Proactively source passive candidates through LinkedIn Recruiter, industry networks, referrals, databases, direct outreach, and other channels
Develop targeted sourcing strategies for specialized power, utility, engineering, construction, project management, project controls, field services, consulting, digital, and business-development positions
Conduct recruiter screens and independently assess candidate qualifications, relevance, motivation, compensation expectations, and fit
Present qualified candidates to hiring leaders with clear recommendations and relevant market context
Build and maintain pipelines for recurring and strategically important positions
Manage candidate engagement, interviews, compensation discussions, offers, counteroffer risk, and closing
Personally intervene when difficult or stalled searches require additional sourcing or recruiting support
Directly manage, coach, and develop Talent Acquisition team members
Conduct regular pipeline and requisition reviews
Establish clear expectations for candidate quality, sourcing activity, responsiveness, ownership, and follow-through
Review candidate submissions and help calibrate recruiter judgment when needed
Improve recruiter sourcing strategies, screening quality, hiring-manager communication, and candidate closing
Identify searches that are not progressing and require corrective action
Hold the recruiting team accountable for maintaining active pipelines and moving searches forward
Maintain ATS discipline and recruiting data quality across the team
Own and regularly review recruiting metrics, including pipeline health, requisition aging, time to fill, and offer acceptance, and report results to leadership
Lead effective intake discussions with hiring leaders
Clarify required qualifications, candidate profiles, compensation parameters, geography, and sourcing strategy before searches begin
Challenge unclear, unrealistic, or unnecessarily restrictive requirements when market evidence supports a different approach
Advise leadership regarding candidate availability, compensation, competitive market conditions, and sourcing strategy
Establish clear expectations and accountability between Talent Acquisition and hiring managers
Escalate stalled decisions, compensation issues, and other hiring risks when appropriate