Manager, Talent Acquisition at Bridge International

About the Role

As the Talent Acquisition Manager, you will have the opportunity to join and shape a fast-scaling global  organisation by developing a highly effective talent pipeline for all positions in the program. This is a highly hands on, and analytical role with intense stakeholder and project management across the various teams. The ideal candidate will have a strong ability to multi-task and take ownership of the current talent acquisition  process from the get-go. Working closely with our Bridge leadership team and department leads, you will oversee staff and schools hiring.

You’re an extremely effective communicator, both written and verbal, and are energized by interacting with people, building relationships, and networking. These things come naturally to you and are what you crave in your working life. A keen sense of ownership, speedy execution, and scrappiness is a must. The candidate is equally comfortable as an individual contributor as well as a leader who can drive the efforts of a team. This role reports directly to both our MD, Bridge Kenya, and our Regional Director, Talent Acquisition, and manages a Talent Acquisition Officer.

What You Will Do

1. Work with hiring managers and their teams to oversee recruitment efforts, across both staff and school hiring in Bridge. You will take lead on all staff hiring across Bridge Kenya and Uganda, and oversee a Talent Acquisition Officer focussed on schools hiring.
2. Partner with the People team to project and meet teacher and academy manager hiring needs to ensure we have full coverage of all permanent and substitute teachers, and academy managers.
3. Support the People team with placement of the hired teachers and academy managers in each recruitment cycle.
4. Partner with department leads and the People team for internal hiring efforts (internal recruitment is the assessment of employees for different or more senior roles).
5. Use social media, job boards, internet sourcing, and other technical means to source candidates for open jobs for current open roles and identify future talent needs, and proactively recruit and source candidates.
6. Develop and maintain networks that ensure we meet our needs for teachers, academy managers and the staff that support delivery in our schools. This could be through targeted community outreach, and partnerships with teacher training colleges.
7.  Manage the recruitment process and life-cycle, including initial assessments, interviews, and offers.
8. Guide hiring managers and decision-makers by providing valuable insight and hiring and employment data.
9. Manage relationships with recruiters, academic and professional groups, and with a wider audience through the use of social media and other targeted outreach to key audiences; including coordination of on-campus recruiting, job fairs, conferences, and other opportunities to connect with audiences interested in for-profit education space.
10.  Leverage a candidate experience-focused; coach and mentor a team on meticulous candidate management using an applicant tracking system to track applicants from the selection phase through to on-boarding.
11. Create and deploy various hiring strategies and initiatives - around sourcing and hiring practices, talent attraction, employer branding, outreach and partnership programs and internships.
12.  Review current processes objectively, and relentlessly focus on iteration - across quality of hire, time to hire and experience.
13.  Candidate experience focused; meticulous candidate management using an applicant tracking system to track applicants from the selection phase through to on-boarding.

What You Should Have

1.  Bachelor's degree with superior academic performance.
2.  4+ years within Talent Acquisition; we particularly value experience in extreme growth situations. Experience recruiting for field teams is preferred.
3.  Extensive headhunting / direct recruitment experience, particularly with building diverse teams.
4.  Prior experience within a fast-paced, metric driven Talent Acquisition organization (in-house / corporate or agency), as well as in designing and implementing talent acquisition solutions encompassing talent attraction and outreach programmes to build for longer-term talent pipeline.
5.  Curiosity, grit and a relentless spirit to uncover talent across Kenya and Uganda.
6.  Experience with establishing and maintaining senior stakeholders, internally and externally, demonstrating the ability to work effectively across internal and external organizations for hiring partnerships.

You’re also

1.  A detailed doer – You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.
2.  A networking mastermind – You excel at meeting new people and turning them into advocates.  You communicate in a clear, conscientious, and effective way in both written and oral speech. You can influence strangers in the course of a single conversation. Allies and colleagues will go to bat for your ideas. You have an existing network from prior experience in the country, preferably in the regulatory, education, or business sectors.
3.  A creative problem-solver – Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, Bridge works in often fragile, sometimes volatile low-resource communities and with complex government systems. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand.
4.  A relentless advocate – The children we serve and teachers we empower never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their benefit, experience, and value.
5.  A malleable learner – You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
6.  A data-driven decision-maker – When making decisions, you don’t rely on your intuition alone. You collect data, you analyze it and make decisions with clear justifications.
7.  A curious investigator – You ask why a lot. You don’t just take what you see and accept it. You wonder why it is that way, and are aware that the world we see is created by human choices and actions – and it could be different. You wonder, and see the world as wonderful even when you want to change a part of it that is unjust.