Talent Acquisition Associate Jobs in Iowa

Summary: The Talent Acquisition Manager is responsible for leading and overseeing full-cycle talent acquisition activities for professional, technical, leadership, and hard-to-fill positions across the organization. This role serves as a strategic talent advisor to hiring managers, HR leaders, and business partners, providing expertise in workforce planning, recruiting strategy, talent market trends, candidate assessment, and selection.

The Talent Acquisition Manager develops and executes effective recruiting strategies designed to attract, engage, and hire high-quality talent while ensuring a positive candidate experience and alignment with the organization’s culture and business objectives. The role is responsible for developing talent pipelines, leveraging data and market insights to improve recruiting outcomes, supporting employer branding and recruitment marketing initiatives, and ensuring recruiting practices are compliant with applicable employment laws and organizational policies.

This position provides leadership, coaching, and guidance to Talent Acquisition Specialists and other individuals involved in the recruitment process and serves as a key partner in continuously improving the organization's talent acquisition strategy, processes, and capabilities.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead and oversee full-cycle recruitment for assigned positions, including intake meetings, recruitment strategy development, sourcing, screening, interviewing, selection, offer preparation, negotiation support, and onboarding coordination.
• Partner with hiring managers and HR leaders to understand current and future workforce needs, establish position requirements, and develop effective and timely recruitment strategies.
• Serve as a strategic talent advisor by providing hiring managers and business leaders with insights regarding candidate availability, talent market conditions, compensation expectations, recruiting trends, and competitive hiring practices.
• Develop and implement proactive sourcing strategies using professional networks, employee referrals, job boards, social media, talent communities, direct outreach, and other appropriate recruiting resources.
• Build and maintain strategic talent pipelines for recurring, specialized, leadership, and difficult-to-fill positions to support both immediate and future organizational needs.
• Provide leadership, coaching, and mentoring to Talent Acquisition Specialists and other recruiting team members, promoting consistent recruiting practices, accountability, collaboration, and professional development.
• Establish and monitor recruiting goals, priorities, and performance measures to support the organization's talent acquisition strategy and business objectives.
• Maintain accurate candidate, requisition, and recruitment activity data in the applicant tracking system and related reporting tools.
• Analyze recruiting metrics, including time-to-fill, source effectiveness, candidate quality, offer acceptance, pipeline activity, and hiring manager satisfaction; identify trends and recommend process improvements.
• Develop and implement strategies to improve recruiting efficiency, candidate quality, hiring outcomes, and overall candidate experience.
• Ensure a professional and engaging candidate experience through timely communication, consistent follow-up, clear expectations, and effective representation of the organization.
• Support and enhance the organization's employer brand and recruitment marketing efforts, including career events, internship and campus recruiting, community outreach, social media initiatives, and other talent attraction activities.
• Partner with HR leadership and other stakeholders on workforce planning, organizational growth initiatives, succession-related talent needs, and other strategic talent acquisition priorities as appropriate.
• Develop and maintain relationships with external recruiting resources, professional organizations, educational institutions, community organizations, and other talent sources as appropriate.
• Provide guidance and consultation to hiring managers and business partners regarding interview practices, candidate assessment, selection processes, and recruiting best practices.
• Ensure recruiting practices comply with applicable employment laws, equal employment opportunity standards, internal policies, and candidate recordkeeping requirements.
• Identify opportunities to streamline and improve recruiting processes, systems, tools, and workflows and assist with implementation of approved improvements.
• Maintain confidentiality and exercise appropriate judgment when handling sensitive candidate, employee, compensation, and organizational information.
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Skills Required:

• Strong knowledge of talent acquisition strategies, full-cycle recruiting, proactive sourcing, candidate assessment, behavioral interviewing, and selection best practices.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute recruiting strategies aligned with organizational and workforce needs.
• Strong knowledge of employment laws and regulations related to recruitment, interviewing, selection, equal employment opportunity, and candidate recordkeeping.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to consult, influence, negotiate, and build effective relationships across all levels of the organization.
• Strong leadership and people-management skills, including the ability to coach, mentor, develop, and hold others accountable.
• Strong analytical and strategic planning skills with the ability to use recruiting data and market information to drive informed decisions.
• Demonstrates strong emotional intelligence, active listening, patience, and empathy while building trust and influencing others.
• Exceptional organization, prioritization, follow-through, and time-management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and competing demands.
• Demonstrates sound judgment, problem-solving ability, and discretion when handling sensitive or confidential information.
• Works with independence and self-motivation while demonstrating accountability, ownership, and professionalism.
• Ability to establish credibility and effectively collaborate with executives, leaders, hiring managers, HR professionals, candidates, and external partners.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or a related field preferred; equivalent combination of education and relevant experience may be considered.
• Five or more years of progressive experience in recruiting or talent acquisition, with demonstrated responsibility for increasingly complex recruitment activities.
• Demonstrated experience managing full-cycle recruitment for professional, technical, leadership, and/or hard-to-fill positions.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing sourcing strategies and building sustainable talent pipelines.
• Experience partnering with hiring managers and business leaders to develop recruiting strategies and support workforce needs.
• Experience using applicant tracking systems, recruiting platforms, job boards, LinkedIn or similar professional networking tools, and recruitment reporting and analytics tools.
• Experience recruiting across multiple functions, including operations, leadership, corporate, technical, or specialized roles, preferred.
• Experience using recruiting metrics and data to evaluate and improve talent acquisition performance.
• Experience developing talent pipelines, recruitment marketing campaigns, employer branding initiatives, or other talent attraction strategies, preferred.
• Experience mentoring, coaching, or providing direction to recruiters or recruiting team members.
• Experience leading or supporting recruiting process, technology, or workflow improvements, preferred.
• Professional certification such as SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, SPHR, or a recruiting/talent acquisition-focused certification, preferred.

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to handle sensitive information and situations in a confidential and discreet manner.
• Travel is primarily local during the business day, although some out-of-area and overnight travel may be expected.

Office & Administration, Human Resources