VP, Talent Acquisition

Job Description

Role Overview

The Vice President, Talent Acquisition leads Horizon's enterprise Talent Acquisition practice and is accountable for its strategy, operating model, performance and continued evolution across full-time, temporary, executive and specialized hiring. Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Talent Acquisition & Learning and Development, the VP leads through Directors and other TA leaders, advises senior executives on workforce and talent tradeoffs, allocates resources across competing business priorities and ensures consistent, equitable and data-informed hiring. This leader translates enterprise talent priorities into scalable programs, technology, governance and measurable results while building a continuous-learning culture and the technological agility required for Talent Acquisition to evolve with new platforms, data capabilities and AI.

What You'll Do

35% - Enterprise Talent Acquisition Strategy & Executive Partnership

• Set and evolve Horizon's enterprise Talent Acquisition strategy and multi-year roadmap across full-time, temporary, executive, early-career and specialized hiring.
• Serve as the senior Talent Acquisition advisor to executive and HR leadership, translating business plans, workforce needs, financial realities and talent-market conditions into clear recommendations and decisions.
• Own enterprise prioritization and resource-allocation decisions when hiring needs exceed available capacity; make transparent tradeoffs across businesses, functions, clients and levels.
• Translate growth, new-business, client-transition and organizational-change plans into recruiting timelines, resource models, risk assessments, governance and execution strategies.
• • Establish enterprise principles for equitable hiring, candidate experience, assessment quality, interview discipline, data accuracy and stakeholder accountability.
• • Represent Talent Acquisition in HR leadership, Center of Excellence and cross-functional forums and connect the function's strategy to workforce planning, internal mobility, performance, DEI, employer brand and learning priorities.
• • Provide executive-level market intelligence and a forward-looking point of view on talent availability, compensation, location, competitive dynamics, candidate expectations and emerging workforce trends.
• • Advise executive leaders on critical role design, search feasibility, succession gaps, capability risks and the tradeoffs between hiring, developing, redeploying or using flexible talent.
• • Set the tone for ethical judgment, confidentiality and balanced advocacy across candidate, employee and business interests.

25% - Operating Model, Workforce Planning & Performance

• Design and govern the Talent Acquisition operating model, including business coverage, role clarity, service levels, decision rights, escalation paths and standards across portfolios.
• Oversee hiring-demand and capacity forecasting and determine the appropriate mix of internal recruiters, temporary support, embedded resources, agencies, research and specialized partners.
• Establish enterprise scorecards, operating reviews and performance expectations across hiring pace, aging, pipeline health, source effectiveness, offer acceptance, quality, experience, data discipline and operational reliability.
• Use quantitative and qualitative insight to identify systemic barriers, direct corrective action and hold leaders accountable for measurable improvement.
• Partner with Finance, Compensation, HR Operations, Legal, Information Security, People Systems and other stakeholders to resolve enterprise constraints and maintain compliant, secure and scalable hiring practices.
• Own the Talent Acquisition budget, vendor strategy, contracts and investment recommendations; assess strategic fit, value, risk, scalability and return rather than managing individual invoices tactically.
• Present annual and periodic Talent Acquisition strategies, results, risks, market conditions and investment priorities to executive leadership with clear business implications and recommended action.
• Provide oversight and senior sponsorship for executive, confidential and mission-critical searches, stepping into direct search leadership selectively when enterprise impact warrants it.
• • Establish governance for temporary and contingent recruitment and ensure it integrates with portfolio ownership, financial controls and workforce strategy.
• • Ensure enterprise recruiting processes can flex for distinct business needs without creating inconsistent standards, avoidable risk or unsustainable customization.

25% - Leadership, Organization & Talent Management

• Lead the function through Directors and other TA leaders, setting clear expectations for portfolio outcomes, team performance, stakeholder management, operating quality and leadership behavior.
• Coach leaders to make sound decisions, manage complex relationships, develop talent, address performance and scale themselves through effective delegation and accountability.
• Create consistency across recruiting teams while allowing thoughtful flexibility for distinct business models, client needs, role families and talent markets.
• Assess organizational structure, leadership layers, capability, succession, capacity and performance and make timely decisions about hiring, promotion, development, role design and performance management.
• Hold Directors accountable for building strong Team Leads, Associate Directors and recruiters and for reducing key-person dependency within their portfolios.
• Allocate leadership attention and team capacity across recurring delivery, growth, executive hiring, transformation and unexpected enterprise priorities.
• Build an inclusive, high-accountability culture grounded in psychological safety, candid feedback, recognition, ethical judgment, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Lead the team through material process, technology and organizational changes by establishing a clear vision, communicating intent, defining behaviors and measuring adoption and impact.
• Create meaningful development, mobility and succession opportunities across the TA team while maintaining the standards required to deliver for the business.
• Represent and advocate for the function with executive leaders while ensuring the team understands business context, financial constraints and enterprise priorities.

15% - Learning, Technology & Cross-Functional Talent Integration

• Own the Talent Acquisition learning, technology, data and innovation agenda, ensuring the function develops the skills, leadership capability and tools required to meet current and future business needs.
• Partner with Learning & Development to establish a scalable capability strategy across recruiter onboarding, search and assessment expertise, stakeholder influence, people leadership, data literacy, interviewer and hiring-manager effectiveness, and responsible technology use.
• Establish expectations for continuous learning at every level of Talent Acquisition and hold Directors accountable for translating enterprise priorities into portfolio-specific development, coaching and knowledge-sharing plans.
• Own the enterprise recruiting technology roadmap across applicant tracking, sourcing, CRM and talent intelligence, scheduling, assessment, interview, analytics, automation and collaboration platforms, including business cases, sequencing, governance, adoption and return on investment.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and AI-enabled use cases with a clear point of view on strategic fit, workflow impact, user experience, data quality, fairness, privacy, information security, legal risk and human oversight.
• Sponsor disciplined pilots and implementation of new platforms, AI tools and automation; define success measures, adoption requirements and clear criteria for scaling, redesigning or discontinuing solutions.
• Build technological agility across the function so leaders and recruiters can adapt to evolving platforms, interpret data responsibly and redesign work rather than simply layering tools onto inefficient processes.
• Ensure change management includes communication, training, manager reinforcement, documentation, support and measurement of behavior change—not only technical deployment.
• Connect recruiting and learning strategies to internal mobility, early-career development, workforce skills, career paths and broader talent capability priorities.
• Partner with Marketing, Communications and business leaders on employer brand, talent-market positioning and external reputation, and bring relevant external benchmarks, partnerships and thought leadership into Horizon.
• Ensure technology and process decisions improve recruiter productivity, candidate and stakeholder experience, decision quality and enterprise insight without creating unnecessary administrative burden.

Who You Are

• An enterprise Talent Acquisition leader who can move fluidly between strategy, operating detail and executive decision-making.
• A leader of leaders who creates clarity, distributes meaningful ownership and holds Directors accountable for both business and people outcomes.
• A trusted executive advisor with the credibility, judgment and presence to challenge assumptions, navigate conflict and influence high-stakes decisions.
• A strategic thinker who connects talent decisions to business performance, workforce planning, financial parameters and future capability needs.
• A data-literate operator who establishes meaningful measures, distinguishes signal from noise and converts insight into action.
• An innovative change leader who can modernize systems, processes and ways of working without losing sight of adoption, risk or employee experience.
• A mature, ethical and inclusive leader who protects sensitive information, promotes fairness and creates an environment of trust and accountability.
• A highly effective communicator who can tell a clear story, tailor the message to the audience and make complex issues actionable.
• A forward-looking Talent Acquisition subject-matter expert who stays close to evolving labor markets, technology, regulation and candidate expectations.
• A talent-development leader who sees learning, coaching and leadership readiness as core operating responsibilities and builds the systems that allow capability to scale through the function.
• A technologically sophisticated and agile executive who can assess platforms and AI beyond feature sets, understand operating-model and data implications, and lead responsible adoption across a complex organization.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• 12+ years of progressive Talent Acquisition experience across complex full-time, temporary, executive and specialized hiring environments.
• Significant people-leadership experience, including leading Directors, recruiting managers, senior recruiters or other people leaders.
• Demonstrated experience setting enterprise or multi-business Talent Acquisition strategy, operating models, governance and performance expectations.
• Experience advising executive leaders and navigating competing business priorities, financial constraints, client needs and organizational risk.
• Strong command of recruiting analytics, workforce planning, executive search, temporary or contingent talent, vendor strategy and candidate-market dynamics.
• Experience owning budgets, contracts, recruiting technology and major process, organizational or technology transformations.
• Demonstrated experience establishing function-wide learning, leadership-development or capability-building strategies for recruiters, hiring managers, interviewers or other talent stakeholders.
• Deep fluency across modern recruiting platforms and data ecosystems, with experience evaluating, piloting, implementing and governing automation, AI-enabled recruiting solutions and emerging technology.
• Working knowledge of employment, compliance, privacy, information-security and data considerations relevant to domestic and international hiring.
• Excellent written, verbal, facilitation and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate with executive audiences.

Horizon Media is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.  We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

Salary Range

A successful applicant’s actual base salary may vary based on factors such as individual’s skill sets, experience, training, education,  licensure/certifications, and qualifications for the role.  As an organization, we take an aptitude and competency-based hiring approach.  We provide a competitive total rewards package including a discretionary bonus and a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, retirement savings plans, company paid holidays and unlimited paid time off (PTO), mental health and wellness resources, pet insurance, childcare resources, identity theft insurance, fertility assistance programs, and fitness reimbursement.