Talent Acquisition Specialist

Aquent is looking for a highly curious, analytically minded Talent Acquisition Specialist to help us identify and hire exceptional people across our global organization.

This is a full-lifecycle recruiting role with broad exposure across Aquent. You’ll recruit for positions spanning software engineering, product, data and analytics, corporate/HQ functions, sales and account teams, with searches ranging from early-career talent to senior leadership.

We’re looking for more than a traditional recruiter. The ideal candidate is an intellectually curious problem solver who enjoys learning new disciplines, understanding how roles and teams work, and figuring out how to identify exceptional talent in competitive markets. You’ll bring an engineering mindset to recruiting—breaking complex hiring challenges into problems that can be researched, tested, measured, and improved.

You’ll also be expected to embrace AI as a core part of how you work, using emerging tools to improve research, sourcing, assessment, productivity, and the overall recruiting experience.

What You’ll Do

Own the Full Recruiting Lifecycle

• Lead searches from initial intake through sourcing, assessment, selection, offer, and close.

• Partner with hiring leaders to understand business needs and translate them into clear candidate profiles and recruiting strategies.

• Recruit across a wide range of functions, including engineering, product, analytics, corporate functions, sales, client/account management, and leadership.

• Adapt your recruiting and assessment approach based on the function, level, and complexity of each search.

• Create a thoughtful, high-quality candidate experience throughout the hiring process.

Find Exceptional Talent

• Build targeted sourcing strategies rather than relying primarily on inbound applicants.

• Research industries, companies, talent pools, and emerging skill sets to determine where the strongest candidates are likely to be found.

• Identify high-potential candidates who may not fit conventional target profiles or keyword searches.

• Develop and maintain talent pipelines for critical and recurring positions.

• Build relationships with candidates and create compelling reasons for exceptional people to consider Aquent.

Assess Talent

• Conduct thoughtful, structured interviews that evaluate skills, accomplishments, intellectual capability, leadership potential, motivation, and alignment with Aquent.

• Look beyond credentials to understand how candidates think, solve problems, learn, collaborate, and deliver results.

• Partner with hiring managers to develop effective interview and assessment approaches.

• Synthesize information from interviews and assessments into clear, evidence-based recommendations.

• Maintain a high bar for talent while balancing quality, speed, candidate experience, and business needs.

Partner With the Business

• Develop a strong understanding of Aquent's businesses, products, technology, customers, and strategy.

• Build trusted relationships with hiring managers and senior leaders.

• Challenge assumptions and bring an informed point of view about talent markets, candidate profiles, and hiring decisions.

• Provide leaders with market intelligence and data that help shape realistic and effective hiring strategies.

• Manage multiple searches and competing priorities while maintaining a high level of responsiveness and attention to detail.

Use AI to Make Recruiting Better

• Use AI tools throughout the recruiting lifecycle to accelerate research, sourcing, preparation, analysis, and communication.

• Experiment with new AI-enabled recruiting approaches and determine where technology can improve both efficiency and quality.

• Apply sound judgment when using AI, recognizing where human insight and interaction remain essential.

• Share successful tools, prompts, workflows, and practices that can improve recruiting across Aquent.

• Stay curious about emerging technologies and continually evolve how you work.

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree or higher, with a demonstrated record of academic achievement.

• Demonstrated leadership capability through professional, academic, extracurricular, entrepreneurial, or community experiences.

• Recruiting, talent acquisition, executive search, research, consulting, sales, or another experience that demonstrates the ability to identify and assess talented people is preferred.

• Strong intellectual curiosity and the ability to quickly learn unfamiliar businesses, technologies, roles, and industries.

• An engineering mindset—logical, structured, analytical, and naturally inclined to understand how things work and how they can be improved.

• AI fluency and demonstrated interest in using AI tools to improve the quality and efficiency of work.

• Strong research and sourcing capabilities, including the ability to find talent beyond obvious candidate pools.

• Excellent interviewing, listening, and assessment skills.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the confidence to interact with candidates and leaders at all levels.

• Sound judgment and the ability to make evidence-based recommendations while operating with discretion and integrity.

• High level of initiative, ownership, organization, and follow-through.

• Comfortable operating in an environment where priorities evolve and experimentation is encouraged.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role is not simply filling open positions. You will be successful when you consistently:

• Raise the talent bar by identifying and attracting exceptional people.

• Become a trusted talent advisor to hiring managers and senior leaders.

• Learn quickly enough to recruit credibly across very different disciplines and levels.

• Find talent others may miss through creative research, sourcing, and problem solving.

• Make better hiring decisions through disciplined assessment and evidence-based recommendations.

• Use technology intelligently to make recruiting faster, more insightful, and more effective.

• Deliver an exceptional experience for candidates and hiring teams.

• Continuously improve the system, looking for ways to make Aquent's approach to recruiting better with every search.

The Mindset We Value

The strongest person for this role will be someone who sees recruiting as an intellectual and business challenge—not simply a process to manage.

You’ll ask good questions. You’ll dig deeper when something doesn’t make sense. You’ll learn enough about software engineering to have meaningful conversations with engineers, enough about product to recognize strong product thinking, enough about sales to understand what separates good from exceptional performers, and enough about Aquent's business to recognize leaders who can help move the company forward.

Above all, you’ll be curious about people, technology, and business—and excited about finding exceptional people who can help shape what Aquent becomes next.