TA Team Lead

Role Summary

The Talent Acquisition Manager owns the recruiting function at Blacksmith Agency and leads a small team of recruiters. This role is responsible for building a high performance recruiting engine that consistently delivers top talent across sales, delivery, and operations.

This is a player coach role. You will personally recruit for critical roles while managing and developing 2 to 3 recruiters. You are accountable for talent quality, hiring velocity, and team output. Your success is measured by who we hire, how fast they ramp, and how well your recruiting team performs.

Core Responsibilities

Hiring Strategy and Workforce Planning

• Partner with leadership to forecast hiring needs tied to revenue, capacity, and growth plans

• Translate headcount plans into clear quarterly hiring priorities

• Pressure test hiring plans and advise leadership when timing or expectations are misaligned

Full Cycle Recruiting Ownership

• Personally own recruiting for priority and hard to fill roles

• Oversee full cycle recruiting across all open roles

• Ensure job descriptions reflect real expectations and success criteria

• Drive decisive hiring outcomes without unnecessary delays

Recruiting Team Leadership

• Manage, coach, and develop 2 to 3 recruiters

• Set clear expectations for sourcing volume, pipeline quality, and time to hire

• Review pipelines, screens, and candidate quality regularly

• Hold recruiters accountable to standards, output, and follow through

• Identify skill gaps and provide direct coaching to improve performance

Talent Quality and Hiring Bar

• Set and enforce a consistent hiring bar across the company

• Review and calibrate recruiter assessments to ensure signal driven evaluations

• Step in when hiring quality is at risk

• Push back on hires that do not meet standards, even under pressure

Recruiting Systems and Process

• Own the ATS and ensure clean data and accurate reporting

• Build and refine recruiting workflows, scorecards, and interview guides

• Create repeatable playbooks for recurring roles such as SDRs, AEs, PMs, and specialists

• Continuously improve recruiting efficiency and decision clarity

Hiring Manager Enablement

• Train hiring managers on structured interviewing and evaluation

• Ensure hiring managers provide timely and meaningful feedback

• Hold hiring managers accountable to recruiting timelines and decisions

• Act as a thought partner on final hiring calls

Employer Brand and Candidate Experience

• Ensure candidates have a clear and honest view of expectations and culture

• Maintain a professional, direct, and respectful candidate experience

• Protect Blacksmith Agency’s reputation as a selective and well run company

Onboarding Handoff and Feedback Loop

• Partner with operations and leadership on clean onboarding handoffs

• Track early performance and retention of new hires

• Use post hire outcomes to refine screening criteria and recruiter coaching

Success Metrics

• Quality of hire and early performance outcomes

• Time to fill and pipeline health

• Recruiter productivity and consistency

• Hiring manager satisfaction

• Reduction in mis hires and early churn

Ideal Background

• Experience leading and developing recruiters

• Proven success owning recruiting in a high accountability environment

• Strong hiring judgment across sales and professional services roles

• Comfortable giving direct feedback and making hard calls

• Experience with outbound sourcing and proactive recruiting

Personal Traits That Matter Here

• High ownership and high standards

• Direct, calm, and decisive communicator

• Strong people judgment and pattern recognition

• Comfortable saying no when the bar is not met

• Invested in building a team, not just filling roles

Why This Role Matters

This role directly impacts growth, delivery quality, and leadership focus. A strong Talent Acquisition Manager creates leverage by building a team and system that consistently hires well without chaos or compromise.