Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist

Description

The role

You will own our most senior internal searches end to end, from first conversation with the candidate through to offer. The people you'll be hiring are directors and C-level, so you are the first impression this company makes on them. You'll run intake directly with our founders and department heads, which includes telling them when the brief they've given you will not produce the hire they want.

This is not a coordination role. It is not suited to someone who needs the search strategy decided before they start.

Who We Are

AI Acquisition is a multi-8-figure business helping founders and operators scale with AI. Thousands of clients, hundreds of mastermind participants, with the US as our primary market. We're bootstrapped with no outside capital, so we set our own timelines and hire people who can operate without a script.

Our Talent function was built from zero in the last fifteen months: ATS, AI screening gates, tiered assessment frameworks, and a hiring bar the founders now use. A delivery team handles high-volume pipeline operations. You'll take whatever needs judgement, at any level, and you'll pick up the rest when the load demands it.

Requirements

Engagement and hours

This is an independent contractor engagement, not employment. You invoice monthly and handle your own tax and statutory obligations in your country of residence. Expect a 50 to 60 hour week. Our team spans the UAE, the UK and the US, and this role holds the middle of that span. Your day starts on UAE business hours and runs into the US East Coast morning, with senior candidate calls landing outside conventional hours. We say this plainly because the people who do well here choose it. If you need fixed hours, this is not the right role and we would rather you know before you apply.

What You'll Own

• The full range of searches, end to end, several at once. A C-level hire and a junior specialist role in the same week, and both get done properly
• Pipeline building ahead of the requisition. Talent mapped, warmed and ready before the role opens, not scrambled when it does
• Candidate engagement over months, not days. Keeping strong people warm when there is nothing live for them, and giving them a reason to take your call the next time
• Employer brand in practice. Being able to answer "why would I leave what I have for AIA" with something specific and true, and building the narrative that makes senior people want the conversation
• Strategic advisory to hiring managers. Market reality, realistic timelines, what the role needs to pay, and when the brief they've written will not produce the hire they want
• Intake and calibration with founders and department heads, including the disagreement
• First contact with director and C-level candidates, and being the reason they stay in process instead of going quiet
• Direct sourcing where no pipeline exists and inbound is useless
• Written candidate evaluations a founder can decide on without a follow-up call
• Quality oversight on shortlists coming through the delivery team
• Testing what works. Running A/B on titles, post copy and channels, and making the call on what to keep based on quality of applicant rather than volume
• Assessment design and execution. Building and running structured evaluations, scorecards and one-way assessments against a defined hiring bar, not judging on gut