Assistant Director of Talent Acquisition & Recruitment Operations

KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, is a national network of tuition-free public schools educating 120,000 students in grades Prek-12 across 21 states and Washington, DC.   We have a  network of 16,500 educators and 175,000 students and alumni across the country.  

KIPP Columbus is the only KIPP school in Ohio and educates more than 2,000 students K-12 on a 150+ acre campus in Northeast Columbus.  

In addition to academic excellence, KIPP Columbus also partners with nearly 100 community organizations to provide extracurricular activities, programming, health and wellness services, meals, and more to KIPP students, families, and the broader community. KIPP is also a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association, offering more than 10 varsity sports. 

The KIPP Columbus learning campus will continue to advance student learning, expand partnerships, enable superior programming, and serve as a teaching and leadership lab for schools nationwide, reimagining education through a deeper lens of antiracism, excellence, and joy as we expand to educate nearly 4,000 students on our learning campus in the coming years. 

Interested in learning more about our school?  Please check out our website: https://www.kippcolumbus.org/

The Opportunity:

This position reports directly to our Senior Director of Talent Acquisition.

This position formalizes a higher-level scope of work where said leader will have clear participation or ownership over:

• Recruitment systems and process consistency
• Referral program optimization and measuring impact
• Internal mobility and transfer transparency
• Employment branding initiatives
• Data-driven pipeline management and reporting

This leader, who will be known as the Assistant Director of Talent Acquisition & Recruitment Operations is responsible for recruiting School-Based and Regional team members across KIPP Columbus while also leading key systems, initiatives, and operational improvements that strengthen the overall effectiveness of our Talent function.

This role continues to manage a requisition portfolio, recruit, screen, and support hiring managers through selection processes. In addition, this role serves as the operational owner of key recruitment systems and initiatives, including employment branding, internal mobility, and referral strategy execution.

The Assistant Director operates as a project lead and systems manager within the Talent Team. This position does not directly supervise team members but partners closely with the Senior Director of Recruitment and other stakeholders to improve hiring quality, efficiency, and long-term talent stability.

The ideal candidate is a systems-oriented thinker with strong execution skills, high ownership, and the ability to drive initiatives across teams without formal authority.

Job Responsibilities:

Recruitment & Requisition Ownership:

• Manage a portfolio of School-Based and Regional vacancies from sourcing through offer acceptance
• Conduct resume screening, phone screens, and structured interviews
• Partner with hiring managers to design interview plans and selection processes aligned to role competencies
• Strategize around immediate and prospective vacancies to ensure proactive pipeline management
• Monitor candidate progression through SmartRecruiters and ensure data accuracy
• Facilitate offer-stage handoff to HR, including verbal offers, start-date alignment, and context-sharing

Talent Acquisition Operations & Systems Ownership

• Serve as operational lead for recruitment systems (ATS, tracking dashboards, process documentation)
• Maintain and improve standardized hiring workflows and candidate tracking tools
• Build and maintain recruitment dashboards that support visibility into pipeline health, time-to-fill, and conversion metrics
• Ensure consistent documentation and compliance across hiring processes
• Improve efficiency in scheduling, communication, and hiring manager coordination
• Develop scalable resources (interview guides, templates, process checklists)

Employment Branding & Talent Pipeline Development

• Design and manage initiatives that strengthen KIPP Columbus’ employment brand
• Develop creative sourcing and engagement strategies beyond traditional job board usage
• Strengthen partnerships with universities, teacher prep programs, and mission-aligned organizations
• Support representation of KIPP Columbus at career fairs and recruitment events
• Create targeted campaign-based hiring pushes during peak hiring season

Referral & Internal Mobility Program Management

• Own and manage the employee referral program, including tracking, communication cycles, and process clarity
• Devise and implement enhancements to increase referral participation and effectiveness
• Build and formalize internal mobility systems, including internal transfer processes and transparent opportunity communication
• Monitor referral conversion and retention impact to strengthen long-term talent stability

Cross-Functional Project Leadership

• Lead recruitment-related initiatives that require coordination across school leaders, Chiefs, and HR
• Partner with People Team colleagues to align hiring timelines with contract renewal cycles and workforce planning
• Support hiring readiness efforts ahead of peak recruitment season

Planning & Data Utilization

• Maintain and leverage recruitment data to drive strategy adjustments
• Provide regular progress updates to Talent leadership
• Identify trends in candidate sourcing, hiring bottlenecks, and pipeline drop-off points
• Importantly, this role will continue to carry a requisition portfolio, ensuring hiring capacity remains strong while elevating operational maturity.

• Minimum 5 years of recruitment or hiring experience
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple high-volume searches simultaneously
• Strong project management and systems-thinking skills
• Experience leveraging ATS systems and recruitment platforms
• Ability to influence and collaborate across seniority levels without direct authority
• Strong analytical and reporting skills
• Preferred: Experience in K–12 education or mission-driven organizations

Compensation and Benefits

KIPP Columbus offers a robust benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurances as well various voluntary benefits (such as short term disability, long term disability, life insurance, and participation in the Ohio SERS/STRS retirement plan.)  We also offer seasons of life support with 10 weeks paid maternity leave and 4 weeks paid spousal leave/adoption leave.  

Statement of Non-Disclosure

KIPP Columbus is committed to a policy of equal treatment for all individuals applying to the school for consideration of any position (admission, employment, etc.). KIPP Columbus does not discriminate on the basis of disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes set forth in Section 4112.02 of the Ohio Revised Code