Senior Director, Talent Acquisition & Brand Strategy

Overview

You lead talent acquisition strategy and employer brand for Babylist, a baby registry and e-commerce platform with 1,160 employees and $500M+ in revenue. You manage the TA team (starting with one direct report, Sam), run executive searches yourself, shape how Babylist shows up as an employer, and partner closely with the SVP of People on executive compensation strategy. This is a hybrid role—half strategic (building systems, EVP, brand), half execution (recruiting execs, managing searches).

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Late-stage / Pre-IPO or profitable private company

Size: 1,162 employees

Revenue: $500M+ annually

Growth: Mature consumer tech company, past hypergrowth phase, making strategic hires vs. massive scaling

Market Position: Category leader in baby registry space—they're the known alternative to traditional retail registries (Target, Amazon)

Remote Policy: Remote-first across the U.S.

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

TA Strategy & Systems (25%) | Executive Recruiting (30%) | Employer Brand (20%) | Comp/People Ops (10%) | Team Management (15%)

Key Activities

• Run executive searches yourself: You're sourcing, screening, and closing VP and C-level hires. This means LinkedIn sourcing, running interview processes, negotiating offers, and managing exec search firms when needed. Expect 3-5 active exec searches at any time.

• Build and refine TA strategy: You own the playbook—where to source, what channels work, how to assess candidates, interview training for hiring managers, time-to-fill metrics, and making sure the team isn't just filling seats but hiring the right people.

• Shape employer brand and EVP: This is the "why work here" story. You build the narrative (benefits, culture, mission, work style), create content for careers pages and social, and make Babylist a place people actually want to join. Right now this probably doesn't exist in a structured way.

• Partner on executive compensation: You work with the SVP of People (James) on exec comp philosophy, benchmarking, equity packages, and making sure offers are competitive. You're not the comp expert, but you're in the room advising on what it takes to close senior talent.

• Manage and develop Sam: Sam runs day-to-day TA operations. Your job is to make Sam better—coach on tough searches, unblock issues, give strategic direction, and help them grow as a TA leader. The post makes it clear: when Sam wins, the whole team wins.

• Build AI-forward TA systems: The post emphasizes AI, which likely means implementing tools for sourcing (automation, AI screening), candidate engagement (chatbots, scheduling), and analytics. You're expected to know what's possible and actually implement it, not just talk about trends.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• You're doing the work AND building the strategy: This isn't pure leadership—you're hands-on recruiting executives while also building systems and brand. It's a lot of context-switching between sourcing a VP of Engineering and writing EVP messaging.

• Executive recruiting is slow and political: Execs take 3-6 months to close. You'll spend a lot of time managing search firms, aligning stakeholders (CEO, board, other execs), and negotiating complex comp packages. Searches fall apart late-stage when candidates get counteroffers or the company changes priorities.

• Employer brand at a consumer company is tricky: Babylist is known to parents, not necessarily to tech talent. You're building awareness in a crowded market (every consumer tech company is hiring the same engineers and PMs). Your EVP has to punch through without sounding like every other mission-driven startup.

• You're building this function from scratch: There's no existing employer brand playbook or mature TA systems. You have to figure out what good looks like, get buy-in, and execute. That means a lot of selling internally and proving value before you have data.

• Limited team initially: You have one direct report. For a 1,160-person company, that's lean. You'll need to prioritize ruthlessly and likely make the case to hire more recruiters or coordinators.

What Success Looks Like

• Exec hires close on time: You fill VP and C-level roles within 90-120 days, candidates accept offers without prolonged negotiation, and new execs stick (no turnover in first year).

• TA metrics improve: Time-to-fill drops, offer acceptance rate goes up, hiring manager satisfaction scores increase, and you're not scrambling to backfill the same roles repeatedly.

• Employer brand becomes measurable: Application rates increase, inbound candidate quality improves, Glassdoor/LinkedIn sentiment shifts positive, and people start saying "I've heard great things about working at Babylist."

• Sam and the TA team level up: Sam is running more strategic projects, making better hires, and growing as a leader. If you hire more recruiters, they're effective quickly because you've built good systems.

Who You're Selling To (Internally)

Primary Stakeholders:

• SVP of People (James): Your boss. Cares about TA outcomes, comp strategy alignment, and making sure talent is a competitive advantage, not a bottleneck.
• CEO and Exec Team: They care about filling their open VP roles, having a bench of future leaders, and Babylist being a place top talent wants to join.
• Hiring Managers (Directors, VPs): They want great candidates fast, a smooth process, and help closing people. They don't care about your systems—they care about results.

What They Care About:

• Speed and quality: Can you fill hard roles (senior engineers, product leaders, revenue execs) without sacrificing bar?
• Employer brand that works: Does Babylist show up well when candidates Google you? Do people accept offers or use you for leverage?
• Comp strategy that's smart: Are exec offers competitive but not overpaying? Is there a philosophy or are you winging it every time?

Requirements

• Led TA orgs before: You've managed recruiters, built strategies, and owned hiring outcomes at a previous company. This isn't your first TA leadership role.

• Recruited executives yourself: You've personally closed VP and C-level hires. You know how to source passive candidates, run senior-level processes, and negotiate complex packages.

• Built employer brands: You've created EVPs, launched careers sites, run employer brand campaigns, and can show impact (application lift, sentiment change, etc.).

• Know compensation: You understand comp philosophy, benchmarking, equity structures, and how to advise on exec packages. You don't need to be a comp expert, but you need to be credible in those conversations.

• Think in systems: You build scalable processes, use data to make decisions, and implement tools (ATS, sourcing platforms, AI tools) that make recruiting better, not just busier.

• AI-forward mindset: You know what AI tools exist (sourcing automation, screening, scheduling, analytics), you've used them, and you can implement them. This isn't theoretical—you're expected to deploy AI to make the team more efficient.

• Lead through people: You coach and develop your team (starting with Sam), you don't just delegate and check boxes. The post is explicit: making Sam better is part of the job.

• Operate at scale: Babylist is 1,160 people and $500M+ revenue. You've worked at a company of similar size/complexity and know what good TA looks like at this stage (not startup chaos, not enterprise bureaucracy).