Talent Acquisition Lead

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Talent Acquisition Lead plays a critical leadership role in ensuring that Cuso meets its volunteer delivery commitments and achieves high-quality placement outcomes across all programs and projects. In addition to overseeing the full Volunteer Journey, this role is responsible for driving a proactive, strategic talent acquisition approach aligned with Cuso’s organizational pivot toward securing highly skilled technical volunteers.

The successful candidate is accountable for building and sustaining talent pipelines through institutional, diaspora, and corporate partnerships; expanding engagement with new volunteer pools; and strengthening our recruitment approach through more targeted, market‑facing acquisition strategies.

The successful candidate ensures the systems, tools, data, and processes required for effective volunteer delivery and supports department-wide talent initiatives. They will also provide oversight of both volunteer and staff recruitment, including onboarding, performance management guidance, and employee experience from entry to exit.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Proactive Talent Acquisition & Pipeline Development (50%)

• Lead a forward-looking, proactive talent acquisition strategy that identifies and attracts talent aligned with Cuso’s evolving technical staffing and volunteer needs.
• Build and maintain strategic partnerships with universities, polytechnics, research institutes, sector associations, diaspora communities, corporations and other relevant institutions to develop year-round talent pipelines and develop customized international and domestic (Canada) volunteer placements.
• Develop sourcing strategies to attract staff and volunteers with specialized technical skills (e.g. engineers, agri-food product development, tourism industry business planning).
• Lead Recruitment Marketing efforts to design campaigns and outreach tools that increase visibility and attract high-quality technical applicants.
• Ensure placement descriptions are compelling, marketable, and aligned with partner expectations and market trends.

Skilled Talent Acquisition (30%)

• Develop and monitor target‑setting systems to effectively manage both volunteer and employee recruitment pipelines, ensuring alignment between organizational needs, staffing plans, and placement requirements.
• Ensure consistency, quality, and responsiveness across all stages of the recruitment and engagement lifecycle, including screening, onboarding, pre‑departure preparation, in‑placement support, performance monitoring, and reintegration/exit for volunteers and personnel.
• Lead the development and management of systems and workflows to ensure effective matching of candidates (volunteers and employees) to roles and placements, and maintain strong information flows across internal teams and Country Program Offices.
• Strengthen and monitor KPIs, reporting tools, and dashboards to support forecasting, staffing/volunteer delivery, and organizational knowledge management.
• Manage and evolve the HR database (employees and volunteers) to ensure accurate and complete data for monitoring, reporting, forecasting, compliance, and budgeting purposes, and to support a smooth and consistent journey for both staff and volunteers.
• Support Country Program Offices in effective engagement and management of volunteers and personnel, including escalation of complex issues, complaints management, debriefs, performance issues, and staff orientation and training.
• Ensure effective management and monitoring of annual project budgets, maintaining strict control of all expenditures through performance‑to‑budget analysis and alignment with staffing and volunteer deployment plans.

Team Leadership & Collaboration (20%)

• Oversee the Talent Advisory Services Team, providing coaching, supervision, and performance support.
• Foster collaboration between Talent Advisory, Country Program Offices, Program Quality & Impact, Engagement, Communications, and Finance.
• Ensure adherence to organizational policies, decisions, and processes within the area of responsibility.
• Promote a learning-oriented, high-performance culture within the team.

General Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Communications & Marketing to develop outreach materials, campaigns, and events that support proactive recruitment.
• Contribute to organizational reporting requirements, including donor reports, forecasting, and strategic updates.
• Undertake Talent Management projects as required by the Leadership Team.
• Perform other responsibilities as required by the COO or Leadership Team.

POSITION REQUIREMENTS

Essential Qualifications

• Graduate degree in Human Resources, Talent Management, International Development, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and progressively responsible experience.
• Minimum 8-10 years of progressive experience in talent acquisition, recruitment, or workforce planning, including leadership responsibility.
• Demonstrated success designing and implementing proactive, strategic talent acquisition models, including active sourcing and pipeline development.
• Proven experience recruiting for specialized or technical skill sets, rather than only generalist or volume recruitment.
• Experience building and managing external talent partnerships (e.g., academic institutions, diaspora groups, corporate or sector associations).
• Strong people‑management experience, including team supervision, coaching, and performance management.
• Advanced experience managing recruitment systems, HR databases and platforms with strong data integrity and reporting skills.
• Demonstrated ability to use KPIs, dashboards, and forecasting to inform recruitment and delivery decisions.
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively across departments and with geographically dispersed teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Ability to legally work in Canada and willingness to travel internationally as required.

Asset Qualifications: The following are considered strong assets, but are not required:

• Professional HR designation (e.g. CHRP/CHRL, SHRM‑CP/SCP).
• Experience working in international development or volunteer‑based organizations.
• Direct experience managing or supporting international volunteers, secondees, or mobile workforces.
• Existing networks within diaspora communities, post‑secondary institutions, professional bodies, sector associations or the private sector.
• Familiarity with equity, diversity, inclusion, safeguarding, and ethical recruitment frameworks in international contexts.
• Budget management experience within donor‑funded or project‑based environments.
• Fluency in French strongly preferred. Fluency in Spanish would also be considered an asset.
• Experience leading talent initiatives during organizational transformation or strategic pivots.