Senior Director, Talent Acquisition & Rewards Strategy

📋 Description

• • Babylist is seeking a visionary and strategic Senior Director, Talent Acquisition & Rewards Strategy to lead the critical functions of attracting, rewarding, and retaining top talent. As a remote-first company with a significant market presence and ambitious growth plans, Babylist recognizes that its people are its greatest asset. This pivotal leadership role is designed to unify and elevate our approach to talent acquisition and total rewards, ensuring they are deeply integrated and strategically aligned with our business objectives. You will be instrumental in shaping a cohesive people strategy that drives our mission to connect growing families with everything they need to thrive, while also building a generational brand in the baby industry.
• • In this role, you will own the overarching strategy and execution for both Talent Acquisition (TA) and Total Rewards (TR). This includes leading the TA and TR teams, fostering a collaborative environment, and ensuring seamless integration between recruiting efforts, compensation structures, and benefits programs. Your mandate is to attract exceptional individuals, retain our most valuable employees, and enable Babylist's responsible scaling as the business continues its rapid expansion, projected to reach over $500 million in revenue in 2024.
• • You will be responsible for corporate and executive compensation, overseeing the entire recruiting lifecycle from strategy to execution, and bringing invaluable external market insights to inform our decisions. A key aspect of this role is the ability to dissect complex challenges, approach them with fresh perspectives, and move beyond optimizing existing processes to fundamentally reimagining what is needed for Babylist's future success. This is an opportunity to break new ground and redefine how we attract, engage, and care for the talent that builds our company.
• • This position is at the nexus of Babylist's growth trajectory, our competitive positioning in the talent market, and our commitment to supporting the people who are building this company. You will ensure we are not only hiring the right individuals but also rewarding them thoughtfully and establishing scalable systems that support our ambition, discipline, and core values.
• • **Lead and Align Talent Acquisition & Total Rewards:**
• • Spearhead the Talent Acquisition and Total Rewards teams, forging a unified strategy that seamlessly connects hiring, compensation, benefits, and retention initiatives.
• • Bridge the gap between recruiting and compensation by empowering recruiters to confidently and accurately articulate our compensation and benefits packages to candidates.
• • Collaborate closely with Finance, Legal, and People leadership to ensure alignment between headcount planning, compensation strategy, and overarching business goals.
• • Architect innovative compensation and benefit programs specifically designed to attract and retain high-performing individuals.
• • Act as the central connector, ensuring our Total Rewards strategy is meticulously crafted to attract and retain the caliber of talent essential for Babylist's success.
• • **Talent Acquisition Strategy & Execution:**
• • Assume ownership of headcount and capacity planning in close partnership with business leaders and the Finance department.
• • Establish clear performance expectations and provide strategic direction to guide the TA team in meeting hiring plans, timelines, and quality standards.
• • Ensure the TA function possesses the optimal team structure, capabilities, and resources to address both current and future recruiting demands.
• • Develop and continuously refine a long-term recruiting strategy that is agile and scalable to accommodate the company's growth.
• • Enhance and streamline the recruitment process to boost efficiency, consistency, and the overall quality of hires.
• • Champion a shift in interview practices, moving beyond mere experience validation to a focus on core competencies, problem-solving acumen, adaptability, and a growth mindset.
• • Design and implement comprehensive interview training programs to equip hiring teams with the skills to consistently identify the right candidate signals.
• • Cultivate pattern recognition across hiring outcomes to identify effective strategies and areas requiring adjustment.
• • Define key TA metrics and reporting standards to provide organizational transparency into hiring progress, pipeline health, and delivery against strategic objectives.
• • Maintain clear visibility for the organization regarding filled roles, the status of ongoing recruitment processes, and the disposition of open positions.
• • Accurately and swiftly assess talent, proactively identifying and addressing skill and capability gaps as the organization evolves.
• • Formulate a strong perspective on optimal staffing agency partnerships tailored to different employee populations and coverage needs.
• • **Employee Retention Strategy:**
• • Take charge of corporate and executive compensation, encompassing salary, equity, and incentive programs.
• • Leverage deep external compensation market insights to ensure competitive yet fiscally responsible salary ranges.
• • Collaborate with an external compensation consultant and lead a dedicated internal Total Rewards team.
• • Develop and refine compensation philosophies suitable for a corporate, engineering-centric organization.
• • Apply experience with executive compensation, particularly within pre-IPO companies navigating the transition to public status.
• • Design a holistic talent and total rewards strategy to support the attraction and retention of top-tier talent.
• • Guide the evolution of benefits programs through thoughtful change management, ensuring updates are perceived as natural and well-understood by employees.
• • Educate the organization on our compensation philosophy, the methodology behind pay decisions, and the intricacies of equity compensation.
• • Demonstrate a robust understanding of stock administration, including options, RSUs, and the complete equity lifecycle.
• • **Build Proactive, Scalable Programs:**
• • Design forward-thinking programs in both Talent Acquisition and Total Rewards that anticipate and address future business requirements.
• • Identify potential skill and capability gaps at an early stage and collaborate with leadership to implement timely solutions.
• • Foster disciplined growth by harnessing automation, optimizing efficiency, and employing smarter planning methodologies to help Babylist maintain its focused and agile team structure.