WHAT DOES AN EXECUTIVE RECRUITER DO?
Updated: Jun 14, 2025 - The Executive Recruiter collaborates with HR and hiring managers to develop staffing strategies, update job descriptions, and oversee requisition progress from approval to closure. This role involves implementing effective recruitment programs, sourcing candidates through multiple channels, and building talent pipelines while optimizing hiring costs. The recruiter also engages passive and active candidates through networking, consultative recruitment approaches, and innovative sourcing techniques.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Executive Recruiter
1. Executive Recruiter Responsibilities
- Strategy Ownership: Own the strategy for and execute the recruitment of Director and Vice President roles across the DSG enterprise.
- Thought Leadership: Serve as a thought leader and expert in all elements of executive search.
- Research and Sourcing: Research/sourcing, candidate identification and development, offer negotiations, and best practices to hiring managers and HR Business Partners.
- Prospect Development: Work with the sourcing team to develop prospects for both open and opportunistic positions, assessing, screening, and delivering recommendations to hiring managers.
- Client Communication: Lead C-level client meetings and communications on search progress and candidate engagement techniques.
- Market Expertise: Develop and share deep market and business expertise to serve as the connector of talent to DSG and prospective candidates.
- Database Management: Leverage sourcing leads and recruiting databases to proactively connect with key candidates and prospects.
- Tech Proficiency: Stay familiar and current with developments in sourcing tools, recruiting technologies, social media, and digital tools for both sourcing and employment marketing.
- Tool Utilization: Use and assess available tools, including LinkedIn, LinkedIn Recruiter, current ATS, etc., to conduct research and candidate outreach.
- Process Improvement: Proactively recommend and drive improvements to impact the recruiting funnel, including identifying and closing candidates.
- Teammate Experience: Demonstrate a high level of passion and commitment to enhancing the overall teammate experience by displaying integrity and inclusion at all times.
2. Executive Recruiter Job Description
- Candidate Search: Conduct national and international candidate searches through traditional and innovative tools - search in internal and external databases, direct search, search through social media and other technological tools.
- Interview and Testing: Conduct personal interviews and testing of executives according to the methodology and approach of the company.
- Client and Candidate Experience: Provide an exceptional experience to clients and candidates by conducting searches with high-quality standards.
- Talent Partnership: Become a true talent partner internally and externally.
- Consultative Approach: Act with a consultative approach with clients and candidates, being the client consultant, candidate mentor, and internal advisor for the company.
- Recruitment Process Improvement: Work closely with clients to constantly improve their recruitment process.
- Database Management: Record and maintain information in the database, ensuring the quality of the information recorded.
- Social Media Management: Keep the company's social networks updated with timely and valuable information for stakeholders.
- Talent Pool Maintenance: Foster continuous contact with executives to maintain a quality talent pool proactively, conduct prospective interviews, and other proactive actions.
- Talent Networking: Promote talent networks and communities of candidates and clients with similar concerns by actively participating in them.
3. Executive Recruiter Overview
- Staffing Strategy: Work closely with HR managers and hiring managers to help determine staffing strategies, obtain position requirements, and determine compensation.
- Job Description Management: Ensure that job descriptions are updated and behavioral profiles are obtained.
- Requisition Management: Drive and monitor the progress of requisitions from approval to close and escalate issues when needed.
- Recruitment Strategy Development: Develop and implement recruitment programs and strategies, ensuring effectiveness, consistency, and compliance with overall strategic planning and branding.
- Candidate Sourcing: Source active candidates from online databases, job postings, contact lists, internal databases, employee referrals, and contract research.
- Creative Sourcing: Create other creative options to identify top talent while reducing external agency spending.
- Passive Candidate Sourcing: Proactively source passive candidates through networking, cold calling, advertisements, virtual job fairs, outsourcing firms, internet search/social media, plug-ins, Boolean searches, profiles/talent aggregators, and other novel opportunities.
- Pipeline Development: Build pipelines of passive and active candidates through relationship building and influence candidate decision-making through a consultative recruitment approach.
- Project Management: Work on site-specific, regional, and global projects.
4. Executive Recruiter Details and Accountabilities
- Executive Talent Sourcing: Identify, engage, assess, and present executive-level talent for specific executive-level search assignments and roles in the company.
- Pipeline Development: Build a pipeline of highly qualified and interested candidates by proactively approaching and recruiting top-level talent in the marketplace.
- Strategic Recruiting: Leverage strategic recruiting methodologies, business intelligence, internal and external networks and sources, professional organizations, branding initiatives, and technology.
- Search Strategy Development: Develop targeted search strategies and execute these with comprehensive candidate recruiting tactics, i.e., phone generation, networking, identifying applicable professional communities, high-value target employers, and other research channels, to identify top talent in the marketplace.
- Executive Engagement: Reach out to key executives and engage with them around the unique opportunities at the company while assessing the talent pool against the set criteria and competencies of the search assignment.
- Team Collaboration: Throughout the search, work together with senior executive search team members and be the partner to the hiring teams and advise on the selection of talent to interview with the hiring team.
- Search Project Involvement: Together with the senior executive search team members, actively involved in all the phases of the search projects, preparing for and contributing to kick-off meetings, partnering in project update meetings, longlist/shortlist meetings, and final presentations.
- Candidate Communication: Keep in close contact with the candidates, inform them throughout the process, and support the final phases of the search project.
- Deliverable Management: As an integral part of the process, help drive the associated deliverables and prepare the needed documentation.
- Market Intelligence: Develop thorough research and intelligence on executives/executive-ready talent at competitors and target companies and be a subject matter expert on recruiting strategies to meet the needs of the company’s various segment markets and functions.
5. Executive Recruiter Tasks
- Market Intelligence: Captures and communicates market trends, industry information, or other applicable intelligence to executive management in support of overarching talent sourcing strategy work.
- Search Kick-off Participation: Provide credible participation in the kick-off meetings with the hiring team for active searches.
- Credibility Building: Establish credibility through expertise and knowledge of candidate pools.
- Hiring Needs Clarification: Ask valid and insightful questions to clarify hiring needs.
- Competitive Intelligence: Provide market intelligence and competitor intelligence.
- Recruiting Process Explanation: Explain the recruiting process along with the consultant.
- Timeline Delivery: Provide and deliver specific, realistic, and achievable timelines for client deliverables for qualified, interested candidates.
- Expectation Management: Assist in setting expectations, roles, and accountability, supporting compliance and diversity and messages.
- Role Presentation: Develop a compelling presentation of the role (in conjunction with the senior executive search team members) to be shared with the market and prospective candidates.
- Search Strategy Development: Drive the creation (together with senior executive search team members) and implementation of the search strategy for each potential search.
- Administrative Support: Help manage all related administrative duties related to the search process, including status reports, candidate assessments, feedback/scorecard collection, etc.
- Interview Scheduling: Assist with the interview scheduling process when necessary.
6. Executive Recruiter Additional Details
- Executive Talent Strategy: Design, develop, and manage the Executive Talent function – advising on strategy, resourcing, tools and metrics, and growing a high-performing team.
- Executive Partnership: Partner closely with Executives to advise on talent strategies and provide insights.
- Sourcing and Networking: Deep sourcing and networking for Executive and senior-level roles.
- Process Management: Run end-to-end processes for Executive and key senior leadership roles with a focus on process excellence and candidate experience.
- Research and Sourcing Capability: Hire research and source capability within the Executive Talent function.
- Talent Program Collaboration: Work closely with the Head of Talent on a broad range of talent programs, including EVP/Brand and Diversity.
- Technology Utilization: Utilize the best tools and technology in the market.
- Critical Hire Partnership: Partner with C-Suite and Senior executives to identify critical hires.
- Senior Role Hiring: Hire senior-level and business-critical roles across all areas of the organisation.
- Talent Attraction Strategy: Create, develop, and implement practical and effective methods to identify and attract top talent while also ensuring a diverse talent pool.
- Recruitment Process Control: Control the full recruitment process and deliver a first-class experience for candidates and hiring managers.
- Candidate Relationship: Be a knowledgeable, professional, and passionate first point of contact between the business and candidates.
7. Executive Recruiter Essential Functions
- Stakeholder Collaboration: Work directly with the talent acquisition team and other key stakeholders, portfolio companies, and broader partners.
- Sourcing and Talent Pooling: Build strong sourcing techniques with a good understanding of how and where to secure top talent as well as building strong talent pools and pipelines.
- Full-Cycle Recruitment: Responsible for full-cycle recruitment, assisting in the drafting of the position profile, and sourcing both active and passive candidates.
- Candidate Screening: Take responsibility for building research lists, pre-screening candidates, and scheduling interviews with candidates.
- Interview Coordination: Take responsibility for presenting top candidates to hiring managers and scheduling interviews between hiring managers and candidates.
- Proactive Search: Proactive in searches by going beyond the application, selection, and hiring process.
- Team Collaboration: Collaborate with the team and stakeholders throughout the recruitment process.
- Consultative Recruitment: Work consultatively with clients’ hiring managers to successfully deliver the full recruitment cycle for their companywide senior-level hiring needs.
- Recruitment Strategy Execution: Partner with the client to decide on and execute the appropriate recruitment strategy inclusive of sourcing, screening, assessment, and all offers and hiring.
- Stakeholder Relationship Management: Manage internal and external stakeholder relationships.
- Best Practices Support: Support, challenge, and drive best practices at each stage of the recruitment process.
- Candidate Management: Champion effective candidate management throughout the hiring process.