Manager – Talent Acquisition (Lateral & Leadership Hiring)

ABOUT THE ROLE
Miles Education is looking for a mid-to-senior Talent Acquisition professional to own lateral hiring portfolio, reporting directly to the VP-HR. This is not a high-volume recruiting role. It is a targeted headhunting mandate for roles where there is no inbound applicant pool to draw from: leadership hires, specialized functional roles, and positions where the wrong hire has outsized cost.
The candidate should be someone who has run executive or specialist searches independently, is comfortable being the credible voice in the room with function heads, and reports on search progress with the same rigor a retained search firm would.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
● Own end-to-end hiring for all lateral and niche requirements.
● Build and execute lateral sourcing strategy: direct headhunting, market mapping, executive networks, LinkedIn Recruiter, niche platforms.
● Run searches independently for roles with no meaningful inbound pipeline.
● Own time-to-close and quality-of-hire for every search, with data to defend both.
● Report directly to VP-HR on every active search: pipeline status, market realities, risk flags.
● Partner with function heads to pressure-test role briefs before a search opens, not after it stalls.
● Push back on unrealistic briefs (comp, timeline, candidate profile) with market evidence, not deference.
● Build and maintain live talent maps for specialist roles.
● Track competitor hiring, comp benchmarks, and talent movement relevant to
Miles' functions.
● Maintain a warm bench of passive candidates ahead of anticipated openings,
not after a req opens.
● Own the full candidate lifecycle for every lateral hire, from first outreach to
offer close.
● Represent Miles credibly to senior, passive candidates who are not actively jobhunting.
● Maintain accurate requisition and pipeline data in the ATS (Zoho/equivalent).
● Ensure offer documentation and onboarding handoffs meet Miles' HR
compliance standards.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
● 6-8 years in recruitment, with demonstrable lateral experience for mid-to-senior or leadership roles, not primarily bulk or
inbound hiring.
● Has run searches with zero applicant pipeline and closed them through direct outreach.
● Credible one-on-one with function heads and senior leadership; not intimidated by pushing back on a bad brief.
● Comfortable reporting directly to VP-HR with search-level detail, not just funnel counts.
● Sharp on comp benchmarking and market realism; won't let a hiring manager's wishlist go unchallenged.
PREFERRED EXPERIENCE
● Prior experience in an executive search firm, RPO, or a lean in-house TA team running senior searches
independently.
● Exposure to EdTech, professional services, or fast-scaling organizations.
● Experience operating without a large sourcing team behind them.
WHY JOIN MILES
This role sits outside the high-volume Inside Sales hiring engine and reports directly to the VP-HR, giving you direct ownership
and visibility on the searches that shape Miles' leadership bench.

Work arrangement
No