Lead Talent Acquisition Specialist

Overview

Are you ready to work in a practice where every child is treated with compassion, every family feels welcomed, and every visit is designed to create a positive dental experience.

At Chord Specialty Dental Partners, we believe that empathy, teamwork, and exceptional patient care are at the heart of everything we do. You'll have the support, resources, and opportunities needed to thrive while helping us deliver outstanding care to the communities we serve.

Responsibilities

Job Summary

The Lead Talent Acquisition Specialist provides day-to-day leadership for Chord's non-provider Talent Acquisition team while personally owning recruitment for the organization's most critical and hard-to-fill clinical support roles, including Dental Hygienists, Orthodontic Assistants, and Expanded Function Dental Assistants (EFDAs). This role leads and develops two Talent Acquisition Specialists, builds long-term talent pipelines through school partnerships, the externship program, and job fairs, and uses data to drive talent acquisition strategy and continuously improve how Chord attracts and hires talent.

Essentail Functions: 

• Lead, coach, and develop Talent Acquisition Specialists supporting regional non-provider recruitment.
• Manage full life cycle recruiting for hard-to-fill roles, including Dental Hygienists, Orthodontic Assistants, and EFDAs.
• Partner with hiring managers to understand staffing needs and provide strategic talent acquisition solutions.
• Build and maintain partnerships with dental hygiene, dental assisting, and EFDA programs across the regions in which we operate.
• Own the externship program, from school partnership through extern conversion to hire.
• Enroll in and participate in job fairs and off-site recruitment events.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive recruitment strategy for non-provider roles.
• Develop, monitor, and report on talent acquisition metrics for senior leadership.
• Own the applicant tracking system (ATS) and serve as the subject matter expert on its training, processes, workflows, and reporting.
• Partnership with the Chord Marketing team for non-provider recruitment marketing tools.

Core Competencies:

• Relationship Building: Builds trusted partnerships with schools, candidates, and practice leaders.
• Strategic Thinking: Connects recruiting plans to business priorities and long-term staffing needs.
• Coaching & Development: Grows team capability through clear expectations, feedback, and one-on-one coaching.
• Analytical & Data-Driven: Uses recruiting metrics to identify trends, measure results, and guide decisions.
• Systems & Process Expertise: Leverages the ATS to build efficient workflows, reliable reporting, and consistent user adoption.
• Sense of Urgency: Moves quickly on critical openings while maintaining quality of hire.
• Collaboration & Influence: Works across HR, Operations, and Marketing to achieve shared hiring goals.
• Candidate & Hiring Manager Experience: Delivers a responsive, professional experience at every stage of the process.
• Adaptability: Adjusts priorities and approach across multiple markets and changing business needs.

Location: Nashville with 50% + travel to clinics across mid-west, southeast, and northeast regions

Schedule: In ofice Monday - Thursday; remote Friday

Compensation: $75,000 - $85,000

Qualifications

Required

• 5+ years of full life cycle recruiting experience, with a track record of filling hard-to-fill roles
• 1-2 years of experience leading, training, or mentoring recruiters or a talent acquisition team
• Experience building school, community, or professional partnerships for recruitment
• Strong working knowledge of applicant tracking systems and recruiting metrics
• Hands-on experience administering an applicant tracking system, including workflows, reporting, and user training
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with comfort presenting data to senior leadership
• Ability to manage multiple priorities across multiple states and markets

Preferred

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field
• Recruiting experience in dental, healthcare, or a multi-site service organization
• Experience running an externship, internship, or early-career pipeline program
• Experience with UKG