Talent Acquisition Advisor – Contract

About Us:

The people of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) are united by a singular mission: ending cancer for life. Our specialized care teams provide personalized, compassionate, expert care to patients of all ages. Informed by basic research done at our Sloan Kettering Institute, scientists across MSK collaborate to conduct innovative translational and clinical research that is driving a revolution in our understanding of cancer as a disease and improving the ability to prevent, diagnose, and treat it. MSK is dedicated to training the next generation of scientists and clinicians, who go on to pursue our mission at MSK and around the globe.

Job Description

Exciting Opportunity at MSK: Talent Acquisition Advisor – Contract 

6-month contract, with potential to extend 

This is a six-month contract to start, with extension based on performance. If a full-time role opens on our team and your work supports it, there’s a real path to converting and growing with us. Either way, it’s the same work, the same team, and the same expectations as any Advisor here. 

Do any of these sound familiar? 

“Can you just send me more resumes?” 

“How many people applied?” 

“There’s just no one out there.” 

“I’m not in a rush, I know the perfect person is out there.” 

“I need them to start in two weeks,” for a role that took two months to recruit last time 

“Can you find someone exactly like my last person, but with more experience?” 

“Let’s just go to an agency.” 

Every recruiter has heard these. At MSK, we want Advisors who can turn them into better conversations. 

At MSK, TA success = Speed × Quality × Partnership. You’d be the one making all three happen: 

• Speed: move with purpose. Keep searches moving with clear steps and quick decisions, and never leave candidates hanging. 

• Quality: make the right choice. The person you hire does well and stays. Use data, then use your judgment. 

• Partnership: share the ownership. You and the hiring manager own the outcome together, and you bring the market insight. 

Miss one and it falls apart. Fast without quality means fast mistakes. Quality without speed means we lose the candidate. Both without partnership means results nobody trusts. 

What this role really is 

You’re not an administrator or a resume pipeline. You’re a partner with the same goal as your hiring managers: getting the right person hired, someone who moves team capability, culture, and our mission forward. 

That means you: 

• Want to learn about MSK beyond the roles you recruit on: how the hospital runs, how clinical and research teams work together, and what our leaders are trying to solve. 

• Can recruit for anything. volume, niche, leadership, corporate or clinical - you believe a great recruiter can pivot. You either know what works in each or have the scrappiness to figure it out. 

• Make decisions based on evidence, not hunches or “how we’ve always done it.” 

• Have honest, direct and empathetic conversations, even when it’s not what someone wants to hear. 

• Know you guide and leaders decide. Sometimes a leader has to learn the hard way. You stay steady, protect the relationship, and trust your own judgment until they’re ready to listen. Eventually you’ve earned the trust to say “remember when we talked about this?” 

You’re a healthy skeptic 

You’re not cynical, just not gullible. You get below the surface, because that’s where good hiring decisions come from. 

• A candidate says they “led the project.” You ask what they owned, who they managed, and what changed because of them. 

• A hiring manager says “there’s no one out there.” You check the market data before you agree. 

• A candidate asks for a big jump in pay. You find out what’s really behind it: base, bonus, a competing offer, or something else entirely.  

• A candidate from big tech says they’re ready for a change. You make sure they understand what a move to a nonprofit cancer center really looks like, and that they genuinely want the pivot. 

• A referred candidate seems perfect on paper. You still check how they actually operate, because what’s on paper and how someone shows up aren’t always the same. 

Asking one more question up front saves a bad hire, a declined offer, or a broken relationship later. 

Who does best here 

Work is evolving, and we have no choice but to evolve with it. The people who do best on our team: 

• Adapt to change. Priorities shift, leaders change their minds, and so do candidates. You roll with it and figure out the next move. 

• Live in the gray. Most things don’t tie back to policy or a formula. You’re comfortable making a judgment call and explaining why. 

• Think critically. You connect the dots, question what doesn’t add up, and land on a recommendation, not just a list of options. 

• Storytellers. You paint a real picture of the role, what’s great and what’s not so great, so the right people get excited for the right reasons. And you can turn data into a story a leader actually remembers and acts on. 

• Scrappy and creative. When the usual approach isn’t working, you try something different. 

• Can fly by the seat of their pants. You think on your feet when things come up last minute, without dropping the ball. 

• Stay good under pressure. When a leader needs something yesterday, you stay calm and keep it moving. 

• Know how to prioritize. You can’t do everything at once. You know what matters most right now and help your partners figure out what can wait. 

• Would rather walk over and see a leader than send another email. You're flexible about working across our NYC sites, you like being visible, and hiring events are something you genuinely love jumping into.  

You’ll love it here if you 

• Get a little competitive when someone says “let’s go to an agency.” You know the org, the culture, and what will land, and you enjoy proving you’re the better partner. 

• Can coach a hiring manager through unrealistic expectations and land on “here’s what we can do now, and here’s what we can chip away at together.” 

• Enjoy building an attraction strategy that makes someone want to leave a good job for this one. 

• Know “how many people applied?” feels like 2018. In an oversaturated market, applicant volume is a meaningless number. You care about quality over quantity, and you’d rather tell a hiring manager who the strongest people are, how they compare to the market, and where the search is getting stuck. 

• Know pay isn’t black and white. You can talk a candidate through where the market lands, how it compares to internal equity, what they’re asking for, and what the budget allows, and get to what actually makes sense. You don’t negotiate just for the sake of it when it’s not the right call. 

• Use AI and tech to work smarter and still trust your own judgment and critical thinking skills  

What’s in it for you 

• Work that matters. Every hire you make helps people with cancer, directly or behind the scenes. 

• Autonomy. We treat you like the mature professional you are. With that level of respect comes an expectation that you deliver. 

• Variety. Clinical, research, operations, corporate, shared services, front line, and leadership roles, so you’ll never get bored and you’ll keep learning about how MSK operates. 

• A way in. We have a clear Advisor ladder, from Associate Advisor to Lead Advisor. If a permanent seat opens and you’ve shown us what you can do, you’d be in a strong position for it. 

• Time to learn. Protected learning time and coaching from a team that cares about getting better. 

• Updated stack of tools in the last year+. Workday, HiredScore, Paradox, Braintrust and more, so you can focus on judgment and relationships. 

We’ll ask for a work sample 

If you move forward to meet TA leadership, we’ll ask you to share a few work samples that highlight how you think and problem solve. No need to create anything new on our behalf; use something you’ve already done. For example: 

• A market or talent insight you pulled together, like comp benchmarks, talent supply, or a competitor landscape, and what you recommended because of it. 

• A search strategy or proposal, like a kickoff plan, a talent attraction strategy, or a case you made to a leader to change their approach. 

• A tough conversation you navigated, like resetting a hiring manager’s expectations, pushing back on a decision, or telling a candidate something they didn’t want to hear. An email or write-up of how you handled it. 

• An offer that took judgment, like balancing what a candidate wanted against internal equity and budget, and how you landed it (or why you walked away). 

• A search that didn’t go as planned, what you learned, and what you’d do differently. 

Please remove any confidential or candidate information first. 

Rate 

$40 to $41 per hour. Six-month contract to start, with extension based on performance. 

Hybrid schedule – flexibility to work across MSK’s NYC sites, host and/or attend recruiting related events 

Closing:

At MSK, we believe in fair, competitive pay that reflects your job, experience, and skills.

MSK is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer committed to diversity and inclusion in all aspects of recruiting and employment. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration without regard to race, color, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran status or any other factor which cannot lawfully be used as a basis for an employment decision.  

Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform your job. Examples of reasonable accommodation include making a change to the application process or work procedures, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.