Associate Director, Recruitment & Onboarding

We’re Hiring!

Associate Director, Recruitment & Onboarding

Location of Position:

Marin Headlands, Sausalito, California

Reports to

: Senior Director, People & Culture

Position Classification & Expected Hours of Work, and Travel:

This is a full-time position.

Regular onsite work is required.

Days and hours of work may vary according to the needs of The Marine Mammal Center.

Evening, weekend, and holiday work is required as job duties demand.

Travel within California is expected for this position.

Compensation Range:

$93,600 - $109,738 annual

Benefits:

Holidays

Sick Time

Vacation

Medical, Dental, and Vision

Life Insurance

Long Term Disability Insurance

401k Retirement Plan

Employee Assistance Program

Job Summary:

The Associate Director, Recruitment & Onboarding serves as the senior operational lead and is the architect for staff recruitment, hiring, and onboarding and volunteer recruitment, onboarding, and placement at The Marine Mammal Center. This role provides strategic input, architectural design, and operational leadership to ensure recruitment and onboarding practices are consistent, equitable, compliant, and aligned with the Center’s mission and strategic priorities. The Associate Director, Recruitment & Onboarding translates organizational direction, workforce and volunteer priorities, and operational needs into scalable recruitment and onboarding frameworks, tools, and practices. This role oversees and develops a multidisciplinary recruitment team, manages recruitment systems, and stewards the organization’s staff position description and volunteer role description libraries. This role is accountable for day-to-day staff hiring outcomes and volunteer placements. This position actively supports the Center’s mission by ensuring the organization attracts, selects, and onboards a diverse, skilled, and mission-aligned staff workforce and volunteer community.

Essential Functions:

Recruitment & Onboarding Strategy: 60%

Serve as the senior operational lead and manage recruitment and onboarding frameworks that support staff recruitment, hiring, and onboarding and volunteer recruitment, onboarding, and placement, aligned with organizational priorities established by the People & Culture department and Executive leadership

Provide oversight of end-to-end processes for staff and volunteer recruitment and onboarding, ensuring consistent, equitable, and high-quality practices.

Manage and administer all Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and onboarding platforms, ensuring appropriate configuration, data integrity, user access, and system performance.

Provide operational leadership for ATS and onboarding platform reviews, assessing system effectiveness, alignment with organizational needs, compliance requirements, and user experience.

Lead and support the development of Requests for Proposal (RFPs) for recruitment and onboarding systems as needed, including requirements gathering, evaluation criteria, and cross-functional coordination.

Manage and facilitate recruitment and onboarding vendor evaluation and selection processes, including demonstrations, comparative analysis, and recommendation development in partnership with People & Culture leadership and other stakeholders as needed.

Provide leadership and guidance for recruitment and onboarding system implementation, configuration, testing, and rollout, ensuring data integrity, minimal disruption, and alignment with recruitment and onboarding workflows as needed.

Ensure background checks, motor vehicle checks, Form I-9, E-Verify, and other pre-boarding requirements for staff and volunteers are completed accurately, efficiently, and in compliance with all applicable requirements.

Ensure recruitment and onboarding practices align with applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations, funding requirements and budget constraints, and organizational policies.

Develop and maintain dashboards and reports measuring staff time-to-fill, source of staff hire, volunteer pipeline health, placement timelines, compliance, candidate and volunteer experience, and outreach or event return on investment (ROI).

Review recruitment and onboarding data to identify trends, risks, and gaps; implement corrective actions and provide recommendations to People & Culture leadership as needed.

Lead continuous improvement of recruitment and onboarding frameworks, tools, and standards to strengthen effectiveness, experience, and outcomes.

Design sourcing approaches that support organizational hiring priorities, including proactive pipeline development for hard-to-fill, technical, and mission-critical staff roles.

Provide oversight of talent pipeline development for staff and volunteers, ensuring sustainable, mission-aligned candidate and volunteer pools are maintained.

Serve as a visible talent brand ambassador for the Center, confidently articulating the organization’s mission, impact, culture, and opportunities to candidates and prospective volunteers.

Engage directly in sourcing and outreach activities for staff and volunteer roles when positions are senior-level, highly specialized, strategically critical, or present unique recruitment challenges.

Establish standards and expectations for candidate and volunteer experience across recruitment stages, ensuring timely communication, structured interviews, and consistent offer or placement practices.

Manage and steward the Center’s staff position description library and role description library, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and alignment with organizational structure, position and role levels, equitable classification practices, workforce planning, and operational needs.

Maintain established templates, standards, and review processes for the creation, updating, and approval of staff position descriptions and volunteer role descriptions.

Provide oversight and guidance to management during the development or revision of a position or role description using established protocols.

Conduct regular and periodic reviews of position and volunteer role descriptions to ensure ongoing relevance, clarity, and organizational alignment.

Ensure position description and role description libraries are integrated with recruitment and onboarding systems and workflows.

Leadership & Management: 25

%

Hire, train, mentor, and manage staff, ensuring individual and team development, alignment with goals, and adherence to policies and best practices.

Provide direct supervision and coaching to strengthen communication capacity across departments, building a culture of clear, consistent, and mission-driven storytelling.

Meet with direct reports to identify and resolve problems; perform personnel actions, such as approving timesheets and evaluating performance.

Monitor workload distribution and team capacity to ensure sustainable operations and effective service delivery.

Coach and train direct reports to build sourcing and outreach capabilities across the Recruitment & Onboarding team for position and role levels, ensuring sustainability and high-quality recruitment practices.

Foster a collaborative, service-oriented, and mission-aligned team culture grounded in professionalism, confidentiality, and continuous improvement.

Partner with hiring managers and organizational leaders to clarify staffing and volunteer needs, define hiring and onboarding criteria, and set expectations for recruitment and onboarding timelines.

Review hiring and volunteer placement outcomes and intervene when barriers, delays, or risks arise.

Serve as the primary escalation point for staff recruitment, hiring, and onboarding and volunteer recruitment, onboarding, and placement issues, resolving most challenges and elevating matters to People & Culture leadership when issues involve policy interpretation, legal or compliance risk, and/or cross-departmental impact.

Supports the development of the Recruitment & Onboarding budget in collaboration with the Senior Director, Human Resources; tracks results to ensure alignment with key financ