Director of Talent Acquisition & People Operations  

Ready to Empower a Growing Team and Shape Our Future?

Hadley Designs is redefining early education with creativity and purpose. Every product we create is hand-drawn and teacher-designed, crafted with care to build confidence and connection.

Role Overview

As the Director of Talent Acquisition & People Operations, you will own how Hadley Designs sources, vets, and closes top global talent, and you will own the broader people system that talent steps into. You will partner with leadership to design the recruiting engine that consistently delivers strong top-of-funnel for every open role, and you will scale the people systems that hold a remote, contractor-centric organization together as it grows toward $100M and beyond.

This is a leadership-tier role with 1 direct report (the People Operations Specialist) and end-to-end ownership of the talent and people functions. Your weeks will be heavier on recruiting in the near term, live pipelines, structured interviews, test projects, employer brand, and steady on People Operations throughout (onboarding, performance frameworks, contractor renewal, leadership enablement).

Key Responsibilities

Talent Acquisition (the #1 outcome of this role):

• Recruiting Pipeline Management: Source candidates across LinkedIn, job boards, freelancer platforms, and referrals; filter applicants for red flags, competency match, and scorecard alignment.

• Test Project & Interview Operations: Run test projects, review submissions, conduct first-round group interviews, and manage candidate experience end-to-end.

• Sourcing Channel Optimization: Manage and optimize sourcing channels based on performance; build "always hiring" shortlists for recurring high-leverage roles.

• Employer Brand & Glassdoor Defense: Monitor and manage Glassdoor reviews, organize team review drives, ask for feedback, flag issues, protect brand rating.

• Hiring Metrics & Funnel Reporting: Deliver weekly hiring pipeline reports broken down by channel and role; track funnel performance against KPIs.

People Operations:

• People Systems Leadership: Design and implement systems for engaging, onboarding, and retaining talent, aligned with the company's growth objectives.

• Organizational Design and Capacity Planning: Collaborate with leadership to ensure that the organizational structure and workforce planning meet the evolving needs of the business.

• Performance and Development Frameworks: Establish performance expectations, evaluation frameworks, and development pathways that drive accountability and growth across the organization.

• Talent Experience and Retention: Build a consistent and professional experience for talent that reinforces employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention.

• Workforce Insights and Reporting: Provide insights and data-driven recommendations to leadership to guide decision-making and improve workforce effectiveness.

How Success Is Measured

Talent Acquisition KPIs:

• Average time to fill open roles: under 45 days.

• Weekly applicant volume per active role: 250+ qualified applicants.

• Weekly hiring pipeline report by sourcing channel: 100% completion, on time.

• Completed candidate case studies available for review per role per week: 15+.

• Glassdoor company rating: maintain 4.5+ average across the year.

People Operations KPIs:

• Successful implementation of people systems that directly support the business's ability to scale.

• Strong employee retention rates, with high performance and engagement.

• Improved leadership confidence in people systems, talent readiness, and organizational alignment.

• Predictable, scalable people operations that contribute to the company's growth and success.

Who You Are

You are a recruiting-strong, systems-oriented leader. You have personally closed difficult hires, not just managed a team that did. You move fast in a sourcing pipeline, you can run a structured interview that lands the right read on a candidate in 30 minutes, and you are equally comfortable defending the company on Glassdoor as you are building a 90-day onboarding plan. You thrive in a fast-paced, remote-first, contractor-centric environment and have a track record of both filling open roles ahead of timeline and scaling the people systems that retain the talent you bring in.

You Have / Requirements

Talent Acquisition / Recruiting (must-haves):

• 3-5+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, ideally in remote or e-commerce organizations.

• Proven track record of hiring across marketing, ops, Amazon, product, and leadership roles.

• Experience running structured interviews, test projects, and group interviews.

• Familiarity with recruiting tech stacks: LinkedIn Recruiter

• Comfortable managing hiring systems using Notion, ClickUp, or lightweight ATS tools.

• Strong writing ability: clear job posts, compelling outreach, direct candidate comms.

• Ability to handle 5-10 active roles at a time with no drop-off in process.

• Experience defending brand reputation and responding to feedback (e.g. Glassdoor).

• Experience building and running reporting for hiring metrics.

People Operations (must-haves):

• 5+ years of progressive HR or people operations experience, with leadership responsibility.

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field.

• Direct experience operating contractor-centric or distributed teams.

• Demonstrated success building compliant, scalable people systems.

• Strong understanding of contractor classification, employment law, and risk mitigation.