Talent Research & Sourcing Partner, Marketing, Brand & Communications

Location: San Francisco, CA preferred; open to remote
Work Type: Onsite, hybrid, or remote
Remote Time Zone Requirements: Open to any U.S. time zone
Contract Length: 12-month W2 contract with potential to extend
Pay Rate: $135–$150/hour
Interview Process: Up to 3 rounds

About the Role

Russell Tobin is supporting a leading AI research and technology company in hiring a Talent Research & Sourcing Partner, Marketing, Brand & Communications. This role will support recruiting for highly nuanced marketing, brand, communications, creative, editorial, and related talent segments.

This is not a high-volume sourcing role. The ideal candidate brings an executive search mindset and excels at uncovering, engaging, and nurturing hard-to-find passive talent. This person will focus on deep research, talent mapping, long-term pipeline development, candidate engagement, and talent intelligence to help build relationships with exceptional candidates who are rarely active on the open market.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute specialized sourcing strategies for hard-to-fill roles across marketing, brand, communications, creative, media, editorial, and related talent areas.
• Identify, engage, and nurture passive candidates who may not be actively looking or applying through traditional channels.
• Build and maintain long-term talent pipelines for current and future hiring needs.
• Conduct deep talent research, market mapping, profile enrichment, and talent intelligence gathering.
• Partner closely with recruiters and business stakeholders to understand team needs, role requirements, talent profiles, positioning, tone, and hiring priorities.
• Build and maintain living talent maps for priority searches so recruiting teams understand where exceptional candidates are before a requisition opens.
• Design and execute long-term candidate engagement strategies to keep top passive talent warm over time.
• Create referral channels and proactive talent networks using executive search, VC talent network, and relationship-driven recruiting methodologies.
• Tap into founder, VC, creative, editorial, media, operator, and niche professional networks to identify talent that may not surface through standard sourcing methods.
• Use AI tools to improve sourcing, research, outreach, profile enrichment, workflow efficiency, and talent intelligence.
• Craft thoughtful, targeted outreach that resonates with highly specialized passive candidates.
• Maintain recruiting reports, analytics, dashboards, and pipeline updates to keep recruiters and business leaders informed.

Time Allocation

• Specialized sourcing for Marketing, Brand & Communications roles: Approximately 60%
• Talent pipeline and referral engine building: Approximately 35%
• Reporting, analytics, and dashboards: Approximately 5%

Required Qualifications

• Experience recruiting or sourcing for niche, nuanced, or hard-to-find talent segments.
• Strong passive candidate sourcing experience, including targeted outreach, relationship building, and market mapping.
• Exceptional research and analytical skills.
• Proven ability to identify non-obvious talent pools and develop data-driven sourcing strategies.
• Experience building and managing long-term talent pipelines.
• Experience with candidate identification, profile enrichment, CRM management, engagement strategies, and talent intelligence gathering.
• Demonstrated proficiency using AI tools to improve sourcing, research, outreach, or recruiting workflows.
• Strong curiosity, adaptability, and desire to learn new talent markets.
• Ability to attract and engage passive candidates without relying heavily on employer brand recognition.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience sourcing for marketing, brand, communications, creative, editorial, media, or related talent segments.
• Experience with executive talent mapping and long-term candidate engagement programs.
• Fluency in recruiting and talent metrics, reporting, dashboards, and pipeline analytics.
• Experience working within or alongside VC talent networks, founder networks, or executive search environments.
• Experience supporting recruiting for fast-moving technology, AI, research, startup, or highly innovative environments.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Strategic, research-driven, and highly curious.
• Comfortable finding exceptional people in unexpected places.
• Experienced in building talent maps from scratch.
• Skilled at engaging passive candidates through thoughtful, personalized outreach.
• Able to partner closely with recruiters and stakeholders to turn market intelligence into high-quality pipeline.
• Analytical and creative in approach.
• Comfortable using AI and data to sharpen sourcing strategies.
• Strong at building trust with candidates over time.