Talent Acquisition Specialist

About this role

ACU is affiliated with the Fellowship of the Church of Christ. This position requires the employee to be a professing Christian and willing to support the Christian mission of ACU. ‌ The Talent Acquisition Specialist serves as a strategic, full-cycle recruiting partner responsible for attracting, assessing, and hiring mission-aligned talent for faculty, academic staff, adjuncts, students, temporary employees, leadership, and other employee populations. The position partners with hiring managers, academic leaders, and search committees to clarify workforce needs, develop sourcing strategies, facilitate consistent selection processes, and deliver a professional and welcoming candidate experience. The position supports ACU's evolving centralized, shared-services talent acquisition model by strengthening recruiting governance, standardizing hiring practices, improving Workday Recruiting workflows, and developing sustainable candidate pipelines. The role also connects recruitment with workforce planning, employer branding, compensation and offer processes, onboarding, employee integration, and broader employee flourishing initiatives across the ACU system. This position has the potential to be on-site in Abilene, Texas, or remote. Essential Duties and Responsibilities 1. Full-Cycle Recruitment and Hiring Lead assigned searches from approved requisition through accepted offer and onboarding transition for faculty, academic, staff, adjunct, student, temporary, leadership, high-volume, hard-to-fill, and other positions. Conduct intake meetings with hiring managers, academic leaders, and search committees to clarify position requirements, competencies, candidate profiles, sourcing strategies, timelines, and selection processes. Create and manage requisitions, postings, approvals, candidate workflows, interview activity, dispositions, and offer documentation in Workday Recruiting. Review applications and resumes against approved minimum and preferred qualifications, conduct structured phone or video screenings, and present qualified candidate slates with clear screening documentation. Coordinate interviews, candidate communications, reference checks, background checks, employment verifications, and other required pre-employment activities. Coordinate compensation and offer approvals with Talent Management and Total Rewards, and facilitate timely, professional offer communication and negotiation support. Maintain timely communication with candidates and hiring stakeholders throughout the recruitment lifecycle. 2. Faculty, Academic, Staff, and Student Recruitment Partner with Academic Affairs, deans, department chairs, and search committees on faculty, academic, adjunct, and other academic searches. Support consistent search practices while respecting academic authority for evaluating credentials, discipline-specific qualifications, and academic selection decisions. Support administrative, professional, operational, student, temporary, and other workforce recruitment across ACU divisions and locations. Develop scalable recruiting approaches for recurring, high-volume, specialized, and difficult-to-fill positions. Provide cross-functional recruiting coverage based on institutional priorities, workload, and business continuity needs. 3. Hiring Manager and Search Committee Partnership Serve as a consultative recruiting partner to hiring managers and search committees throughout the hiring process. Provide structured interview guides, evaluation tools, scorecards, and guidance on job-related candidate assessment and selection practices. Assist departments with developing or updating position descriptions and translating workforce needs into clear qualifications and recruiting criteria. Promote consistent hiring processes, approval requirements, documentation standards, and appropriate escalation of compliance, compensation, or selection concerns. Build collaborative relationships across Human Resources, Academic Affairs, Finance, operational

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