(Contractor) Principal Talent Acquisition Specialist

We are seeking an experienced and highly strategic Principal Talent Acquisition Specialist to join Curium's HR team during a period of growth and product commercialization. This role is ideal for someone who combines hands on excellence in full cycle recruiting with deep experience leading high volume initiatives and leveraging market insights to shape strategy. The individual will serve as both a contributor to the design, and executor of talent acquisition plans, particularly for commercial, sales, and specialty roles within the pharmaceutical industry.

• Serve as a strategic business partner and tactical expert in designing and executing full-cycle recruitment strategies across commercial and operational functions.
• Manage and execute high-volume hiring efforts, with a proven track record of delivering for national sales teams and commercial launches.
• Lead employer branding initiatives aligned with Curium's market positioning; represent Curium externally to candidates, vendors, partners.
• Develop and maintain dashboards, reports, and talent KPIs using Excel and other reporting tools.
• Provide real-time talent market insights, competitive compensation trends, and risk assessments to stakeholders.
• Analyze source effectiveness, diversity pipeline metrics, and time-to-fill by department/function.
• Manage and execute commercial related recruiting process governance, including ATS workflows, offer templates, agency contracts, and compliance documentation.
• Optimize ATS use and integrations; serve as liaison to digital and recruitment marketing vendors, and RPO providers.
• Maintain up to date documentation and playbooks for recruiting process improvements and manager training.
• Collaborate with HR Business Partners, business leaders, and executives to align hiring priorities with strategic workforce plans.
• Serve as liaison to recruitment agencies and RPOs; provide ongoing performance feedback and contract oversight.
• Coach hiring managers on interviewing, selection criteria, and candidate engagement.

• Bachelor level Degree or equivalent work experience is required.
• Eight or more years of relevant experience in talent acquisition, including two or more years recruiting within pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, or life science companies.
• Demonstrated success in high-volume recruiting, particularly within sales and commercial functions.
• Strong knowledge of talent marketing, employer brand positioning, and TA program design.
• Experience working with ATS systems, HRIS, and third-party recruiting partners.
• Exceptional ability to analyze, interpret, and present talent data.
• Deep understanding of candidate and manager experience best practices.
• Strong Excel/PowerPoint proficiency; experience using data to support status reports.
• Project management capabilities with a focus on execution and continuous improvement.
• High sense of urgency, ability to manage ambiguity, and a results-driven mindset.
• Excellent communication and consulting skills with ability to influence senior stakeholders.
• Professional, agile, and collaborative, with a demonstrated track record of building and maintaining positive relationships with management, co-workers, peers, candidates, and external vendors.
• Problem solving skills, ability to deal with ambiguity, work autonomously, reprioritize based on changing business needs.

Working Conditions:

• Standard office environment
• Willingness to work in a team based environment.
• Close attention to detail required.
• Must be able to work outside of regular work hours.
• Up to 10% travel required
• Onsite, Westport, St. Louis office