Senior Talent Acquisition Manager at Black Spectacles

About Black Spectacles

Black Spectacles helps architects thrive in their careers through effective, high-quality digital education and career development.

We are a remote, founder-led company building a small, high-performing organization. Our growth depends on consistently hiring the right people into the right roles—not simply adding headcount.

The Role

Black Spectacles is hiring a Senior Talent Acquisition Manager to own and operate the system we use to attract, evaluate, select, and close exceptional talent.

We have already developed a rigorous, evidence-based hiring philosophy and process. We need an experienced talent acquisition leader who believes in what we have built, can take full ownership of running it, and can use deeper expertise to make it stronger.

This is a hands-on functional-owner role. You will personally source, engage, screen, evaluate, and close candidates while managing the entire recruiting process.

You must be able to take the football and run with it—without disregarding the standards, systems, and judgment that already exist.

Mission

Own and continuously improve Black Spectacles’ talent acquisition system so the company can consistently hire the right people without relying on the CEO to manage recruiting day to day.

What You Will Own

Candidate Sourcing and Attraction

Personally build strong candidate pipelines for leadership, specialized, and hard-to-fill roles through:

• Candidate research and target-company mapping
• Outbound sourcing and personalized outreach
• Referral and network development
• Candidate screening and follow-up
• Ongoing relationship and talent-bench development

Recruiting is a sales function. You must be able to communicate the opportunity compellingly, establish trust with strong candidates, and help them understand why Black Spectacles may be the right next step in their careers.

Hiring Process

Own and operate our existing hiring system, including:

• Role scorecards
• Sourcing strategies
• Interview plans
• Behavioral and cognitive assessments
• Chronological career interviews
• Candidate evaluation packets
• Structured references and debriefs
• Recruiting dashboards and weekly reviews

You will ensure the process is followed, searches move forward, hiring managers fulfill their responsibilities, and decisions are supported by evidence.

Talent Judgment

Help determine whether candidates are not merely qualified, but right for the role, manager, company stage, and future we are building.

You should recognize when:

• Enthusiasm is running ahead of evidence
• A likable candidate does not meet the scorecard
• Interview feedback is vague or unsupported
• Assessment results require deeper investigation
• A candidate’s career history reveals an important pattern
• The company does not yet have enough information to decide

System Improvement

Respect and understand the system that already exists before changing it.

We expect you to bring expertise the company does not yet have, identify meaningful gaps, and recommend improvements. We do not expect you to replace our hiring philosophy with a generic or personally preferred process.

Future Talent Benches

Build relationships with potential candidates before positions become urgent so Black Spectacles does not begin every important search from zero.

Hiring Manager Accountability

Help managers:

• Clearly define the results required from each role
• Prepare for interviews
• Evaluate candidates against scorecards
• Provide timely, evidence-based feedback
• Avoid decisions driven primarily by urgency, charisma, or likability

Our Hiring Philosophy

Black Spectacles uses a structured, evidence-based hiring process.

Our core principles are:

• Evidence over instinct
• Role fit over generic talent
• Structured evaluation over casual conversation
• Long-term success over short-term speed
• Disciplined judgment over recruiting activity

We do not rely primarily on charisma, hypothetical interview answers, likability, or urgency to make hiring decisions.

The right person will be genuinely aligned with this approach—not merely willing to tolerate it.

AI-Enabled Talent Acquisition

Black Spectacles is actively using AI to improve candidate research, interview preparation, assessment synthesis, documentation, and hiring decisions.

You will help us advance these workflows while ensuring that final judgment remains human, rigorous, and evidence-based.

First-Year Outcomes

Within your first 90 days, you will:

• Take ownership of all active searches
• Personally build and manage candidate pipelines
• Ensure every role has a clear scorecard, sourcing plan, and evaluation process
• Establish clear recruiting visibility and weekly accountability
• Identify the highest-value improvements to the existing system
• Define where CEO involvement is and is not required

Within six months, you will:

• Establish talent benches for critical future roles
• Improve outbound sourcing and referral systems
• Advance our use of AI in recruiting and candidate evaluation
• Reduce reliance on outside recruiting firms

By the end of the first year, you will:

• Materially reduce CEO involvement in day-to-day recruiting
• Establish a reliable internal talent acquisition capability
• Improve the quality and consistency of hiring decisions
• Demonstrate strong quality of hire, retention, and role fit

The Person We Are Looking For

You are:

• An independent, level-headed owner
• Persuasive and capable of establishing trust quickly
• Comfortable selling a company and opportunity without overselling
• Fast-moving without being careless
• Structured without being bureaucratic
• Collaborative without waiting to be managed
• Confident enough to bring recommendations and challenge weak thinking
• Disciplined enough to respect standards and preserve what already works
• Curious enough to understand before changing
• Accountable for outcomes, not merely activity

You do not confuse ownership with unilateral control. You know how to take responsibility, exercise judgment, collaborate on consequential decisions, and move the work forward without executive babysitting.

What This Role Is Not

This is not an HR generalist, recruiting coordinator, or advisory-only role.

It is also not a role for someone who expects to immediately delegate sourcing, prefers to operate without constraints, or intends to replace our established hiring philosophy with their own process.

Reporting Relationship

This role reports directly to the CEO.

The Senior Talent Acquisition Manager owns the day-to-day operation, application, measurement, and improvement of the hiring system.

The CEO retains governance over the company’s hiring philosophy, talent bar, assessment approach, major changes to the system, and final decisions for critical roles.

Compensation

The expected base salary range is $145,000 to $180,000, depending on experience and fit. The position is also eligible for Black Spectacles’ companywide performance-based bonus program.

Location

Black Spectacles is a fully remote company. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States.

Requirements

• Typically 8+ years of talent acquisition or executive recruiting experience
• Several years personally sourcing and evaluating leadership, specialized, or hard-to-fill talent
• Demonstrated success attracting and closing passive candidates
• Experience owning a structured recruiting process
• Expertise in outbound sourcing, candidate outreach, screening, and pipeline management
• Experience working directly with founders, CEOs, or senior leaders
• Strong knowledge of role scorecards, interview design, assessments, structured references, and evidence-based debriefs
• Strong talent judgment and the ability to challenge unsupported conclusions constructively
• Willingness to personally operate the recruiting process rather than immediately delegating it

Strongly Preferred

• Formal training or certification in structured hiring or assessment systems
• Experience using behavioral or cognitive assessments in hiring decisions
• Experience conducting chronological career interviews
• Experience using AI to improve recruiting and candidate evaluation
• Experience taking ownership of and improving an established hiring system
• Experience in a founder-led, remote, SaaS, education, or professional-services company
• Experience building candidate benches before roles are open

Benefits

• Work From Home: Enjoy the flexibility of working remotely year-round.
• Comprehensive Benefits: Starting day one, access to BCBS Health, Dental, Vision, Disability, and Life Insurance coverage.
• Savings & Retirement Plans: FSAs, HSAs, and a 401(k) plan with company match up to 4%.
• Referral Program: Earn rewards by referring top talent to our team.
• Team Building: Enjoy semi-annual team gatherings and events that foster collaboration and camaraderie.