Head of Talent Acquisition (TA Lead)
Head of Talent Acquisition is responsible for hiring strategy, the speed and quality of filling open roles, the recruiting team, and the budget for candidate sourcing.
What a Head of Talent Acquisition does
The Head of Talent Acquisition owns the company's entire hiring system, from planning headcount needs to the new hire's first day. In high-risk verticals this role matters more than in most industries, because some positions are hard to fill due to regulatory requirements, reliability checks, and a narrow pool of specialists in payments, risk, and compliance. A hiring mistake here can cost a license or access to payment providers.
The role usually reports to the CHRO or CEO and manages a team of recruiters (internal and sourcing specialists), sometimes coordinators and HR business partners for specific business units. The Head of TA does not personally handle every open role. Instead, they set the process, assessment standards, funnel, budget for agencies, and employer brand, and join the hiring of key roles and senior executives alongside business owners.
For the company, the Head of TA is a source of forecasts: how many people will be needed, when, and at what cost they can be found. They translate plans for launching new products, markets, or licenses into concrete hiring timelines and warn leaders when the candidate market makes the plan unrealistic.
Responsibilities
- Builds the annual and quarterly hiring plan with the business and turns it into a prioritized queue of open roles.
- Manages the recruiting team: sets goals, distributes roles, and regularly reviews funnel performance and closing quality.
- Sets process standards: interview stages, scorecard structure, offer process requirements, and feedback timelines.
- Owns the sourcing strategy: channels, niche profile searches, agency relationships, and budgets for paid job postings and headhunting.
- Coordinates mandatory candidate checks with security, compliance, and legal teams for roles with access to money or data.
- Works with department heads on role descriptions, competencies, and expectations for candidates.
- Manages employer branding and job attractiveness: careers site, candidate reviews, and presence in professional communities.
- Prepares management reporting: funnel, cost per hire, time to fill, reasons for rejection, and onboarding quality.
- Makes offer decisions together with HR and finance, including approving terms for hard-to-fill roles.
- Leads the hiring of senior leaders and takes part in C-level hiring decisions together with the CEO.
Skills
- Resource planning: turning business plans into headcount needs and hiring timelines.
- Deep knowledge of the candidate market in target niches: where people work, how many there are, and what motivates them.
- Team management and process building under heavy workload and frequent changes in priorities.
- Negotiation with candidates and leaders, including explaining trade-offs on salary, timing, and seniority level.
- Candidate assessment: structured interviews, understanding of competencies, and distinguishing between levels of responsibility.
- Data work: building the funnel, analyzing conversions, and drawing accurate conclusions from metrics.
- Working with compliance and security: knowing which checks are mandatory and how to avoid slowing the process down.
- Budgeting: allocating funds across channels, agencies, and tools, and justifying spending.
- Communication with leadership: short, clear reports and an honest assessment of timeline and market risks.
Tools
- ATS (applicant tracking system) for managing the funnel and candidates
- Sourcing tools and professional networks for database searches
- Spreadsheets and BI dashboards for planning and reporting
- HRIS systems for transferring data about hired employees
- Video interview tools and scorecards for structured evaluation
- Jira or a similar tracker for managing hiring tasks
How performance is measured
- Time to fill: average time from opening a role to the employee starting work
- Cost per hire per employee, including channels and agencies
- Share of roles filled within the planned timeline
- Conversion rates by funnel stage and candidate selection quality
- Retention of new hires through the probation period
- Share of hires made through internal referrals
- Completion rate of the quarterly hiring plan by department
By vertical
Betting
In betting, hiring is constrained by a shortage of traders, risk analysts, and regulatory compliance specialists. The Head of TA aligns with compliance and security and builds mandatory candidate checks into the process before an offer is made.
Dating
In dating, the main demand is for product and marketing specialists, moderators, and trust and safety teams, many of whom work remotely from different countries. The Head of TA is responsible for sourcing geography, language markets, and unified evaluation criteria for candidates across different time zones.
Corporate functions
In general corporate functions, the role focuses on hiring accounting, HR, legal, and operations teams, where the process is similar to that of any large company. The Head of TA works closely with business leaders and is responsible for a transparent funnel and quarterly hiring planning.
Levels
Head of / Director
Head of / Director is responsible for the entire recruiting function: budget, team structure, employer branding strategy, reporting to the CHRO or CEO, and decisions on hiring key leaders. The level is defined by independent authority over resources and sign-off on the hiring plan.
How to get there
People usually enter this profession from recruitment, starting as a recruiter, sourcer, or talent acquisition specialist who has already managed roles from opening to the employee's start date. Experience filling hard-to-find positions, working with niche candidates, and understanding how the funnel works are all important. In high-risk verticals, experience hiring for roles that require compliance and security checks is an added advantage.
To grow into a leadership role, you need to work not only with candidates but also with the process: building hiring plans, managing a recruiting team, calculating cost per hire, and proving channel effectiveness. It is useful to learn the basics of HR analytics, budgeting, and negotiating with managers, and to master an ATS and reporting tools well enough to analyze the funnel independently.
A typical path starts with leading a small team or owning key roles, then taking responsibility for several departments and a budget. Moving up to the Head level requires the ability to explain to the business why the hiring plan is achievable and to work with the CEO or CHRO on strategic questions. That is why a resume should show not only the number of roles closed but also results: timelines, cost, retention, and business impact.
Next steps: Director of Talent Acquisition, Head of Recruitment, Head of People / Head of HR Operations, VP of People, Talent Acquisition Director
FAQ
How is a Head of Talent Acquisition different from a recruiter?
A recruiter handles specific roles and candidates, while the Head of TA is responsible for the system: processes, team, budget, and company-wide hiring strategy. They decide which channels to use, how to distribute workload, and what to do when the hiring plan falls short. Success is measured by the outcomes of the function, not by the number of roles personally closed.
What determines a Head of Talent Acquisition's income?
Income depends on the size of the company, how difficult hiring is in its niche, the size of the team and budget managed, and whether senior executive hiring is part of the role. In high-risk verticals, the shortage of specialists with experience in payments, risk, and compliance also affects pay. Specific amounts depend on the market and negotiations.
Do you need to know gambling or dating specifics to work in this role?
Deep industry knowledge is not required, but understanding the key roles, regulatory requirements for staff checks, and typical risks makes the job much easier. The Head of TA should be able to quickly explain to the business why a role needs additional checks and how long they will take. Experience in a related field speeds up alignment considerably.
Which metrics matter most for a Head of Talent Acquisition?
Teams usually look at time to fill, cost per hire, plan completion by department, and retention of new hires through probation. Hire quality is assessed by whether the employee reaches the expected performance level and stays with the company. Metrics should match business goals; otherwise the function will close roles just to hit numbers.
What should a Head of Talent Acquisition job posting include?
The posting should specify the size of the team the candidate will lead, the annual hiring plan volume, and the types of roles being filled. It is important to describe which processes must be built from scratch and which regulatory or verification requirements apply. State who the role reports to and which decisions it makes independently.
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