Talent Acquisition Leader

A.J. Brown

Talent Acquisition Solutions Strategist IT Engagement Strategist

************@*****.***

EXPERIENCE SUMMARY

A dynamic and skilled Talent Acquisition Leader and Individual Contributor with experience in Technical and Business Leadership Recruiting, Talent Acquisition Leadership, Talent Strategy Development, C Suite Relationship Management, and Business Operations. Throughout my career, I have consistently delivered strategic value and achieved excellent results by exceeding and outpacing metrics and performance goals. Customers, Team Members, and peers know me for my ability to mentor and coach recruiting teams, establish recruiting best practices, and source and retain top talent in various roles across multiple domains including executive leadership, agile management teams, Cyber/Info Security, Business Transformation, and Technology professionals globally. Based on the culmination of my experiences, I am confident that I can make a positive impact on any purpose-driven organization as an individual contributor or organization leader.

SKILLS & EXPERTISE

•Executive Search, IT/Technical Recruiting, Corporate Talent Acquisitions, Agency Recruiting, Full Life-cycle Recruiting, Vendor and Agency Management, Strategic Sourcing, Talent and Workforce Management Consulting

•Agency and Corporate Talent Team Leadership, Performance Metrics Management, Process and Policy Development, Documentation and Implementation, Process Improvement, Continuous Improvement, Performance and Behavioral Interview Technique Coaching

•Advisor to Senior and Executive Leadership in the areas of Talent Engagement, Strategic Sourcing, Diversity and Inclusion, Compensation Management, Compensation Design

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Connections IT Services WBE/MBE January 2013 - Present

Executive Talent Acquisitions and IT Engagement Strategist – Co-Founder

Connections IT Services is certified by the WBENC as a Women Owned Enterprise and by the NCTRCA as an MBE. We are a total solutions provider with the ability to deliver people, processes, and technology. Our services include Talent and Workforce Solutions (Contingent Staffing, Talent Acquisitions, and Strategic Sourcing), Information Technology Solutions, Technology and Continuous Improvement Transformations, and Training Services. Connections IT Services’ focus is to “Align Strategy with Talent” by identifying the best technical, functional, and culturally fit candidates.

•Manage and lead the day-to-day operations and strategy for our Talent Solutions organization nationwide and abroad.

oDeveloped talent and technology strategies in support of our Fortune 50/100/500 and Government clients globally including the US, Canada, EU, LATAM, South Africa, and Singapore

oIdentified, Sourced, Qualified, and Retained Technology and Business Professionals in Direct Hire and Contract Roles including mid to executive-level individual contributors and managers in all areas of IT and Business.

oDeveloped a proprietary Strategic Sourcing Offering that allows our organization to find professionals with extremely specific industry, domain, and technology experience to improve the quality and number of Diversity and Inclusion numbers ic cultural and gender diversity candidates.

oSponsored quarterly Minority and Women in Technology events and lunch and learns. Enabled us to assist our clients in identifying AGILE Business Transformation professionals, Global SAP professionals, and Automation professionals to meet their goals in Diversity Hiring, as well as increase our Employer Branding within the Dallas and Fort Worth Markets.

oLead Talent Delivery group while serving as an individual contributor alongside Account Executives, and IT Talent Acquisitions Recruiters to identify and retain the best talent in the market for our clients in Information Technology, Healthcare IT, Governmental Affairs, Nursing, Technology Services, Commercial Airlines, Food and Beverage, Manufacturing, and Software for large domestic and international client portfolio.

oGenerated 4.5 million in revenue in time and material contingent staffing, Direct Placement, and SOW-based projects.

oSelected CRM, ATS, and Back-office technology and tools that enabled our organization to improve our speed to market to a 48-hour window to ensure we are competitive and first-to-market with candidates in the highly competitive talent market nationally.

oImplemented and leveraged tools and processes to facilitate the identification and cultivation of passive candidates as well as the long-term nurturing of relationships with passive candidates to develop a national pipeline of highly qualified business and technology professionals. Sponsored events, lunch and learns, and quarterly Technology events in various markets.

oIdentified RPO and agency partners to support and supplement internal Talent Delivery organization in delivering candidates to our customers in the U.S. and abroad. This included establishing a Talent Delivery model in India, Mexico, Canada, and the UK to support our current clients in foreign markets.

oGenerated 2.5 million in contingent staffing revenue in international markets of Canada, India, LATAM, and the UK

•Led National IT Consulting Practice for the delivery of full life cycle Data, Unified Communications, SaaS, IaaS, AGILE Transformation, Network Security, and Infrastructure projects. Projects were time and material and SOW-based engagements.

oDeveloped RFP and RFI responses for Full-Service Technology and Talent based projects domestically and abroad.

oServed as Executive Engagement manager for a 3.5 million (first phase) Cisco Unified Communication project migrating a client to Cisco Jabber and CUCM SaaS and IaaS platforms.

oResponsible for requirements grooming, project plan, project team staffing, and client engagement for meeting project timelines and deliverables. Interacted with all levels of Stakeholders including Infrastructure managers, Director of IT, Senior VP, and C Suites.

oLed team of twenty analysts and engineers for initial data collection efforts to migrate large enterprise customers and their ticketing and sales organizations globally from voice/fax landlines and desktop phones to Cisco Unified Communications Cloud Platform used for Video, Voice, Fax, and remote access to systems. The new solution leveraged smart headphones instead of desktop phones allowing associates to access their IT profiles and company systems from anywhere in the world via the cloud.

oServed as Engagement Manager on a 250k project to upgrade our customer's Tactical Operations Facilities that served as redundant operations during large flight systems outages and catastrophic events.

oResponsible for oversight and management of billable project hours and costs associated with all deliverables and getting customer sign-off on deliverables and invoices.

DISYS Corporation October 2011 - January 2013

Delivery Recruiting Manager

Senior Technology Recruiter

Recruited by DISYS to turn around a 12-month slide in revenue and a decrease in monthly profit brought on by hyper attrition of consultant attrition, customer attrition, loss of accounts, and stagnated sales.

Implementing delivery strategies to capture market share while increasing profitability and improving processes and performance in the Dallas market.

•The first 90 days I analyzed the metrics to determine strengths and weaknesses of qualifying closeable business, determine strengths and weaknesses of identifying talent, and identify what book of current business yielded the highest gross/net profits which allowed for the better prioritization of client requirements.

oAs a result, recalibrated and developed metrics reporting for the entire staffing lifecycle to identify the number of requirements received monthly, number of submittals, submittal to interview ratio, interview to hire ratio, number of requirements loss to competitors (losses), number of requirements closed unfilled by the client (washes), number of requirements filled (wins/placements), and time to fill per recruiter, account executive, and client.

•Identified and leveraged recruiting metrics to determine areas to increase profit margins, improve processes, and areas for recruiter development and training.

oAs a result, implemented negotiations training and standards for negotiating an increase of 5.00 dollars on each deal from the candidate and client to increase the average profit margin from $7.00 per hire to $15.00 to $17.00 per hire in the first 4 months.

oShaped client portfolio to focus on higher profit business in the IT sector and limited the amount of low-profit margin business by developing a ranking system for prioritizing all requirements.

oIdentified staff augmentation business that could be packaged and delivered on an SOW basis.

Recruit, train, mentor, and manage new and existing employees while meeting individual revenue and contribution objectives. Established daily priorities while managing individual and team objectives.

Championed the recruitment process by managing daily requisition flow, communicating with buying influences, and managing anchor accounts.

Developed negotiation training which included rate negotiations and candidate closing techniques.

Developed training on the dynamics and components of the “Recruiting Conversation”. A “How To” session on identifying candidate motivations, desires, and hot buttons to leverage during the “Close”.

Led training in advanced Google and Boolean sourcing techniques.

Established relationships with Technical User Groups and assigned team members to attend on a rotational basis.

Invited Technology Professionals for lunch and learning events to educate my team on technologies and their applications.

Key liaison between delivery and sales teams to clarify details of requirements, assess the feasibility of bill rates, and assist recruiters in developing sourcing and search strategies to minimize time to submittal.

Coached and led a team of fifteen recruiters of which all were at or above their respective monthly and yearly quotas while maintaining 200% of monthly and yearly Senior Recruiter Quota personally.

Collaborated nationally with the national delivery team to build an efficient, effective, and scalable National Talent Delivery Model and a key liaison for branch manager and executive management.

•Assisted in the development of recruiting strategy and best practices for DISYS Global Delivery Organization.

•Assisted in the proof of concept and assessment of several applicant tracking systems.

•Worked closely with the National Delivery Director to create programs to assist recruiters in the delivery of candidates which include the development of a National Tech Team, Database and Candidate Ownership Rules, and a strategy for commission splits.

Other Relevant Experiences:

The Bartech Group July 2006 - September 2008

Senior Lead Talent Acquisition Recruiter

Compuware Corporation January 2004 - March 2006

Regional Corporate Recruiter/Professional Services Recruiter

Analysts International January 2001 - January 2004

District and National Accounts Recruiting Lead

Maxim Group/TEKsystems June 1998 - January 2001

Sr. Information Technology Recruiter

Responsibility as a Corporate, Professional Services, and Agency recruiter supporting National and Global Talent Delivery as a Manager, Team Lead, and Senior Technology Recruiter.

Recruited talent in various areas of operations including Product Development, Professional Services, MSP Contingent Staffing, Diversity and Inclusion Hiring Initiatives, and Global Talent Acquisitions.

Leveraged best practices for effective networking, professional referrals and leads, candidate sourcing, cold calling, Boolean Search, and University Recruitment to identify candidates of all experience levels and hard-to-find skillset resources.

•Participated in the development and deployment of national recruiting initiatives which included working closely with IT and Business Stakeholders, Sales and Solutions Practice stakeholders, and Contingent Staffing Delivery teams to analyze their business needs and develop staffing plans and strategies to achieve organizational goals.

•Worked closely with HR and Hiring managers at all levels of the organization to project hiring needs, refine and improve processes and best practices to better deliver resources internally and to our Professional Services and Contingent Staffing groups.

•Led Global staffing efforts for identifying and retaining both Technical and Leadership candidates for Near Shore Development Centers, Offshore Development Centers, Professional Services Engagement Teams, and Contingent Staffing books of business in Canada, Mexico, India, Singapore, EU, and Asia.

•Drove the talent sourcing initiatives for multiple large global hiring initiatives. Selected to lead the Talent Acquisitions effort to staff a Global Follow the Sun Security Practice for a large Athletic manufacturer and Energy and Automation client. Hired more than 45 Certified Cyber and Information Security professionals for turnkey projects being staffed simultaneously and in multiple geographies over a 6 to 18-month period.

•Managed and prioritized recruiting priorities, metrics, and workflow to ensure SLAs were met for requirement coverage and increased fill ratios.

•Established a Requirements Rating Matrix to prioritize requirements for recruiters. This rating system assigned a higher rating or priority to requirements that the Account Executive possessed a strong client relationship and the ability to influence the close at high margins and lower ratings to requirements that the Account Executive had no relationship and margins were minimal or MSP-based high volume low margin business.

•Supported Solutions Practice by managing the resource timeline to meet project benchmarks and development windows to keep projects on time and within budget.

EDUCATION

Strayer University

Bachelor of Science

Business Administration HR/Compensation Management

CISCO Systems

Certified Collaboration SaaS Specialist

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