Fast Facts

This role as Director of Talent Acquisition & Onboarding Workforce Strategy involves leading the strategic and operational initiatives for recruiting, onboarding, and training within First Student, ensuring alignment across various functional areas and optimizing the employee lifecycle.

Responsibilities: Key responsibilities include overseeing recruitment strategies, managing onboarding processes, and ensuring compliance with training and operational readiness while driving continuous improvement initiatives.

Skills: Candidates should possess strong leadership experience in recruitment and onboarding, along with project management skills, and the ability to use data for decision-making.

Qualifications: A Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration or related field and 7+ years of relevant leadership experience are required; experience with learning systems and compliance is preferred.

Location: This position is remote with periodic travel required to company locations in Kansas.

Compensation: Not provided by employer. Typical compensation ranges for this position are between $120,000 - $160,000.

First for a reason:

At First Student, we are a family of 60,000+ employees who take pride in safely transporting more than 5 million students and passengers to and from their destinations each day! Our family of brands include Transco, Total Transportation, Maggies Paratransit, and GVC II. Our employees are at the forefront of safety and innovation; they create and implement the most advanced training and technology the transportation industry has to offer.

Job Purpose:

The Director of Talent Acquisition & Onboarding Workforce Strategy serves as the strategic and operational leader connecting all functional areas of HRE—including recruiting, onboarding, training, content development, and onboarding compliance. This role drives cross-functional alignment, project execution, and continuous improvement across the candidate journey. With direct oversight of training strategy, onboarding compliance, learning systems, and national virtual training execution, this leader ensures scalable processes, alignment across regions, and job-readiness at every phase of the employee lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Integration

• Serve as the right hand to the VP of HR Experience, translating vision into execution across recruiting, CX, training, and compliance teams.
• Lead enterprise-wide strategy for workforce readiness, onboarding effectiveness, and pre-hire compliance.
• Oversee HRE strategic planning, ensuring seamless coordination between field operations, regional leadership, safety, and HR teams.

Operations & Program Execution

• Develop and manage scalable processes, tools, and governance frameworks to support regional TA & Onboarding Directors and their teams.
• Oversee operational readiness for new systems, SOPs, and process changes (e.g., Workday, TrainerHub, Virtual Training, compliance updates).
• Drive workforce planning processes that balance talent needs, budget impact, compliance, and readiness across the business.

Training & Learning Leadership

• Direct the Sr. Manager of Training & Onboarding, the Sr. Manager of Talent Development, and all content development functions.
• Oversee safety training content strategy, onboarding journey design, and LMS optimization across regions.
• Lead a national virtual training strategy through 5 Lead Virtual Trainers to ensure scalable and standardized delivery of onboarding, safety, and systems training.

Operational Excellence & Governance

• Design and drive governance routines across HRE, including bi-weekly area meetings and escalation management.
• Maintain strong change management routines across HR systems, policies, and training SOPs.
• Align scheduling, trainer coverage, and hiring needs with field demand in collaboration with regional TA & Onboarding Directors.

Reporting, Insights, & Process Optimization

• Own all TA & Onboarding analytics, including forecasting, onboarding pipeline health, training capacity, and candidate experience metrics.
• Identify trends and opportunities to improve time-to-hire, training completion, candidate satisfaction, and location performance.
• Monitor compliance progress and performance metrics and lead data-driven reviews with field and functional leaders.
• Identify process inefficiencies and lead iterative improvements across the onboarding and training process.

Communication & Continuous Improvement

• Serve as the voice of HRE strategy—developing and delivering executive updates, field talking points, and First Connect page enhancements.
• Champion continuous improvement efforts across recruiting, training, onboarding, and compliance—ensuring the full candidate journey is optimized and future-ready.
• Support adoption of regionally aligned governance, issue tracking, and continuous improvement.

People & Project Leadership

• Act as a thought partner and sounding board to TA & Onboarding Directors and the Sr. Manager of Training 
• Champion alignment and consistency across all regions—supporting field operations while holding accountability to structure and standards.
• Provide leadership for key projects such as peak season readiness, critical location planning, and hiring strategy refinement.
• Represent the region in corporate-level discussions related to recruitment, onboarding, and training.

10. Continuous Improvement and Innovation:

• Stay updated on industry trends, new technologies, and best practices in recruitment, onboarding, and training
•  Lead the implementation of innovative solutions to enhance the efficiency and quality of the candidate and training experience.

11. Additional Duties:

• Perform other responsibilities as needed to support the team, region, and company’s strategic goals.

Minimum Education & Certifications Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Human Resources, Management, or a related field; or equivalent work experience.

Minimum Experience & Skills Required:

• 7+ years of leadership experience across recruitment, onboarding, learning & development, or HR operations.
• Demonstrated success leading matrixed teams and cross-functional projects in a high-volume, distributed workforce.
• Deep understanding of training systems (LMS), compliance processes, and onboarding workflows.
• Strong project management skills and change leadership experience.
• Exceptional communication, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement abilities.
• Experience using data to drive decisions, measure impact, and forecast operational needs.

Physical Requirements & Working Conditions:

• Remote work environment with periodic travel between 10% and 40% to company locations for team management, meetings, and training.
• Ability to use standard office equipment and communicate effectively in person or via phone and video conferencing.

Disclaimer:

This job description outlines the essential functions and responsibilities of the role but is not exhaustive. The company reserves the right to modify, assign, or reassign duties as necessary.

In the state of Washington, all technician and driving positions, including but not limited to van drivers and any other position requiring employees to drive a company-owned vehicle, are considered safety-sensitive and are therefore subject to drug and alcohol testing, including cannabis.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status. First is also committed to providing a drug-free workplace. First will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Los Angeles Fair Chance Ordinance, and any other fair chance law. Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Record Screening Standards Ordinance Poster is at this link or upon request https://www.phila.gov/media/20210423160847/Fair-Chance-Hiring-law-poster.pdf.