Company Introduction
WorldStrides is the global leader in educational travel and experiential learning. The company was founded in 1967 to provide middle school travel programs to Washington, D.C. and has grown to provide a wide range of programs for more than half a million students annually to over 100 countries around the world. WorldStrides offers experiential learning programs in educational travel, performing arts, language immersion, career exploration, service-learning, study abroad, and sports. Each of these experiences helps students to see beyond the classroom and to see the world – and themselves – in new ways.
Job Description:
WorldStrides is seeking a strategic, hands-on recruiting leader to serve as Sr. Manager, Global Recruiting. Reporting directly to the Chief Human Resources Officer, this person will lead recruiting across executive, professional, and seasonal/high-volume hiring in the United States and key global locations, including Mérida, Toronto, London, and Australia.
The Sr. Manager, Global Recruiting, will drive recruiting strategy across executive, professional, internal, and seasonal hiring. This leader will oversee and further elevate WorldStrides’ established in-house executive search capability, partnering closely with the Sr. Executive Recruiter on Director-, VP-, and SVP-level searches, stepping into select high-priority assignments as needed, and engaging external firms for C-suite and specialized searches.
The role will also oversee professional hiring across corporate, technology, product, sales, operations, education, and program delivery functions, while modernizing a complex seasonal recruiting program that recently hired nearly 600 summer team members across multiple U.S. locations.
This is not a requisition management role. We are looking for a recruiting strategist who anticipates talent risks, understands the business and labor market, stays current on recruiting technology and economic trends, and builds scalable solutions before issues become urgent. One day, this person may be advising the executive team on hiring strategy; the next, they may be rebuilding a broken Greenhouse workflow or personally closing a critical search because the team needs the support.
Responsibilities:
- Implement a clear global recruiting operating model with defined portfolio ownership, service expectations, decision rights, and consistent practices across executive, professional, and seasonal hiring.
- Increase proactive sourcing and pipeline development, creating a more deliberate and cost-effective mix of direct sourcing, internal talent, referrals, agencies, and external search partners.
- Further mature the established in-house executive recruiting function, strengthening long-term talent mapping, senior-level search execution, and the disciplined use of external firms for C-suite and specialized assignments.
- Establish a more proactive seasonal recruiting model that anticipates summer workforce needs earlier, builds sufficient recruiting capacity, and consistently delivers qualified hires across program locations.
- Improve Greenhouse adoption, workflow design, data quality, and reporting so leaders can reliably assess recruiting performance, hiring risks, source effectiveness, and quality of hire.
- Create stronger alignment among Recruiting, HR Business Partners, and Finance so anticipated hiring demand informs recruiting capacity, sourcing plans, talent pipelines, and location strategies earlier in the planning cycle.
- Introduce consistent hiring-manager tools and training that improve intake quality, structured interviewing, candidate calibration, and selection decisions.
Global Recruiting Strategy and Business Partnership
- Set and continuously evolve the global recruiting strategy, operating model, service standards, and annual priorities across executive, professional, and seasonal hiring.
- Build a deep understanding of WorldStrides’ business model, operating cycles, financial priorities, growth plans, and talent needs; use that knowledge to advise leaders rather than simply accept requisitions as presented.
- Challenge assumptions about role design, level, location, skills, timing, and sourcing approach. Help leaders determine whether a position should be filled as scoped and identify internal, external, contingent, or alternative talent solutions.
- Bring forward-looking labor-market and economic intelligence to the CHRO, Executive Leadership Team, HR leaders, and business leaders, including talent availability, competitor activity, compensation pressures, location dynamics, and emerging skill needs.
- Partner with HR Business Partners and Finance on workforce planning and demand forecasting, translating business plans into realistic recruiting capacity and talent-pipeline strategies.
Executive and Critical-Talent Recruiting
- Advise ELT members and senior leaders on Director-, VP-, and SVP-level hiring, including search strategy, market calibration, candidate assessment, stakeholder alignment, offer strategy, and close.
- Coach and support the Executive Recruiter on VP- and SVP-level searches, stepping in personally to lead when a search is especially senior, confidential, or business-critical.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for external executive search firms, negotiating scope, setting search governance, and holding firms accountable for quality, speed, candidate experience, and cost.
- Build long-term external talent maps and relationships for priority leadership roles, emerging capabilities, and succession needs, so searches don't start from zero.
Professional Recruiting and Internal Mobility
- Set strategy and quality standards for professional recruiting across corporate, technology, product, sales, and program delivery, coaching and holding the Professional Recruiter accountable for execution.
- Direct the design of proactive sourcing and pipeline strategies for recurring, difficult-to-fill, and future-critical roles, guiding the use of direct sourcing, market research, professional networks, targeted campaigns, and talent communities.
- Guide efforts to strengthen internal mobility, ensuring internal talent is identified, considered, and assessed consistently; partner with HR Business Partners and talent leaders to connect recruiting with succession and development strategies.
- Establish consistent intake, assessment, selection, offer, and closing practices that raise hiring quality while improving speed and predictability.
Seasonal and High-Volume Recruiting
- Provide strategic oversight for the seasonal recruiting function that staffs WorldStrides programs across the United States, with peak hiring for summer program delivery from June through August.
- Build an annual workforce and recruiting plan that starts well ahead of peak demand and aligns forecasted program volume, location needs, recruiter capacity, sourcing channels, onboarding timelines, and contingency plans.
- Balance scale and speed with a high selection bar, ensuring seasonal candidates have the qualifications, judgment, reliability, and service orientation required to support student programs.
- Partner with the seasonal recruiting leader, HR Governance & Culture, Legal, and HR Delivery to operationalize compliant processes related to work authorization, visas where applicable, background checks, required documentation, and jurisdiction-specific hiring practices.
- Evaluate seasonal sourcing channels and partnerships based on conversion, quality, retention, cost, and program outcomes – not simply application volume.
Recruiting Technology, Data, AI, and Process Integrity
- Serve as business product owner for Greenhouse, defining recruiting-system priorities, process requirements, governance standards, adoption expectations, data-quality controls, and reporting needs.
- Partner closely with HR Systems on integrations, APIs, enhancements, vendor decisions, testing, and implementation while retaining business ownership for the recruiting experience and roadmap.
- Stay current on recruiting technology, sourcing platforms, assessment tools, scheduling solutions, recruitment marketing tools, background-check platforms, and AI-enabled capabilities; recommend investments based on business value, risk, and measurable impact.
- Use AI and automation responsibly to improve talent research, sourcing, candidate communication, workflow efficiency, and analytics while preserving human judgment, fairness, privacy, and candidate trust.
- Establish practical controls to address candidate-authenticity and identity risks, including AI-enabled impersonation and fake candidates; evaluate process and technology solutions that strengthen verification without creating unnecessary friction for legitimate candidates.
- Build dashboards and decision tools that convert recruiting data into clear business insight, identify emerging risks, and support continuous improvement.
Hiring Quality, Capability Building, and Team Leadership
- Lead and develop a recruiting team spanning executive, professional, and seasonal hiring, including team members in the United States and Mérida, Mexico.
- Set clear goals, metrics, service expectations, and accountability across the team; manage capacity and priorities across recruiting portfolios and peak hiring periods.
- Coach recruiters to operate as talent advisors with strong sourcing, assessment, stakeholder-management, market-intelligence, and consultative-selling skills.
- Partner with Learning & Development to create hiring-manager training, structured interview tools, calibration guides, and practical resources that improve assessment quality and consistency.
- Define and monitor candidate and hiring-manager experience standards, addressing recurring friction points and ensuring communication is timely, respectful, and transparent.
- Translate recruiting policies and legal requirements into practical, scalable operating processes in partnership with the Senior Director, HR Governance & Culture; Legal; HR Business Partners; and local HR colleagues.
Vendor, Brand, and Financial Stewardship
- Manage recruiting agencies, executive search firms, technology vendors, and other external partners, including selection, contracts, performance standards, spend, and return on investment.
- Reduce avoidable agency and referral expense by strengthening direct sourcing and using paid channels where they create differentiated value.
- Partner with Communications, Marketing, and business leaders to strengthen WorldStrides’ talent story and market-specific recruiting messages for priority populations.
- Develop clear business cases for new recruiting investments or process changes, including expected cost, benefit, risk, and operational impact.
Qualifications:
- We are intentionally using a skills-based approach. No candidate is expected to have followed one specific career path or to be equally deep in every recruiting segment. The strongest candidates will demonstrate most of the following through the results they have delivered.
- Progressively responsible experience leading a complex talent acquisition portfolio, typically developed through approximately 8-10 years in corporate recruiting, executive search, recruitment consulting, or a combination of environments.
- Demonstrated people leadership, including setting direction, coaching experienced recruiters, managing performance, and leading through change.
- Meaningful executive search experience. Experience in a retained executive search firm or leading complex in-house executive searches is preferred; top-tier search-firm experience is particularly valuable.
- Evidence of building a recruiting strategy or operating model rather than only managing requisition delivery.
- Experience leading across multiple recruiting segments. Direct seasonal or high-volume expertise is valuable but not required when paired with strong leadership and the ability to hire and empower a highly capable specialist.
- Fluency with applicant tracking systems and recruiting analytics; deep Greenhouse experience is strongly preferred.
- Experience evaluating or implementing recruiting technology, AI-enabled tools, sourcing platforms, assessment solutions, or workflow automation.
- Experience working across multiple countries, in a globally distributed organization, or with regionally diverse talent markets is preferred but not required.
- Experience in a private-equity-backed, high-growth, seasonal, travel, education, hospitality, or operationally complex environment is a plus.
- Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, professional experience, and demonstrated capability.
Location and Travel
This position must be based in the United States. Candidates located near one of WorldStrides’ primary U.S. offices in Vienna, Virginia; Charlottesville, Virginia; or Austin, Texas are preferred.
Work Perks:
- Fun & driven environment.
- Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage, life, accidental death and dismemberment, accident, critical illness, and disability insurance, FSA healthcare, FSA dependent care, HSA with employer contribution, and generous 401k match.
- 11 paid floating corporate holidays, 1 paid volunteer day & up to 25 PTO days to start – accrue up to 28 over 3 years, 4 mental health days, and 5 bereavement days.
- Tuition reimbursement up to $5,250 annually
- $1,000 towards professional certifications annually
- Opportunities for paid and discounted travel.
- Flexible work schedule providing on-site, remote, and virtual office opportunities.
- Encouraged participation in our Employee Resource Groups and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion council.
- Fitness Center and café onsite at select locations.
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Paid Parental, Caregiver, and Disability leave.
- Team Member Discount Program
WorldStrides, a global organization, is committed to educate and serve communities worldwide. Our commitment is fueled by the passion of our team members and partners to make experiential learning accessible, while also being socially, environmentally, and ethically responsible. Together, we accomplish this by investing in initiatives to promote inclusion, diversity, and sustainability.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, WorldStrides is committed to building a diverse workforce, supported by an environment that promotes inclusion and belonging. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.
WorldStrides will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States. This is not a position for which sponsorship will be provided. Individuals with temporary visas such as E, F-1, J-1, H-1, H-2, L, B, J or TN, or who need sponsorship for work authorization now or in the future, are not eligible for hire. Select seasonal roles may consider students on J-1 or F-1 visas.
