Early & Emerging Talent Program Recruiter

Position Overview

Vertex is seeking a strategic, relationship-driven, and highly organized Early & Emerging Talent Program Recruiter to lead recruitment and program support for our MBA Associate Program and Priority Flagship Talent Programs. This individual will serve as a trusted talent advisor to business leaders, HR partners, executive sponsors, and university stakeholders while helping shape Vertex's future talent and leadership pipelines.

Reporting to the Early & Emerging Talent team, this role is responsible for full lifecycle recruitment, recruitment strategy, university engagement, participant experience, conversion planning, executive communications, and program measurement.

The ideal candidate brings deep recruiting expertise, strong program management and support capabilities, and a passion for building innovative, scalable talent pipelines aligned with long-term business needs.

This is a W2 role. 

Hybrid is required. 

Key Responsibilities

MBA Associate Program Recruitment

• Lead end-to-end recruitment strategy and execution for the Vertex MBA Associate Program.
• Partner with executive sponsors, HR Business Partners, and hiring managers to understand workforce needs and develop targeted talent acquisition strategies.

• In partnership with the Early and Emerging Talent team, HR Business Partners, Business Leaders, and other Stakeholders, drive annual headcount planning, project intake, role alignment, and conversion forecasting to support strong internship-to-full-time conversion outcomes.
• Manage candidate attraction, screening, assessment, interview coordination, offer delivery, and acceptance strategy.
• Monitor and communicate recruiting progress, talent-market insights, pipeline health, and conversion forecasts to program stakeholders.
• Build broad, high-quality talent pipelines through university partnerships, conferences, referrals, networking events, and targeted engagement.

University Partnerships & Talent Brand

• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with MBA programs and other universities that support recruitment for our flagship programs, career centers, faculty, student organizations, and external partners.
• Represent Vertex at campus events, conferences, treks, career fairs, and networking engagements.
• Identify emerging talent trends and recommend new sourcing channels, partnerships, and year-round engagement opportunities.

Program Management & Participant Experience

• Lead manager kickoff meetings and readiness activities, including buddy assignments, onboarding, orientation and first-day support, welcome materials, program communications, offboarding, etc.
• Plan and execute manager and participant check-ins, capstone office hours, presentations, and participate with early and emerging talent team in summer event planning
• Serve as a point of contact for participants, managers, HR stakeholders, and executive sponsors throughout the program experience.
• Coordinate offboarding and communicate timelines early so participants and business teams are prepared.
• Drive continuous improvement based on participant, manager, and stakeholder feedback.

Fellowship & Flagship Program Leadership

• Support recruitment and delivery for priority flagship programs, including PharmD Fellowships, Regulatory Affairs PhD Fellowships, and other strategic graduate-talent initiatives.
• Partner with academic institutions and internal steering committees to coordinate job postings, candidate review, screening, panel interviews, selection, offers, onboarding, and orientation.
• Guide eligible participants through internal networking and full-time recruitment processes.
• Build scalable and consistent processes across the Early & Emerging Talent portfolio while tailoring delivery to each program's needs.

Data, Analytics & Executive Reporting

• Maintain program trackers and dashboards covering pipeline health, offer status, university contacts, recruitment events, participant milestones, and conversion outcomes.
• Analyze recruiting effectiveness, acceptance and conversion outcomes, participant feedback, and program performance.
• Produce executive-ready updates and recommendations for Early & Emerging Talent leaders, business stakeholders, steering committees, and executive sponsors.
• Use data and stakeholder feedback to improve recruitment strategies, program experiences, and operational effectiveness.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field.
• 6+ years of experience in talent acquisition, campus recruiting, MBA or graduate recruiting, program management, or a related function.
• Proven experience managing high-visibility talent programs and building strong partnerships with business leaders and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Experience recruiting and assessing graduate-level or early-career talent.
• Excellent communication, presentation, relationship-building, and executive stakeholder-management skills.
• Strong project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and seasonal deadlines.
• Experience using data and metrics to inform recruiting strategies and program decisions.
• Proficiency with applicant tracking systems, recruiting technologies, and Microsoft Office applications.
• Knowledge of applicable employment laws and recruiting practices.
• Ability to travel to target schools, conferences, and recruiting events as needed
• Ability to commute to the Boston area as business and program needs require, including on-site support during peak recruitment and program periods.

Preferred

• Experience supporting MBA, fellowship, leadership development, rotational, or other flagship talent programs.
• Experience partnering with executive sponsors, steering committees, and senior business leaders.
• Knowledge of workforce planning, talent-pipeline development, and conversion-focused recruiting strategies.
• Pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, or life sciences industry experience.
• Experience developing university partnerships, campus engagement, and employer-brand strategies.

What Success Looks Like

• Build sustainable pipelines of future talent and leaders for Vertex.
• Deliver a high-quality, consistent experience for MBA Associates, Fellows, managers, and program stakeholders.
• Strengthen relationships with priority academic institutions and strategic external partners.
• Improve candidate acceptance, participant engagement, and full-time conversion outcomes.
• Create clear operating rhythms, scalable processes, and actionable reporting across priority programs.
• Serve as a strategic connector across the business, HR, Talent Acquisition, academia, and program participants.
• Position Early & Emerging Talent as a meaningful driver of Vertex's long-term talent and workforce strategy.

$55-$60/HR

This job posting is for a temporary role with a third-party agency partner on assignment at Vertex Pharmaceuticals (“Vertex”). The individual selected for this role will be offered the role as an employee of a third- party agency partner; compensation, medical benefits, fringe benefits and other terms and conditions of employment shall be presented by the third-party agency partner upon offer. The pay rate range provided is a reasonable estimate of the anticipated compensation range for this job at the time of posting. The actual pay rate will be based on a number of factors, including skills, competencies, experience, location and/or being pursued and other job-related factors permitted by law. In addition, this role will be eligible for overtime pay, in accordance with federal and state requirements

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