Recruiting and Onboarding Manager
Position Summary
The Recruiting and Onboarding Manager leads Optimal's recruiting and onboarding functions for field and office operations. This role manages and develops the recruiting team, partners with operational leaders to meet workforce needs, and ensures new employees are hired and prepared for work efficiently and compliantly.
The ideal candidate is a hands-on leader with high-volume recruiting experience in construction, industrial, petrochemical, or field-service environments.
Key Responsibilities
Leadership and Recruiting
- Lead, coach, and develop the recruiting and onboarding team
- Establish hiring priorities, performance expectations, and recruiting goals
- Partner with operations and project leadership to forecast workforce needs
- Manage full-cycle recruiting, including sourcing, screening, interviewing, offers, and placement
- Build candidate pipelines for recurring and high-demand positions
- Support staffing for projects, maintenance, turnarounds, shutdowns, and outages
- Develop relationships with trade schools, workforce organizations, and other recruiting partners
- Serve as an escalation point for complex hiring and onboarding matters
Onboarding and Compliance
- Oversee onboarding from offer acceptance through job-site readiness
- Ensure timely completion of:
- Employment documentation
- Drug testing and background checks
- MVR reviews
- Safety orientations
- License and certification verification
- OSHA, NCCER, TWIC, and site-specific requirements
- Partner with safety, payroll, human resources, and operations to ensure employees are ready for assignment
- Maintain accurate, confidential, and audit-ready recruiting and onboarding records
- Ensure compliance with company policies and applicable employment requirements
Reporting and Improvement
- Track key measures such as time to fill, time to onboard, offer acceptance, source effectiveness, and new-hire turnover
- Provide recruiting and staffing updates to company leadership
- Identify hiring challenges and recommend practical solutions
- Improve recruiting and onboarding processes to increase efficiency and strengthen the candidate experience
Qualifications
- High school diploma or equivalent required
- Associate's or bachelor's degree in human resources, business, construction management, or a related field preferred
- Five or more years of recruiting, staffing, onboarding, or workforce-coordination experience
- At least two years of direct people-management or team-leadership experience required
- Experience with high-volume or skilled-craft recruiting
- Construction, industrial, petrochemical, or field-workforce experience strongly preferred
- Turnaround, shutdown, or outage staffing experience preferred
- Experience with applicant-tracking or workforce-management systems
Key Competencies
- Team leadership and employee development
- Workforce planning and recruiting strategy
- Strong communication and relationship-building skills
- Sound judgment and problem-solving ability
- Knowledge of employment practices and hiring compliance
- Strong organization, follow-through, and attention to detail
- Ability to manage changing priorities in a fast-paced environment
Why Join Optimal?
At Optimal, you will lead the team responsible for attracting, hiring, and preparing the workforce behind critical industrial projects. Your leadership will directly influence project readiness, employee experience, and company growth.