Senior Executive Recruiter, Academic Affairs & Physician Leadership University of Utah Health HR

Overview

Join one of the nation''s leading academic health systems and play a pivotal role in shaping the future of healthcare, research, and medical education. As the Senior Executive Recruiter, Academic Affairs & Physician Leadership, you will lead high-impact national searches for physician executives, department chairs, research leaders, and senior academic administrators across University of Utah Health. This highly visible role partners directly with executive leadership to identify and recruit exceptional talent that advances our clinical, academic, and research missions. If you thrive in complex executive search environments and enjoy influencing organizational strategy through talent acquisition, this is a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact.

The Senior Executive Recruiter, Academic Affairs & Physician Leadership leads complex executive and senior-level recruitment initiatives across University of Utah Health with a primary focus on academic medicine, physician leadership, faculty recruitment, research leadership, and educational administration. This position serves as a strategic talent advisor to senior administrators and executive leaders responsible for advancing the organization''s clinical, academic, research, and educational missions.

The Senior Executive Recruiter develops and executes sophisticated search strategies for highly specialized and often nationally competitive leadership positions requiring extensive knowledge of academic medicine, faculty appointment structures, physician compensation models, research enterprises, and higher education recruitment practices. The role functions as the organization''s subject matter expert for executive-level academic recruitment and partners closely with senior leaders to attract exceptional physician, faculty, research, and educational talent that supports University of Utah Health''s strategic priorities.

This position is an addition to the University of Utah Health''s HR Talent Acquisition team, and will serve across the health system.

Meet our Talent Acquisition Team

Qualified candidates must have:

• Bachelor''s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, Higher Education, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Seven years of progressive recruiting experience.
• Five years of experience supporting executive, physician, faculty, or highly specialized leadership recruitment.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex searches requiring extensive stakeholder engagement and strategic consultation.
• Demonstrated ability to influence executive leaders and manage multiple high-priority initiatives simultaneously.
• Strong business acumen, professional judgment, and consultative communication skills.

Preferred experience:

• Master''s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, Higher Education Administration, or a related field.
• Executive search firm experience supporting healthcare, physician, or academic leadership recruitment.
• Experience supporting physician, faculty, or academic executive recruitment within an academic medical center, healthcare system, medical school, or higher education environment.
• Experience recruiting Department Chairs, Division Chiefs, Deans, Medical Directors, physician executives, or faculty leaders.
• Knowledge of faculty affairs, academic appointment processes, promotion systems, and physician compensation structures.

Corporate Overview: University of Utah Health is an integrated academic healthcare system with five hospitals including a level 1 trauma center, eleven community health centers, over 1,600 providers, and a health plan serving over 200,000 members. University of Utah Health is nationally ranked and recognized for our academic research, quality standards and overall patient experience. In addition to our clinical delivery system, we have a School of Medicine, School of Dentistry, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, and College of Health providing education and training for over 1,250 providers annually. We have over 2 million patient visits annually and research grants exceeding $350 million. University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics represents our clinical operations for the larger health system.

As a patient-focused organization, University of Utah Health exists to enhance the health and well-being of people through patient care, research and education. Success in this mission requires a culture of collaboration, excellence, leadership, and respect. University of Utah Health seeks staff that are committed to the values of compassion, collaboration, innovation, responsibility, integrity, quality and trust that are integral to our mission. EO/AA

Responsibilities

Essential Functions

Academic Executive Recruitment & Search Leadership

• Leads full-cycle recruitment for senior academic and physician leadership positions, including Chiefs of Operations, Department Chairs, Medical Directors, Executive Directors, and other executive-level appointments.
• Partners with academic and healthcare leaders to define recruitment strategies aligned with institutional goals, succession planning initiatives, and workforce needs.
• Conducts comprehensive intake consultations to understand departmental priorities, academic expectations, research objectives, clinical responsibilities, and leadership requirements.
• Develops and executes national recruitment strategies targeting distinguished faculty, physician leaders, researchers, and academic administrators.
• Manages complex national searches requiring extensive sourcing, networking, stakeholder alignment, and confidentiality.
• Builds and maintains pipelines of physician, faculty, research, and educational leadership candidates for anticipated and future opportunities.

Faculty & Physician Recruitment Expertise

• Serves as a subject matter expert regarding academic faculty recruitment processes, faculty appointment tracks, promotion pathways, tenure systems, and physician leadership structures.
• Partners with School of Medicine and Academic leadership regarding faculty recruitment strategies and candidate evaluation.
• Advises leaders on market conditions related to physician leadership, specialty recruitment, academic medicine, and healthcare executive talent.
• Develops targeted sourcing strategies leveraging professional associations, academic institutions, specialty societies, conferences, and research networks.
• Maintains current knowledge of physician and faculty labor markets, compensation trends, and national recruitment practices.

Strategic Partnership & Executive Consultation

• Serves as a trusted advisor to executive leadership, department chairs, deans, faculty affairs leaders, and senior administrators.
• Provides consultative guidance on organizational design, succession planning, search committee processes, candidate assessment methodology, and recruitment strategy.
• Facilitates alignment among stakeholder groups involved in executive and faculty leadership searches.
• Supports leaders in interview design, candidate evaluation, finalist selection, and executive hiring decisions.
• Develops recruitment strategies that advance institutional objectives for excellence, innovation, education, and workforce.

Candidate Assessment & Executive Selection

• Conducts advanced assessments of executive, physician, and academic leadership candidates.
• Evaluates candidates for clinical, academic, research, educational, and leadership accomplishments.
• Assesses leadership competencies, strategic thinking, organization fit, academic achievement, scholarly contributions, and mission alignment.
• Coordinates complex interview processes involving search committees, executive leadership, physician leaders, faculty stakeholders, and governing bodies.
• Partners with human resources colleagues and organizational leadership to support offer development and negotiations.

Process Excellence & Compliance

• Ensures recruitment activities comply with institutional policies, equal opportunity requirements, accreditation standards, and applicable employment regulations.
• Maintains accurate documentation, reporting, and candidate records within applicant tracking systems and related technologies.
• Develops and implements best practices that enhance executive search effectiveness and candidate experience.
• Identifies process improvement opportunities and recruitment innovations that support organizational growth.

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities

• Advanced expertise in academic medicine, faculty recruitment, and physician leadership recruitment.
• Knowledge of faculty appointment structures, promotion pathways, tenure systems, and academic healthcare environments.
• Exceptional executive sourcing, networking, and relationship-building capabilities.
• Strong consultative skills with demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and executive stakeholders.
• Ability to evaluate complex leadership experience across clinical, academic, research, and educational domains.
• Advanced interviewing and candidate assessment skills.
• Strong project management and organizational abilities.
• Ability to manage multiple national searches simultaneously.
• High degree of professionalism, discretion, and confidentiality.
• Excellent verbal, written, and presentation communication skills.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor''s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, Higher Education, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Seven years of progressive recruiting experience.
• Five years of experience supporting executive, physician, faculty, or highly specialized leadership recruitment.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex searches requiring extensive stakeholder engagement and strategic consultation.
• Demonstrated ability to influence executive leaders and manage multiple high-priority initiatives simultaneously.
• Strong business acumen, professional judgment, and consultative communication skills.

Qualifications (Preferred)

Preferred

• Master''s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, Higher Education Administration, or a related field.
• Executive search firm experience supporting healthcare, physician, or academic leadership recruitment.
• Experience supporting physician, faculty, or academic executive recruitment within an academic medical center, healthcare system, medical school, or higher education environment.
• Experience recruiting Department Chairs, Division Chiefs, Deans, Medical Directors, physician executives, or faculty leaders.
• Knowledge of faculty affairs, academic appointment processes, promotion systems, and physician compensation structures.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

Employee must be able to meet the following requirements with or without an accommodation.

• This is a sedentary position that may exert up to 10 pounds and may lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects. This position involves sitting most of the time and is not exposed to adverse environmental conditions.

Physical Requirements

Listening, Manual Dexterity, Near Vision, Speaking