Job Description

Position:Regional Recruitment Specialist, East Africa, Madagascar, and Western Indian Ocean
(EAMWIO)

Reports to:Regional HR Business Partner, EAMWIO Region

Location:Africa Regional Hub-Kigali, Rwanda

Country Program/Sector:N/A

Position Type:Full-time

Scope/Capacity:Regional

Coordinates with: Regional HR Business Partner, Country HR Managers, Africa Talent Lead, Country
Director, Hiring Managers

About Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS):

WCS stands for wildlife and wild places. As the world’s premier wildlife conservation organization, WCS has a long track record of achieving innovative, impactful results on a scale. We run programs spanning the entire ocean and more than 3 million biologically critical square miles in nearly 60 countries. We build on a unique foundation: Our reach is global; we discover through best-in-class science; we protect through on-the-ground work with local and indigenous people; we inspire through our world-class zoos, aquariums, and education programs; and we use our resources through partnerships and strong policy influence. Our 4,000 diverse, passionately committed team members in New York City and around the world work collectively to achieve our conservation mission.

More information at www.wcs.org

About EAMWIO Region:

EAMWIO Region is one of the largest of WCS’s 13 Global Regional Programs; it spans Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.

About the Role

The Regional Recruitment Specialist will work closely with the Regional HR Business Partner, Country HR Managers, Africa Talent Lead, and hiring managers to lead the recruitment planning and execution of the end-to-end recruitment process. This includes role-profiling, sourcing, selection, offer preparation, requisition management and onboarding of new hires. This role will apply best practices to proactively source and attract a diversity of qualified candidates.

The Specialist will partner closely with HR colleagues and with leaders to define hiring needs, plan and source, while building and maintaining a comprehensive candidate pipeline to address those needs. The role will manage job postings in various platforms, the candidate experience through an applicant tracking system, coordinate screening and selection, and support virtual and/or in-person career events, as needed.

The role is primarily on recruiting for regional positions and senior roles in country programs while providing support to other regional recruitment leads as needed. A strong commitment to delivering an excellent candidate and hiring manager experience is essential to success in this role.

Major Responsibilities

• Development, implementation and continuous improvement of regional and country recruitment plans aligned with workforce priorities
• Review and refine job descriptions and ensure they follow WCS standards and accurately reflect role responsibilities and qualifications in partnership with the Regional HR Business Partner and/or Total Rewards Centre of Excellence (CoE) before posting.
• Manage the full-cycle recruitment process for key positions in the region in alignment with WCS’s Recruitment and Selection Policy and standard operating procedures, ensuring compliance and adherence to relevant labour laws
• Incorporate best practices and creative sourcing strategies to identify a diversity of talent, conduct interviews and assess candidates to ensure experience and qualifications match program requirements, conduct reference and background checks, and facilitate communications with the interview team and candidate.
• Anticipate and understand the local talent market to build and maintain relationships with both passive and active candidates, developing continuous pipelines of prospective candidates.
• Continually evaluate and enhance the candidate experience, ensuring clear and prompt communications, consistency, serving as a resource for WCS information, and shepherding candidates through the process for an excellent candidate experience.
• Establish collaborative partnerships with hiring managers and their teams through structured intake discussions, analysing hiring needs, determining effective recruitment methods and strategies, and coaching hiring managers/teams on the hiring process and interviewing techniques.
• Maintain candidate experience and records in an applicant tracking system.
• Prepare and deliver monthly and quarterly regional recruitment tracking reports, including progress against hiring plans, time-to-hire, pipeline health, diversity indicators, and key bottlenecks, and share insights with the Regional HR Business Partner and relevant stakeholders.
• Analyse recruitment data and trends to identify risks, forecast upcoming needs and recommend corrective and improvement actions to strengthen recruitment outcomes.
• Act as the regional knowledge resource on emerging recruitment trends, market practices and internal process updates, ensuring timely communication and application across teams.
• Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in all recruitment activities.
• Coordinate and support employment offer development and negotiation in coordination with the Regional HR Business Partner or Country HR Manager.
• Oversee and support onboarding coordination, including liaison with IT, payroll and line managers, using WCDS onboarding tools and templates for a smooth transition for new hires.
• Contribute to regional HR projects and initiatives, including process consistency, employee branding efforts, systems improvement, review and compliance monitoring as requested.

Minimum Requirements and Job Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in human resources management, Business Administration, Psychology, Social Sciences, or a related field.
• 5-7years of accomplished experience in a Talent Acquisition recruiting role.
• Demonstrated experience managing end-to-end recruitment cycles and advising stakeholders on recruitment priorities and labor market dynamics.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and organizational skills with the ability to influence senior leaders, hiring managers and HR colleagues in a consultative manner. Proven self-starter with the ability to manage multiple teams’ needs.
• Experience building trusting relationships with teams and external partners.
• Strong expertise in inclusive hiring practices.
• Broad range of recruiting and coordination skills, including experience creating sourcing strategies and execution plans.
• Solid understanding of recruitment analytics with the ability to interpret and translate insights into actionable recommendations.
• Thorough understanding of recruitment tools, processes, and technologies (e.g., BrassRing, Workday, etc.) and optimizing candidates’ experience best practices.
• Fluency in both English and French (oral and written).
• Ability to represent WCS’s Core Values in all interactions internally and externally.

Additional requirements:

• Periodic need to work overlapping hours with teams located in different time zones.
• Additional HR certifications are an advantage.
• Comfort operates in a culturally diverse and complex environment.