Fractional Talent Acquisition
I am Jen Wade. More than twenty years in talent acquisition, on the agency side and inside the company, in startups and at global scale. I work with pre-seed through Series C teams that need one person accountable for hiring, at every level, until the function is steady enough to hand over.
Built around your plan and your budget, with the handoff agreed up front.
First few weeks
What the plan supports, in what order, and what is already in place.
The bulk of the engagement
Process and systems go in while the hiring is happening. I carry the requisitions and train your managers as they use the loops.
Before I leave
I hire your recruiter and train them myself. Usually somewhere between 200 and 300 people, though steadiness matters more than the number.
On capacityWhat one person can carry depends on volume, seniority and timeline, so I will not promise a number in advance. When the plan needs more, I bring in contract sourcers or recruiters and manage them.
Not only the part where a candidate says yes.
A player coach. I do the sourcing, screening and closing myself. What makes an offer hold is pattern recognition: hard questions asked early, attention to what a candidate is not saying, and the real objection surfaced while there is still time to work it out.
Considerable experience with searches that cannot be visible: replacing a sitting executive, a leadership change before a raise, a role the market should not hear about yet.
Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Taleo, Workday, SuccessFactors, BambooHR, Dayforce, GoodTime, Crosschq. Selection, implementation, migration and cleanup.
Agency and MSP contracts negotiated and held to service levels, contingent programs, and PEO management for teams outside the US.
Most engagements that go badly were scoped wrong at the start.
A sample of the work, not a career history.
A team of three became a team of one, and executive search had always gone out to Heidrick & Struggles. I brought it in house, carried every open role alongside it, and filled four C-level seats directly. No leadership search has gone to an outside firm since.
A brand rollout with ten sales executives to hire and a launch date that was not moving. All ten filled inside the window.
More than 50 hires in under twelve months across leadership and every core function, with a sourcing team I coached to 40% higher output.
Contingent labor operations launched across four regions, an MSP negotiated at 15% annual savings, and a vendor program that cut 52 vendors to five.
I have sat on the agency side as well, stepping in to lead a branch office through a transition and negotiating with Fortune 500 procurement from the vendor's chair. I know how these firms price and where the leverage sits.
Where it startedAn IT staffing firm off Wall Street, back when resumes arrived by fax and we were unpacking the office's first computer. Corporate technical and executive recruiting came next, then global vendor and contingent programs, then talent leadership inside venture backed companies.
A newsletter about hiring executives without paying a retainer.
May 23, 2026
May 12, 2026
Thirty to sixty minutes on the scope of the roles, the timeline, the budget and whatever is currently in the way. That is usually enough for me to tell you whether this is a good match, and for you to hear how I would approach it.