Strategic Sourcer

Brookhaven National Laboratory seeks an experienced talent acquisition professional to lead strategic sourcing efforts supporting the Laboratory’s scientific mission, institutional priorities, and emerging workforce needs. This role combines deep sourcing expertise, talent market intelligence, and candidate engagement with the full-cycle recruitment experience needed to guide complex searches and deliver hiring results.

As a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory, Brookhaven brings together scientists, engineers, technicians, and operational professionals to address some of the nation’s most complex scientific and technological challenges. Our mission depends on the people advancing discovery and the experts supporting the infrastructure, technology, safety, and business operations that make it possible.

You will partner with Talent Acquisition colleagues, hiring managers, and senior leaders to translate strategic priorities into targeted sourcing plans. You will identify talent beyond incoming applications, engage professionals who may not be actively seeking opportunities, and build pipelines for current and anticipated hiring needs.

The primary focus is proactive sourcing for specialized, difficult-to-fill, and mission-critical positions. This role also serves as a flexible recruiting resource, assuming full-cycle recruitment responsibilities and managing an assigned requisition portfolio as organizational priorities, hiring demand, and team coverage needs evolve. Success requires technical curiosity, persistence, consultative skill, and the ability to turn research and relationships into qualified candidates and successful hires.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Sourcing & Talent Intelligence

• Translate Laboratory strategic initiatives and workforce priorities into actionable sourcing plans with defined talent profiles, target markets, outreach approaches, and delivery milestones.
• Independently develop and execute sourcing strategies for specialized scientific, engineering, technical, leadership, and operational positions.
• Conduct talent mapping, organizational research, and labor market analysis to identify relevant expertise, talent availability, geographic trends, competitive demand, and emerging skills.
• Leverage generative AI and AI-enabled recruiting technologies to accelerate talent research, talent mapping, market intelligence, sourcing strategy development, candidate outreach, data synthesis, and other recruitment activities, while independently validating outputs and maintaining appropriate human judgment, accuracy, confidentiality, and compliance.
• Use advanced search techniques, sourcing platforms, professional networks, scientific publications, conference programs, research communities, and referrals to identify prospective candidates.
• Identify transferable skills and adjacent talent markets that expand candidate pools while meeting position requirements.
• Identify and test practical applications of emerging AI technologies that improve sourcing effectiveness, recruiter productivity, candidate engagement, and Talent Acquisition processes; develop repeatable practices and share effective approaches with the broader team.
• Present market intelligence and recommendations that help stakeholders refine candidate profiles, assess hiring feasibility, and adjust search strategies.

Talent Advisor, Recruitment & Candidate Engagement

• Serve as a strategic talent advisor to Laboratory leaders and hiring managers, engaging early to understand workforce needs, define position requirements, assess talent availability, and develop effective recruitment, sourcing, and engagement strategies.
• Lead full-cycle recruitment for assigned positions, from intake and search planning through sourcing, candidate assessment, selection, offer negotiation, and acceptance, with particular focus on complex, specialized, and hard-to-fill talent.
• Proactively identify, engage, and cultivate qualified and passive talent through personalized outreach, substantive career conversations, advanced sourcing techniques, talent mapping, professional networks, and targeted market research.
• Build and maintain pipelines for priority and anticipated workforce needs; assess candidates’ qualifications, interests, and alignment with opportunities and effectively communicate BNL’s mission and value proposition to scientific, technical, leadership, and operational talent.
• Use talent-market intelligence, recruiting data, and candidate feedback to advise stakeholders, identify hiring risks, constructively challenge assumptions, and recommend adjustments to position requirements, candidate profiles, or recruitment strategy.
• Leverage approved recruiting technologies, AI-assisted research, generative AI, and automation to strengthen talent identification, pipeline development, candidate engagement, and recruiting effectiveness while maintaining accurate records, sound judgment, confidentiality, and a responsive, personalized candidate experience.
• Ensure sourcing and recruitment activities are conducted in accordance with applicable OFCCP requirements and BNL policies, including appropriate candidate dispositioning, recordkeeping, documentation, and tracking of outreach and recruitment activity.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field, or equivalent experience on a 2:1 experience-to-education basis, with a minimum of 10 years of related experience, including at least 5 years of contemporary full-cycle recruitment experience.
• Demonstrated expertise recruiting and proactively sourcing specialized, technical, scientific, engineering, leadership, operational, or other difficult-to-fill talent, including successfully identifying, engaging, assessing, and advancing passive candidates.
• Advanced proficiency with modern sourcing and talent research methods, including Boolean and X-ray search, open-web research, talent mapping, professional networks, sourcing platforms, and candidate databases; demonstrated ability to translate talent-market intelligence into actionable recruitment strategies.
• Demonstrated experience serving as a consultative talent advisor, partnering with hiring managers and senior leaders to understand complex talent needs, influence search strategies, assess candidate markets, and manage multiple complex searches through successful hiring outcomes.
• Demonstrated proficiency with contemporary recruiting technologies, applicant tracking systems, and generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or comparable technologies), including using AI to support research, sourcing, analysis, and workflow efficiency while critically evaluating outputs and applying appropriate human judgment.
• Strong project management, analytical, communication, and stakeholder-management skills, with demonstrated ability to work independently, adapt to changing priorities, maintain accurate and compliant recruitment practices, and collaborate effectively across a complex organization.
• Ability to travel occasionally, including overnight travel, as business needs require.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field.
• Professional HR certification and/or training or certification in advanced sourcing methodologies.
• Experience supporting a national laboratory, research institution, academic organization, government contractor, or other mission-driven organization.
• Experience working within BNL or demonstrated familiarity with BNL’s organizational environment, programs, and processes is preferred
• Experience recruiting senior-level, leadership, highly specialized scientific, engineering, technical, or other difficult-to-fill talent.
• Experience with Workday Recruiting and advanced sourcing, talent intelligence, CRM, analytics, or AI-enabled recruiting technologies.
• Experience leading strategic Talent Acquisition initiatives, developing talent pipelines or sourcing practices, and mentoring or sharing expertise with recruiting colleagues.
• Advanced experience applying generative AI, AI-enabled sourcing technologies, talent intelligence platforms, or automation to recruiting workflows, including developing use cases, improving processes, measuring effectiveness, or enabling adoption by other recruiting professionals.

If you enjoy discovering talent, building relationships, and translating organizational priorities into successful searches, we invite you to help shape the workforce that advances Brookhaven’s mission.

Additional Information

• This position is eligible for remote work, with availability to collaborate during Eastern Time business hours.
• Occasional travel to Brookhaven’s Upton, New York, campus and other locations may be required.
• This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is committed to providing fair, equitable and competitive compensation. The full salary range for this position is $106850- $160250 / year. Salary offers will be commensurate with the final candidate’s qualification, education and experience and considered with the internal peer group.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is committed to employee success and we believe that a comprehensive employee benefits program is an important and meaningful part of the compensation employees receive. Review more information at BNL | Benefits Program

Brookhaven National Laboratory requires all non-badged personnel including visitors to produce a REAL-ID or REAL-ID compliant documentation to access Brookhaven National Laboratory – view more information at . This is due to nationwide identification requirements for federal site access as required by the federal REAL ID Act. Those not in possession of a REAL ID-compliant document will not be permitted to access the site which includes access to the Laboratory for interviews.

As a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory requires employees to obtain and maintain a DOE Uncleared Personal Identity Verification (UPIV) credential in accordance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) requirements. The credentialing process is completed as part of onboarding and enables access to DOE facilities and information systems. As a condition of employment, the selected candidate must be able to obtain and maintain a UPIV credential. These requirements are established under DOE Order 206.2 Chg. 2, Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM- Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM)), and DOE Order 473.1A- Physical Protection Program- Physical Protection Program.

About Us

Brookhaven National Laboratory (www.bnl.gov) delivers discovery science and transformative technology to power and secure the nation’s future. Brookhaven Lab is a multidisciplinary laboratory with seven Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, 37 R&D 100 Awards, and more than 70 years of pioneering research. The Lab is primarily supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science. Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA) operates and manages the Laboratory for DOE. BSA is a partnership between Battelle and The Research Foundation for the State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University. BSA salutes our veterans and active military members with careers that leverage the skills and unique experience they gained while serving our country, learn more at BNL | Opportunities for Veterans at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer

Guided by our core values of integrity, responsibility, innovation, respect, and teamwork, Brookhaven Science Associates is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer-Vets/Disabled. We are committed to fostering a respectful and collaborative environment that fuels scientific discovery. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to any characteristic protected by law. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply. We ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation. *VEVRAA Federal Contractor

BSA employees are subject to restrictions related to participation in Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Programs, as defined and detailed in United States Department of Energy Order 486.1A. You will be asked to disclose any such participation at the time of hire for review by Brookhaven. The full text of the Order may be found at: https://www.directives.doe.gov/directives-documents/400-series/0486.1-BOrder-a/@@images/file