PawCo - Director of Talent Acquisition

We are building a leading network of specialty and emergency veterinary hospitals, and talent will be one of the biggest drivers of our growth. As our first dedicated Talent Acquisition leader, you’ll build the recruiting function from the ground up. You’ll create the team, employer brand, pipelines, and processes that help us attract exceptional specialists, doctors, technicians, and other clinical talent as we grow.

About the Network

NorthStar VETS, Philadelphia Animal Specialty & Emergency (PASE), and Veterinary Specialty Services (VSS) are founding hospital systems in a growing network of doctor-owned specialty and emergency veterinary practices. We are building something designed to endure for generations: a national network where veterinarians have a meaningful opportunity to own the practices they help build, clinical decisions remain in the hands of doctors, and hospitals retain the local identity, relationships, and judgment that made them successful in the first place. The network brings the advantages of scale - stronger recruiting, shared resources, technology, purchasing power, training, and investment in growth - without asking hospitals to become interchangeable parts of a corporate system. Our ambition is to build a genuine long-term alternative to the consolidation model that has reshaped much of veterinary medicine: the independence and ownership of a great private practice, with the resources and opportunity of a national network.

Kanbrick is the long-term investment partner supporting the network as it grows. We build businesses for the long run, working alongside leadership teams to strengthen their people, operations, and capabilities.

The Role

Recruiting today is handled in different ways across the founding hospital systems. The Director of Talent Acquisition will build a stronger, more coordinated recruiting engine across the Network - creating the sourcing capacity, talent pipelines, employer story, and market insight that help each hospital attract exceptional people. The goal is not simply to fill today's openings. It is to build relationships and pipelines that position the Network to hire tomorrow, particularly in specialties and markets where great clinical talent is scarce.

One recruiting engine and a differentiated employer story. Build a consistent approach to sourcing, candidate experience, recruiting technology, and employer brand across the network. Bring the network's distinctive proposition to life for candidates: clinical excellence, meaningful doctor ownership, strong local hospital cultures, development opportunities, and the resources and stability of a broader organization.

Pipelines ahead of need. Build and strengthen relationships with veterinary schools, technician programs, internships, residencies, specialty communities, and other talent networks so the Network is developing relationships with exceptional people well before a requisition opens.

Market-informed recruiting and compensation. Develop useful compensation benchmarks, talent-market insights, and recruiting data that help hospital leaders understand the market and make competitive, thoughtful offers - while recognizing meaningful differences across specialties, geographies, and hospitals.

Conference, school, and professional-community presence. Build a thoughtful external presence in the places where specialty and emergency veterinary talent learns, connects, and considers its next opportunity. Develop relationships with schools, residency programs, professional associations, and conferences; create career days, hospital visits, tours, and other opportunities for future talent to experience the Network firsthand; and ensure those relationships continue long after an individual event or visit.

Long-term talent communities and pipelines. Create a disciplined approach to identifying, cultivating, and staying connected with talented people well before they are actively looking for a job. Build

relationships across the early-career ecosystem - from high school and college exposure to veterinary and technician schools, internships, residencies, ER mentorship programs, specialty training, and experienced clinicians. Use technology, AI, thoughtful communications, and regular touchpoints to turn individual interactions into durable relationships and an active talent community.

What Makes This Different

Build the function with the hospitals, not around them. This is an opportunity to create a shared recruiting capability from an early stage, working closely with hospital leaders, doctors, and local HR teams. The capabilities that are stronger when shared - sourcing, employer brand, talent pipelines, recruiting tools, and market insights - can be built centrally while the decisions that should remain local stay close to each hospital.

Central scale, local judgment. Every hire joins a specific hospital, team, and community. Success is not moving candidates to whichever site has an opening; it is understanding what makes each practice distinctive and helping local leaders find people who genuinely fit. The network should make each hospital stronger at recruiting.

A story worth telling - and an opportunity to shape how it is told. The network is being built as a genuine long-term alternative to corporate consolidation: meaningful doctor ownership, clinical independence, strong local hospital identities, development, and the resources of a national organization. This leader will translate that difference into an employer brand and candidate experience that is clear, credible, and compelling - and help the network earn a reputation as a place exceptional veterinary talent actively wants to join.

Requirements

Who We're Looking For

We are looking for a recruiting leader who knows how to compete for scarce, credentialed professional talent and who is energized by building, not simply inheriting, a function. Veterinary experience is highly relevant, particularly specialty or emergency care. We are also interested in meeting leaders who have built pipelines for physicians, dentists, allied health professionals, or other specialized talent where candidates have plenty of choices and relationships matter.

More important than a particular industry is the pattern: you have improved or built recruiting capability from a fragmented, outsourced, or reactive starting point; developed talent pipelines ahead of need; created a compelling employer story; and partnered closely with local leaders without imposing a one-size-fits-all process. You are comfortable being both strategic and hands-on - shaping the recruiting model while staying close enough to the market to know where great candidates are and what will attract them to our hospitals.

Has built or significantly improved a recruiting function, sourcing model, or talent pipeline across multiple locations, ideally from a fragmented, outsourced, or reactive starting point
Has recruited hard-to-find, credentialed, or similarly specialized talent and can demonstrate how they built relationships and pipeline in genuinely scarce markets
Understands employer brand as part of recruiting - can turn a differentiated employee proposition into a story candidates understand, believe, and experience throughout the process
Brings a marketer's instinct alongside a recruiter's discipline - comfortable using recruiting technology, AI, CRM and communication tools to segment talent communities, maintain thoughtful touchpoints, and cultivate relationships over time.
Builds partnerships with schools, residency and training programs, conferences, and professional communities that produce talent ahead of open requisitions
Uses market and compensation insights to help leaders make competitive decisions without over-standardizing across different markets and specialties
Balances urgency with judgment - prioritizing candidate experience, culture, and practice fit while staying close to sourcing and execution
Travel is expected to be a regular component of this position

Talent is central to whether this model succeeds. This is a chance to do more than replace agencies or improve a recruiting process: it is an opportunity to build the talent engine and employer story behind a veterinary network intended to last for generations. The person in this role will help exceptional doctors and clinical teams see a different path - one that combines the resources and opportunity of scale with meaningful ownership, clinical autonomy, and the local connection of a great private practice.

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