Director of College Recruitment & Early Career Partnerships

Signature HealthCARE is a family-based healthcare company offering integrated services across multiple states. Our continuum of care includes skilled nursing, rehabilitation, assisted and memory care, and home-based services supported by innovative technologies like telehealth and Care.ai-enabled solutions.

We are committed to advancing person-directed care and quality outcomes. Many of our facilities continue to receive high performance ratings and accreditations. As an award-winning organization recognized over the years by national outlets such as U.S. News & World Report, we take pride in fostering compassionate care environments and being an employer of choice in the healthcare industry.

The Director, College Recruitment & Early Career Partnerships is a senior individual contributor responsible for designing, executing, and continuously improving the organization's campus recruiting and early career talent strategy. This role owns the full lifecycle of university relations - from building institutional partnerships and employer brand presence on campus to converting interns and new graduates into high-performing full-time hires.

• While this position does not have direct reports, it carries significant strategic ownership and cross-functional influence, partnering closely with business leaders, hiring managers, HR, and external academic institutions to build a sustainable pipeline of early career talent.

Strategy & Program Ownership

• Design and own the enterprise-wide college recruitment and early career talent strategy, aligned to workforce planning and business growth goals.
• Establish and deliver annual hiring targets for intern, co-op, and new graduate programs in partnership with business leaders and finance - currently 60-90 interns and 100-150 new graduate hires per year, representing approximately 10-20% of total company hiring.
• Develop and manage the campus recruiting budget, ensuring strong ROI on career fairs, sponsor ships, events, and technology.
• Track, analyze, and report on program metrics (offer acceptance rates, intern conversion, retention, diversity of pipeline, cost per hire, time to fill) and present results to executive leadership.

University & Academic Partnerships

• Identify, build, and maintain strategic relationships with target colleges, universities, community colleges, nursing schools, CNA/LPN training programs, and allied health programs, including career services offices, faculty, deans, clinical coordinators, and student organizations.
• Negotiate and manage partnership agreements, sponsor ships, and engagement commitments with academic institutions.
• Cultivate relationships with student clubs, honor societies, and professional/affinity organizations to expand reach and strengthen the talent pipeline.
• Represent the organization at career fairs, campus events, conferences, classroom presentations, and panels.

• Manage full-cycle recruitment for intern, co-op, and entry-level roles: sourcing, screening, coordinating interviews, extending offers, and closing candidates.
• Partner with hiring managers to define role requirements, interview processes, and candidate evaluation criteria for early career positions.
• Ensure an exceptional, high-touch candidate experience from first contact through onboarding.
• Maintain accurate candidate data and pipeline reporting in the applicant tracking system (ATS).

• Design and administer the internship program end to end, including program structure, orientation, learning and development…