CIBC

Director, Competitive Search

CIBC$125K — $150K *
Finance & Insurance
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5-10 years of experience in talent acquisition, particularly within financial services.
  • Deep knowledge of financial advisory and wealth management including advisor transition dynamics.
  • Proven track record in engaging high-performing advisors and building trust.
  • Strong negotiation skills and ability to influence stakeholders.
  • Familiarity with recruitment technologies including ATS and CRM systems.
  • Experience leading teams in high-pressure environments.
  • Commitment to core values of trust, teamwork, and accountability.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the development of a national talent acquisition strategy for Financial Advisors.
  • Create and maintain talent pipelines through proactive sourcing and market intelligence.
  • Manage the full recruitment cycle, ensuring an exceptional candidate experience.
  • Collaborate with senior leaders to understand and fulfill hiring needs effectively.
  • Coach a team of consultants while tracking key recruitment metrics.
  • Design onboarding experiences for new advisors to enhance their integration and productivity.
  • Monitor early performance indicators to support advisor retention.

Benefits

  • Competitive salary and incentive pay with banking benefits.
  • Comprehensive benefits program including a defined benefit pension plan.
  • Employee share purchase plan and vacation offerings.
  • Wellbeing support and recognition programs like MomentMakers.
  • Paid days off for personal growth initiatives through Purpose Day.
Full Job Description
What you'll be doing

Our Talent Acquisition team is focused on building strong, forward-looking talent strategies that support growth across CIBC. As Director, Competitive Search, you'll lead a specialized capability designed to attract high-value external mass affluent Financial Advisor talent through a model that blends business development, strategic sourcing, market intelligence, and high-touch talent engagement. You'll help shape the strategy and operating model for identifying and engaging top Financial Advisors and advisor teams across Canada, while building a disciplined, data-led, relationship-based hiring engine. Working closely with senior business leaders, Client Growth Managers (CGMs), Talent Acquisition partners, and other internal stakeholders, you'll create advisor talent pipelines that support long-term business growth. This role requires deep knowledge of the Financial Advisor and wealth management landscape, including books of business, portability, team structures, succession dynamics, candidate motivations, transition considerations, and the competitive market.

At CIBC we enable the work environment most optimal for you to thrive in your role. You'll have the flexibility to manage your work activities within a hybrid work arrangement where you'll spend 1-3 days per week on-site, while other days will be remote.

How you'll succeed

  • Lead competitive search strategy - Develop and execute a national talent strategy focused on identifying and attracting experienced Financial Advisors from competitor firms and the broader financial services market. Build a year-long plan aligned to business growth priorities, target markets, and advisor acquisition opportunities.
  • Build talent pipelines - Create and maintain robust pipelines of high-calibre advisor candidates through proactive sourcing, networking, and market intelligence. Oversee talent maps, target lists, dashboards, and candidate portfolios for top advisor prospects across Canada.
  • Deliver an exceptional candidate experience - Lead full-cycle recruitment from sourcing and outreach to offer negotiation and onboarding. Develop tailored value propositions and messaging to engage passive candidates, while building trusted relationships that reflect CIBC's brand and values.
  • Advise and influence stakeholders - Partner closely with Market Vice Presidents (MVPs), Region Heads, CGMs, Human Resources Business Partners, and senior leaders to understand hiring priorities, team dynamics, and growth objectives. Provide insight on market trends, talent availability, compensation benchmarks, and competitive positioning.
  • Lead the team and optimize operations - Coach and develop a team of two Senior Consultants while establishing and tracking key metrics such as time-to-fill, offer acceptance rates, retention, and pipeline health. Use recruitment technology, customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, and data analytics to continuously improve sourcing strategies, reporting, and overall effectiveness.
  • Support onboarding and retention - Partner with business leaders and Human Resources to design onboarding experiences that help advisors integrate quickly and accelerate productivity. Monitor early-tenure performance and engagement, and share insights that support long-term retention.


Who you are

  • You have deep industry expertise. You bring strong knowledge of the financial advisory and wealth management landscape, including advisor compensation models, books of business transitions, team structures, and regulatory considerations such as Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) requirements and securities licensing.
  • You're passionate about people. You have established relationships within the financial advisory community and a proven ability to engage passive, high-performing advisors. You build trust quickly and bring strong negotiation and closing skills.
  • You are a caring and accountable leader. You have experience leading and developing high-performing teams in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment. You bring sound judgment, professionalism, discretion, and resilience to competitive search work.
  • You give meaning to data. You use insights to inform decisions and strengthen sourcing strategies. You have experience working with applicant tracking systems (ATS), CRM platforms, LinkedIn Recruiter, and other tools that support data-led talent acquisition.
  • You can demonstrate experience in talent acquisition, executive or competitive search, and financial services. It's an asset if you bring direct experience recruiting Financial Advisors or advisor teams in a highly competitive market.
  • Values matter to you. You bring your real self to work, and you live our values - trust, teamwork, and accountability.


#LI-TA

What CIBC Offers

At CIBC, your goals are a priority. We start with your strengths and ambitions as an employee and strive to create opportunities to tap into your potential. We aspire to give you a career, rather than just a paycheck.
  • We work to recognize you in meaningful, personalized ways including a competitive salary, incentive pay, banking benefits, a benefits program*, defined benefit pension plan*, an employee share purchase plan, a vacation offering, wellbeing support, and MomentMakers, our social, points-based recognition program.
  • Our spaces and technological toolkit will make it simple to bring together great minds to create innovative solutions that make a difference for our clients.
  • We cultivate a culture where you can express your ambition through initiatives like Purpose Day; a paid day off dedicated for you to use to invest in your growth and development.


*Subject to plan and program terms and conditions

Job Location
Toronto-181 Bay St. 6th

Employment Type
Regular

Weekly Hours
37.5

Skills
Business Effectiveness, Coaching, Communication, Cross-Functional Teamwork, Long Term Planning, People Leadership, People Management, Process Improvements, Recruiting, Recruiting Strategies

About CIBC

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The bank is headquartered at Commerce Court in the city's Financial District. CIBC's Institution Number is 010, and its SWIFT code is CIBCCATT. It is one of two Big Five banks founded in Toronto, the other being the Toronto-Dominion Bank. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was formed through the June 1, 1961, merger of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and the Imperial Bank of Canada, the largest merger between chartered banks in Canadian history. The bank has four strategic business units: Canadian Personal and Business Banking, Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, and Capital Markets. It has international operations in the United States, the Caribbean, Asia, and United Kingdom; Globally. CIBC serves more than eleven million clients, and has over 40,000 employees. The company ranks at number 172 on the Forbes Global 2000 listing.
Learn more about CIBC
Market Cap
$43.5 billion
Industry
Founded
1867
5 Year Trend
+8.8%

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