Reporting to the Director of Talent Acquisition, the Early Talent Program Manager owns the strategy, execution, and continuous improvement of NRP’s early talent programs. This role builds strong pipelines for internships, Manager in Training programs, entry-level construction and maintenance roles, and other early-career hiring needs by partnering closely with business leaders, HR, schools, community organizations, managers, interns, and candidates.

The successful candidate will be a relationship-driven program leader who can strengthen NRP’s employment brand, create meaningful early-career experiences, support manager readiness, use data to inform strategy, and improve retention and conversion outcomes across early talent programs.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Recruiting Strategy

• Expand reach to strengthen talent pools for entry-level construction and maintenance roles, including high schools, trade schools, and community organizations.
• Research additional colleges and universities and deepen relationships with target schools, including career centers, program heads, professors, and student organizations.
• Maintain a consistent and visible presence on campus throughout the year—not just during career fairs—through classroom visits, hosted events, student organization partnerships, faculty and program leader engagement, social media engagement, and other touchpoints that strengthen NRP’s early talent brand.
• Coordinate with recruiting teammates, hiring managers, business leaders, and university partners to plan and execute campus recruiting activities, ensuring travel, event logistics, and stakeholder engagement are aligned for successful outcomes.

Intern Program Strategy

• Own the end-to-end intern relationship, from candidacy and acceptance through professional development, program completion, and continued engagement beyond the program.
• Focus on intern manager readiness by helping select, prepare, and equip managers to successfully lead interns, set clear expectations, provide meaningful work, deliver timely feedback, and serve as an ongoing resource throughout the program.
• Execute a clear feedback framework, including expectations, mid-program evaluations, final assessments, offer recommendations, and related follow-up.

Program Management & Retention Strategy

• Own Property Management - Manager in Training program management from end to end, serving as the dedicated point of contact for leaders, mentors, and Manager in Training participants while managing rotations, supporting assignments, coaching participants, and facilitating placement.
• Explore a Construction cohort program for intern-to-full-time hires to drive continued engagement and retention through professional development, networking opportunities, mentoring, and other cohort experiences.

Continuous Improvement & Metrics Strategy

• Maintain an ongoing focus on elevating early talent efforts, streamlining processes, enhancing the candidate, new-hire, and leader experience, and improving overall program effectiveness.
• Facilitate workforce planning with business leaders, stay current on industry competitors, and identify and track key metrics such as school effectiveness, acceptance rates, conversion rates, and retention rates to inform strategy.
• Regularly share insights, progress, risks, and recommendations with business and HR leaders.
• Serve as an early talent subject matter expert and thought partner to business and HR leaders.

SKILLS & ABILITIES

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Development, Communications, or a related field required.

Experience: Minimum of 7 years of recruiting experience required, including at least 4 years of experience in Early Career, campus recruiting, internship, co-op, or emerging talent program management. Demonstrated experience managing full life cycle recruiting processes, program timelines, stakeholder communications, and early talent initiatives in a fast-paced environment.

Technical Skills: Strong proficiency with applicant tracking systems and recruiting tools required; Workday experience preferred. Strong Microsoft Office skills required, including the ability to develop tracking tools, program materials, presentations, and reporting summaries.

Travel: Ability to travel roughly 25% to maintain an active, visible presence on campus and support campus, community, and business-facing recruiting activities throughout the year.

Other Requirements: Strong recruiting, sourcing, candidate assessment, communication, organization, project management, and stakeholder management skills; demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships with hiring managers, HR partners, schools, community partners, and early-career candidates; ability to manage multiple programs, timelines, and priorities simultaneously; proactive, accountable, detail-oriented, and comfortable operating with ambiguity; travel may be required to support campus, community, and business-facing recruiting activities.

The anticipated salary range for this position is $100,000 to $120,000 annually plus performance bonus.

#DNI