Lead Talent Acquisition Partner

Role Summary
ICF is seeking a Lead Talent Acquisition Partner to support hiring across our Climate, Energy & Transportation (CET) division, with a strong emphasis on engineering talent (electrical, civil, environmental, transportation, energy, and related disciplines).

This is a hands-on, delivery-first role (approximately 80% recruiting / 20% team leadership) designed for a senior talent acquisition partner who excels at complex engineering searches and can also provide day-to-day guidance, prioritization, and coaching to recruiters aligned to CET. The Lead Talent Acquisition Partner operates as a player/coach, owning critical requisitions while elevating overall team execution and quality.

The role partners closely with CET business leaders, HR, and TA leadership to deliver high-quality, compliant, and timely hiring outcomes in a highly competitive technical talent market—particularly for client-facing and federally funded work.

Key Responsibilities include:

Recruiting Delivery (~80% of role)

• Own and manage a substantial personal requisition load focused on mid- to senior-level engineering roles, including: Electrical, Substation, Civil, transportation, and environmental engineers; Energy, climate, infrastructure, and utility-focused roles; technical experts supporting federal, state, and commercial clients

• Lead intake conversations with CET hiring managers to clarify technical requirements, project-driven demand, billability considerations, and hiring urgency.

• Execute targeted sourcing strategies for hard-to-fill engineering roles, leveraging market knowledge, referrals, and direct outreach.

• Guide hiring managers through structured, fair, and comprehensive assessment practices aligned with ICF hiring standards.

• Deliver a strong candidate experience from initial engagement through offer acceptance.

• Serve as a trusted recruiting partner to CET leaders, building credibility through strong execution and engineering domain knowledge.

• Collaborate with HR, compensation, and TA leadership on offers, internal equity considerations, and hiring strategy decisions.

Team Leadership (secondary focus ~20%)

• Serve as a first point of escalation for hiring manager alignment challenges, candidate quality, risk, or assessment concerns, and shifting priorities or recruiter capacity constraints

• Coach recruiters on consultative partnership with engineering leaders, Engineering labor market dynamics and role differentiation, Assessment quality, decision discipline, and candidate rigor

• Model strong recruiting behaviors and reinforce ICF TA Leadership principles and expectations through hands-on delivery.

Operational Coordination & Governance

• Support requisition prioritization and workload balancing to ensure the CET team is focused on the most critical, time-sensitive engineering hiring needs.

• Ensure recruiting activity, candidate dispositioning, and documentation are accurately captured in ICF systems.

• Reinforce adherence to ICF’s hiring governance, compensation practices, and compliance requirements—particularly important for client-facing and federally funded work.

• Partner with the Talent Acquisition Manager to identify delivery risks, process gaps, or improvement opportunities.

Required Experience & Qualifications

• 10+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience

• At least 5 years experience mentoring, leading, or acting as a team lead for recruiters

• Bachelor’s degree

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated success identifying and securing hard-to-find talent in niche markets, spanning highly specialized and complex roles within project-based delivery environments, supported by strong process discipline and rigor

• Strong understanding of engineering role differentiation, credentialing, and market dynamics

• Proven experience serving as a player/coach or informal people leader, providing daily guidance, prioritization, and coaching to recruiters while maintaining a personal requisition load

• Ability to influence hiring managers through consultative partnership—not just process enforcement

• High attention to quality, equity, and compliance in hiring decisions

• Strong understanding of engineering and technical skill differentiation, including ability to partner credibly with hiring managers on role calibration, candidate assessment, and trade-off decisions in competitive markets

Working at ICF

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Pay Range - There are multiple factors that are considered in determining final pay for a position, including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, certifications and competencies that align to the specified role, geographic location, education and certifications as well as contract provisions regarding labor categories that are specific to the position.

The pay range for this position based on full-time employment is: