Early & Emerging Talent Program Recruiter

Vertex Pharmaceuticals is building future leadership pipelines through its Early & Emerging Talent portfolio, with a focus on the MBA Associate Program and priority flagship talent programs. As an Early & Emerging Talent Program Recruiter, you will own full-cycle recruitment and program support in a W2 hybrid role based in Boston, partnering across HR, hiring teams, and university stakeholders to strengthen talent flow, candidate experience, and internship-to-full-time conversion.

Role overview

This contract position supports end-to-end recruitment strategy and execution, university engagement, participant experience, conversion planning, executive communications, and program measurement. Reporting to the Early & Emerging Talent team, you will act as a trusted talent advisor to business leaders, HR Business Partners, executive sponsors, managers, and academic partners while helping shape Vertex’s long-term talent needs. The role requires hybrid work in the Boston area.

Key responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end recruitment strategy and execution for the Vertex MBA Associate Program.
• Partner with executive sponsors, HR Business Partners, and hiring managers to understand workforce needs and develop targeted talent acquisition strategies.
• Drive annual headcount planning, project intake, role alignment, and conversion forecasting to support strong internship-to-full-time outcomes.
• Manage candidate attraction, screening, assessment, interview coordination, offer delivery, and acceptance strategy.
• Monitor and communicate recruiting progress, talent-market insights, pipeline health, and conversion forecasts to program stakeholders.
• Build broad, high-quality talent pipelines through university partnerships, conferences, referrals, networking events, and targeted engagement.
• Develop and maintain relationships with MBA programs and other universities that support recruitment for flagship programs, including career centers, faculty, student organizations, and external partners.
• Represent Vertex at campus events, conferences, treks, career fairs, and networking engagements.
• Identify emerging talent trends and recommend new sourcing channels, partnerships, and year-round engagement opportunities.
• Lead manager kickoff meetings and readiness activities, including buddy assignments, onboarding, orientation, first-day support, welcome materials, program communications, and offboarding support.
• Plan and execute manager and participant check-ins, capstone office hours, and presentations, including participation in early and emerging talent summer event planning.
• Serve as a point of contact for participants, managers, HR stakeholders, and executive sponsors throughout the program experience.
• Coordinate offboarding and communicate timelines early to prepare participants and business teams.
• Drive continuous improvement using participant, manager, and stakeholder feedback.
• Support recruitment and delivery for priority flagship programs, including PharmD Fellowships, Regulatory Affairs PhD Fellowships, and other strategic graduate-talent initiatives.
• Partner with academic institutions and internal steering committees to coordinate job postings, candidate review, screening, panel interviews, selection, offers, onboarding, and orientation.
• Guide eligible participants through internal networking and full-time recruitment processes.
• Build scalable and consistent processes across the Early & Emerging Talent portfolio while tailoring delivery to each program’s needs.
• Maintain program trackers and dashboards covering pipeline health, offer status, university contacts, recruitment events, participant milestones, and conversion outcomes.
• Analyze recruiting effectiveness, acceptance and conversion outcomes, participant feedback, and program performance.
• Produce executive-ready updates and recommendations for Early & Emerging Talent leaders, business stakeholders, steering committees, and executive sponsors.
• Use data and stakeholder feedback to improve recruitment strategies, program experiences, and operational effectiveness.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field.
• 6+ years of experience in talent acquisition, campus recruiting, MBA or graduate recruiting, program management, or a related function.
• Proven experience managing high-visibility talent programs and building partnerships with business leaders and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Experience recruiting and assessing graduate-level or early-career talent.
• Excellent communication, presentation, relationship-building, and executive stakeholder-management skills.
• Strong project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and seasonal deadlines.
• Experience using data and metrics to inform recruiting strategies and program decisions.
• Proficiency with applicant tracking systems, recruiting technologies, and Microsoft Office applications.
• Knowledge of applicable employment laws and recruiting practices.
• Ability to travel to target schools, conferences, and recruiting events as needed.
• Ability to commute to the Boston area as business and program needs require, including on-site support during peak recruitment and program periods.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience supporting MBA, fellowship, leadership development, rotational, or other flagship talent programs.
• Experience partnering with executive sponsors, steering committees, and senior business leaders.
• Knowledge of workforce planning, talent-pipeline development, and conversion-focused recruiting strategies.
• Pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, or life sciences industry experience.
• Experience developing university partnerships, campus engagement, and employer-brand strategies.

What success looks like

• Build sustainable pipelines of future talent and leaders for Vertex.
• Deliver a high-quality, consistent experience for MBA Associates, Fellows, managers, and program stakeholders.
• Strengthen relationships with priority academic institutions and strategic external partners.
• Improve candidate acceptance, participant engagement, and full-time conversion outcomes.
• Create clear operating rhythms, scalable processes, and actionable reporting across priority programs.
• Serve as a strategic connector across the business, HR, Talent Acquisition, academia, and program participants.
• Position Early & Emerging Talent as a meaningful driver of Vertex’s long-term talent and workforce strategy.

Technologies

Applicant tracking systems, recruiting technologies, and Microsoft Office.

Pay range

TBD

Additional notes

• This is an evergreen posting, meaning there is no current open role, but applicants are being gathered for future openings.
• This job posting is for a temporary role with a third-party agency partner on assignment at Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Vertex). The selected individual will be employed by the third-party agency partner, and compensation and benefits will be provided by that partner upon offer.
• No C2C or Third-Party Vendors.