Strategic Planning
What will I be doing?
You will be building our staff and all that process entails from idea generation to candidate evaluation. You will also create new initiatives that ensure the right candidates have access to the opportunities we offer. You may work on business planning, profiling, sourcing, interviewing, building relationships with counterparties, and outreach.
How is this different from HR?
In many companies, the responsibility for staffing falls primarily with the business unit head; at Spark, the Strategic Planning group takes primarily responsibility for staffing. The Strategic Planning role at Spark is the opportunity to learn to deeply understand many different elements of our business and to contribute to their success in a tangible and meaningful way. Instead of being focused on HR tasks like maintaining employee documentation or mass training, the focus of Strategic Planning is on developing Spark’s team for maximum potential and profitability.
What is impactful about this particular role?
In a company of about twenty people, a single hire brings disproportionate impact compared to other firms; it immediately transforms the kinds of projects we can do, deepens our shared knowledge pool, and changes the types of things we can start dreaming up. Recruiting is valuable because of the future, not just the present. Our future success depends largely on the excellence of our team, and your responsibility is to bring in the highest quality team and thus enable our future. Your work -- the hires you bring in -- will affect many different aspects of the company and our future, so this role is highly leveraged. Your value-added is based on how much your hires contribute, not on how many hires you make.
What are the unique advantages of this opportunity?
You’ll get to converse with brilliant, accomplished people from different backgrounds. Internally, you’ll be brought into the big picture of the business from the beginning. The compensation reflects the inherent impact of this role.
What are the unique challenges associated with this opportunity?
Because of Spark’s high standards, you will get to interview wonderful people who want to work here but for some reason don’t get hired. It’s hard to break the bad news to people you personally like and had looked forward to working with.
What are the critical skills for success in this role?
You will learn how to put together a successful team, and you’ll develop insights into communication, persuasion, and evaluation. You’ll need to be able to think on your feet while also contributing to detailed long-term planning and execution. Parts of your job may seem like detective work and in-depth research. Strategic Planning helps Spark succeed by finding individuals who can significantly affect the business prospects for our unique firm.
What is the expected compensation range for this position?
We expect to pay a base salary of $275K-$600K for a hire working in the New York office. Base salary is only one aspect of total compensation, which includes an annual discretionary bonus.