Vannesa Villafana
Houston
Summary
Award-winning talent acquisition professional with nearly nine years of experience in agency, executive search, and in-house roles. Sourcing and recruitment across Life Sciences, Big Data and Tech, Management Consulting, and other industries. Proven ability to connect top-tier talent with organizational needs and enhance recruitment strategies. Experienced in presenting to executive TA leadership, as well as business leadership, for global companies. Seeking a strategic process or people-lead role with a company that provides impact, values upskilling, and invests in people.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Manager (Previously Assoc. Manager, Sr. Recruiter)
IQVIA
Durham
05.2021 - Current
- Company Overview: Leader in Life Sciences Data, Consulting, and Clinical Research Services with 86,000 people globally.
- Leads Talent Search for regional business unit job families in North and Latin America.
- Plays a pivotal role in leading the development of strong pipelines of Strategy Consulting, Commercial Consulting, Tech Consulting, Project Management, Contract Management, Tech and Analytics professionals, and other specialized talent.
- Cultivates relationships with Delivery Recruitment and Business Leadership in Americas RBU through a strong sense of ownership, focus, and communication.
- Works in a matrixed and fast-paced environment to meet targeted requisition demands, and presents business reviews to discuss progress against goals.
- Leads resource allocation and builds action plans for aging requisitions and requisitions with market challenges.
- Presented over 65 LinkedIn Talent Insights reports over four years to the business and recruiters as the Talent Insights Champion for the Americas region.
- Provided strategic guidance by analyzing competitor hiring patterns and labor market dynamics to enhance workforce planning and recruitment strategies.
- Passionate about testing emerging AI sourcing techniques to connect top-tier talent with organizational needs, all while enhancing the overall recruitment experience and sourcing workflows.
- Builds regional team meeting agendas to review metrics, discuss best practices, training, and development.
- Fosters a collaborative and inclusive culture that encourages continuous learning, idea-sharing, and team engagement through interactive sessions.
- Grew the team from 0 to 3 members. As Manager, the role has expanded to oversight of 5 additional team members.
Senior Recruiter
Hydrogen Group
09.2019 - 04.2020
- Company Overview: Agency focused in the recruitment of professionals in the Life Sciences.
- Placed mid-senior Biostatisticians at leading Clinical Research companies in an agency record time of 3 weeks.
- Senior Director in a devices division at a leading Pharmaceutical company.
- Agency focused in the recruitment of professionals in the Life Sciences.
- Impacted by COVID Workforce Reduction
Search Consultant
Beecher Reagan
Houston
09.2017 - 07.2019
- Company Overview: Executive Search firm for Management Consulting and Private Equity industries. Focus in partner and executive-level roles.
- Recruiter with additional Sourcing and Research work stream Lead responsibilities.
- Executed campaigns, cold-calling, and other sourcing strategies to place Consultants at Big 4 and other specialized consultancies.
- For a Big 4 Consultancy, placed a Senior Business Development Executive in the Energy & Resources segment in 21 days, a record time for Beecher Reagan placements for this long-time client.
- For a $2B turnaround and restructuring consultancy, spearheaded sourcing and placement of Senior Manager and Managing Director searches within several practices, including CFO Solutions, Retail, Digital, and IT Strategy.
- For a $500M strategy consultancy, placed a senior managing consultant as part of a build within the Retail Performance Improvement practice.
- For a $40B Strategy and IT Services Client: Led the development of a Talent Market Map for a diversity initiative.
- Under the direction of a Search Partner, built a DealFinder project, a Beecher Regan Service, delivering five potential acquisition targets, two of which were later acquired by competing firms.
Recruiter
Express Employment
03.2015 - 08.2017
- Cross-Sector, full-cycle Recruiter for Contract and Direct-Hire professional, administrative, and skilled positions.
- Held a key Ambassador role with the Katy Chamber of Commerce and participated in Economic Development Council events to understand incoming hiring needs of new employers in the area.
Education
BA - Psychology, Business Administration Minor
Texas A&M University
06.2013
Skills
- Sourcing Plans
- Client Focus
- Talent Intelligence Presentations
- Resource Allocation
- LinkedIn Recruiter
- LinkedIn Talent Insights Champion
- Sourcing Onboarding and Training
- KPI Reporting
- Candidate Prescreening Calls
- Recruitment Intake
- Full-cycle Agency Recruitment
- Market Research
- Compensation Analysis
- Hiring Excellence
- PowerBI End User
- Excel Pivot Tables
- Large Data-set Analysis
- Office Suite: Outlook, Excel, Word, Teams, Planner, PowerPoint
- Internal Search Tools: Workday, HireVue, SmashflyX, Q4, Bullhorn, Salesforce, Competitive Intelligence Reporting
- External Search Tools: SignalHire, Google, Copilot, Linkedin, Linkedin Recruiter,
Accomplishments
- IQVIA Star Talent Search Recruiter Award - in TA, a quarterly award based on Business Growth and Candidate Generation.
- IQVIA IMPACT Bronze and Silver Awards - in TA for Collaboration with Real World Solutions business areas.
Certification
- Be Bold in your Career Training Series - IQVIA
- New Manager Training Series - IQVIA
- Management Development Training Series - IQVIA
- Excel Pivot Tables - LinkedIn Learning
- PowerBI Fundamentals - LinkedIn Learning
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Manager (Previously Assoc. Manager, Sr. Recruiter)
IQVIA
05.2021 - Current
Senior Recruiter
Hydrogen Group
09.2019 - 04.2020
Search Consultant
Beecher Reagan
09.2017 - 07.2019
Recruiter
Express Employment
03.2015 - 08.2017
BA - Psychology, Business Administration Minor
Texas A&M University