Talent Acquisition Project Manager

DLA Piper is, at its core, bold, exceptional, collaborative and supportive. Our people are the backbone, heart and soul of our firm. Wherever you are in your professional journey, DLA Piper is a place you can engage in meaningful work and grow your career. Let’s see what we can achieve. Together.

The Talent Acquisition Project Manager, working in collaboration with and supporting the firm’s strategic initiatives, is part of the team that leads the firm’s end-to-end efforts to recruit, select, and onboard summer associates. You will oversee aspects of program planning and execution, including relationship management with candidates, law schools, and internal stakeholders; project management of key recruiting milestones; and development of data-driven insights to ensure an exceptional candidate experience.

You will be responsible for reporting, process optimization, and continuous quality improvement across the summer program lifecycle. In addition, the Talent Acquisition Project Manager provides project management support for talent development initiatives and other talent related initiatives, partnering closely with the firm’s partner overseeing these programs to ensure alignment, effective execution, and measurable outcomes.

This position is located in our Washington D.C. office and offers a hybrid work schedule.

• Leads and develops a team of campus talent acquisition professionals, ensuring operational excellence, accountability, and a high quality candidate experience.
• Oversees on-campus recruiting activities, including career fairs, mock interviews, information sessions, and networking receptions, ensuring seamless execution and strong relationship management with law schools and student organizations.
• Leads employer branding efforts for student recruitment, partnering with Marketing and Talent teams to strengthen the firm’s visibility on campus, enhance messaging, and ensure a consistent and compelling brand presence across all student-facing channels.
• Drives innovation in recruiting operations by evaluating opportunities for automation, AI, and emerging technologies; leads the design, implementation, and ongoing optimization of new tools and workflows.
• Oversees the development, maintenance, and quality of campus recruiting data resources, supporting evolving reporting needs and delivering timely data extracts for recurring and ad hoc analysis.
• Manages the full candidate lifecycle—from resume review and interview coordination to feedback compilation, offer preparation, and pre‑onboarding support.
• Manages the campus recruiting budget, ensuring accuracy, fiscal discipline, and alignment with firm priorities.
• Oversees communication strategies for incoming summer associates and first-year associates, ensuring clear, timely, and consistent onboarding messaging.
• Manages local summer associate programs, serving as a key point of coordination for office level programming, assignments, evaluations, and relationship management to ensure a high quality and consistent experience across offices.
• Helps plan and execute the Summer Associate Academy, partnering with Talent Development and key stakeholders to design impactful programming that sets students up for success.
• Monitors law firm recruiting trends, market dynamics, and competitive intelligence, collaborating with the Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition and the Chief Talent Acquisition Officer to brief firm leadership on insights and implications.
• Participates in team and cross-functional meetings, providing updates, presenting recommendations, and leading discussions on campus recruitment initiatives as needed.
• Maintains and continuously improves process documentation and best practices, ensuring consistency, quality, and compliance across all campus recruiting workflows.
• Provides project management support to the firm’s Executive Sponsor for talent initiatives—including talent development programs and AI-driven projects—ensuring strong coordination, timely execution, and measurable outcomes.
• Performs other duties, as assigned to support the evolving needs of the Talent Acquisition function.

• Advanced data analytic…