Sr. Manager, Talent Operations and Recruitment Marketing

CarMax, the way your career should be! 

Team Overview

As a Sr. Manager, Talent Operations you will collaborate with senior leaders and cross-functional partners to shape and lead the strategy for Employer Brand, Recruitment Marketing, Upper Funnel and Candidate Experience initiatives. You will use data, evaluate market trends, competitive insights, and emerging solutions to inform the strategy, drive operational improvements, position CarMax as an employer of choice, and maximize the value of current tools and external partners. This role requires strategic thinking, stakeholder partnership, and strong execution, along with the ability to manage multiple priorities, external partnerships, and deliver measurable results in a fast-paced environment.

Why CarMax?

At CarMax, we are the nation’s largest retailer of used cars with stores from coast to coast, and we are still growing. We’re rethinking the way people buy cars – and it’s our associates that help us do just that. We believe work should feel meaningful and rewarding, with opportunities to make an impact every day. This is where innovation meets passion – be inspired and supported to take us to the future.

Role Responsibilities

• Develop and lead the recruitment marketing and talent brand vision, strategy, goals, and KPIs to attract top talent and strengthen CarMax’s employer position in the market.

• Oversee recruitment marketing and employer brand activities end to end, including strategic planning, quarterly prioritization, intake governance, agency briefing, campaign direction, and execution oversight across channels.

• Define and manage the Employer Value Proposition (EVP) pillars, ensuring messaging is differentiated, relevant, and consistently activated across talent acquisition, talent management, and candidate experience strategies.

• Lead employer brand positioning across paid, owned, shared, and earned channels to ensure a cohesive and compelling candidate-facing narrative.

• Monitor, assess, and optimize channel and campaign performance to ensure strategies drive awareness, engagement, and qualified applicant flow.

• Serve as a strategic partner to Talent Acquisition and cross-functional leaders, ensuring recruitment marketing and talent operations priorities are aligned with enterprise business goals.

• Lead strategic vendor management, including evaluating partner capabilities, setting expectations, driving accountability, and ensuring external partnerships deliver measurable value and innovation.

• Own contract negotiations with agencies, media partners, and external vendors, securing favorable terms, service levels, and pricing aligned with business needs.

• Oversee contract management processes for talent operations and recruitment marketing partners, including renewals, scope changes, compliance, and performance accountability.

• Manage budgets at the strategic level, ensuring investments are aligned to priorities, resources are allocated effectively, and spend delivers business impact.

• Conduct and synthesize market research to understand the market landscape and competitive landscape, including evolving trends related to Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, and Candidate Experience.

• Translate external market intelligence, industry trends, and competitive benchmarking into recommendations that inform strategy, innovation, and continuous improvement.

• Partner with senior stakeholders across communications, marketing, HR, procurement, legal, and finance to gain alignment, remove barriers, and advance high-impact initiatives.

• Establish governance, processes, and success measures that enable scalability, consistency, and operational excellence across talent operations programs.

• Provide leadership, direction, and prioritization guidance to ensure initiatives are executed effectively and in alignment with strategic objectives.

Required Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in Talent Operations, HR Operations, Recruitment Marketing, or a related function, including leadership of enterprise or cross-functional initiatives

• Proven experience leading strategic projects and operational improvements that support business priorities and drive measurable outcomes

• Strong experience conducting market research, competitive analyses, and vendor evaluations to inform talent strategy, technology decisions, and process optimization

• Excellent analytical, communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional partners and use data to optimize operational performance

• Strong communication and presentation skills, tailoring messages for diverse audiences, and developing strong partnerships across the organization

• Ability to manage multiple priorities effectively, meeting deadlines in a fast-paced environment

• Knowledge of talent technology platforms, talent tools, recruitment marketing tools, CRM systems or digital media channels used to attract and engage candidates

Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Talent Operations, HR Operations, or Recruitment Marketing

• Proven success managing external vendors and agency partners, including vendor evaluation, contract negotiations and renewals, and ongoing performance management

• Experience developing and executing employer brand, recruitment marketing, and media strategies, including defining KPIs, managing budgets, and measuring ROI

• Strong knowledge of talent technologies and systems administration, including experience with ATS, CRM, career site, and related HR systems

• Experience partnering with creative teams and external agencies to develop integrated campaign and content strategies

• Experience with labor market trends, candidate experience best practices, and researching emerging innovations in Talent Acquisition and Talent Management

 This role will be based out of the CarMax Home Office (Richmond, VA) and associates will work onsite 4 days per week. 

About CarMax

At CarMax, we revolutionized the used car buying experience over 30 years ago by introducing transparency and integrity into the process. Our commitment to customer experience, innovation, and community has made us the nation’s largest used car retailer. With over 250 store locations and over 30,000 associates, we are proud to have been recognized as one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® and are committed to helping our communities thrive.

As an associate, you are part of an innovative movement to empower the modern customer and drive progress. Your work fuels change—sparking ideas, overcoming challenges, and shaping what’s next. Join us in creating a better future– for our company, our customers, and the communities we call home.

CarMax is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

The annual salary for this position is:

May be eligible for bonus and equity.

Benefits:

Except as otherwise required by state law, CarMax Associates are entitled to the following paid sick, vacation, and holiday time.

Associates that are considered full-time hourly or commission/incentive eligible:

• To earn up to 48 hours of sick time per year accrued on a per pay period basis and between 80 hours and 200 hours per year of vacation time after a 90 day waiting period depending on years of continuous service with the Company. 
• For 8 hours of pay for each of a total of 6 paid scheduled holidays per year plus 1 floating holiday.  If such an Associate does work on a scheduled holiday due to business need, they are eligible for Holiday Premium Pay. 

Associates considered full-time salaried are entitled to paid time away with no specified limit as needed for sick, vacation, bereavement, jury duty, holidays, floating holiday, etc. subject to manager approval. 

For more details about benefits, please visit our CarMax Benefits website.

Upon an applicant's request, CarMax will consider reasonable accommodation to complete the CarMax Job Application.