Ahmad Dardas

Lead the Talent Acquisition and Mobilization function for one of Saudi Arabia’s leading sports organizations, overseeing end-to-end recruitment operations across both sporting and non-sporting functions. Manage a team of recruiters and mobilization specialists responsible for workforce planning, talent acquisition, onboarding, agency management, and candidate experience, ensuring the organization attracts and retains top talent in support of its strategic vision and operational objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the full recruitment lifecycle across sporting and non-sporting divisions, including, sourcing, assessment, selection, offer management, mobilization, and onboarding.
• Manage, develop, and mentor a team of Talent Acquisition and Mobilization professionals, ensuring service excellence, governance compliance, best recruitment practices, and achievement of hiring objectives.
• Partner with executive leadership, department heads, and hiring managers to identify talent needs and implement effective recruitment strategies.
• Oversee recruitment for leadership, executive, and critical business positions.
• Manage relationships with recruitment agencies and external partners, including contract negotiations, service level agreements (SLAs), and performance management.
• Drive employer branding initiatives and talent attraction strategies to strengthen Qadsiah’s market presence and candidate pipeline.
• Govern recruitment policies, procedures, compliance requirements, and talent acquisition best practices across the organization.
• Lead onboarding and mobilization activities to ensure seamless employee integration and positive new hire experiences.
• Oversee ATS administration, optimization, reporting, and recruitment analytics to support data-driven decision making.
• Ensure compliance with internal governance standards and external audit requirements.

Key Achievements

• Successfully recruited and led the recruitment team to hire and onboard over 160 positions across sporting and non-sporting functions.
• Directly managed the recruitment and onboarding of Director-level and executives, ensuring seamless executive transitions and stakeholder alignment.
• Established the Talent Acquisition function's operational foundation by implementing recruitment governance, approval workflows, request forms, automated forms and standardized documentation.
• Designed and implemented end-to-end recruitment processes for both sporting and non-sporting roles, creating consistency, transparency, and accountability across hiring activities.
• Developed and implemented a centralized recruitment tracker enabling real-time visibility of hiring activities, pipeline progress, and recruitment metrics.
• Led the selection, implementation, customization, and optimization of the Applicant Tracking System (ATS), achieving approximately 70% system customization, including workflow automation, automated communications, forms integration, approvals, and SLA/metrics generation and monitoring.
• Created and launched Qadsiah’s career site, significantly enhancing the organization's ability to attract and engage talent.
• Established and strengthened Qadsiah’s employer brand presence on LinkedIn, improving talent attraction and organizational visibility.
• Partnered with key stakeholders to develop and define the organization’s Employee Value Proposition (EVP).
• Established strategic sourcing channels and recruitment marketing initiatives to expand access to high-quality talent pools.
• Enhanced the candidate experience by optimizing the recruitment journey from application through onboarding, improving engagement and communication standards.
• Increased recruitment compliance from a non-structured environment to achieving 90%+ compliance with Aramco audit requirements.
• Developed the organization's Recruitment Handbook, providing governance, operational standards, documentation requirements, and best practice guidance for recruiters and hiring managers along the recruitment funnel.
• Created and implemented a comprehensive Expatriate Onboarding Handbook to support international hires and improve relocation experiences.
• Developed onboarding presentations, onboarding processes, and onboarding kits in collaboration with the Marketing team to enhance new hire integration.
• Introduced and standardized competency-based interviewing methodologies, including behavioral, technical, leadership, and role-specific assessment frameworks.
• Established structured job intake meetings, workforce planning discussions, and hiring requirement documentation to improve recruitment effectiveness.
• Authored Talent Acquisition policies and procedures governing recruitment operations across the organization.
• Introduced background verification and pre-employment medical screening processes to strengthen hiring quality and risk management.
• Automated multiple recruitment and onboarding forms, reducing administrative effort and improving operational efficiency.
• Launched innovative candidate engagement initiatives, including personalized post-interview candidate passport (contribution to interviews), as well as questionnaires enhancing employer brand perception and candidate satisfaction.
• Managed the hiring manager satisfaction rate.

• Led comprehensive hiring initiatives to attract, source, and hire top-tier talent across various positions from business to engineering to technician roles.
• Optimized the recruitment funnel to ensure a seamless candidate experience from initial screening to successful onboarding.
• Drove successful end-to-end recruitment for 5 clients with 12 subcontracts (ARAMCO, SBG, LUBEREF, SADARA, and KFUPM) by consistently meeting hiring needs and maintaining positive relationships.
• Accomplished to hire 500+ employees.
• Executed high-volume hirings 60+ at once.
• Orchestrated successful recruitment workshops across, India, Egypt, Azerbaijan, twice in South Africa, and multiple In-Kingdom.
• Averted a potential loss of 1 Million SAR by fulfilling contract obligation of enrolling 30 trainees within 5 days.
• Negotiated salaries for a lump sum flexible salaries' contract and saved the company 250,000 SAR.
• Successfully ensured workforce planning for one contract by managing vacancies and Saudization rate contract obligations.
• Facilitated internal hirings through coordinating with stakeholders and hiring managers to conduct job analysis, establish accurate job descriptions, and ideal candidate personas.
• Influenced hiring managers to collaborate with Oracle team and successfully completed the integration and implementation of an ATS software.
• Leveraged recruitment portals (Linkedin, Bayt, and Naukrigulf) utilizing employer branding to job advertise, attract, and engage top talent.
• Conducted comprehensive screening, scheduling, and interviews for a variety of positions.

• Handled administrative tasks: ORACLE new hiring, sick leaves, and created more than 200 manual employment contracts.
• Led, scheduled, and arranged online interviews.
• Conducted market research to identify and report on data related to salary and compensation packages for new client positions.