Principal, Academic Executive Search

Job Description

Welcome to AMN Healthcare — Where Talent Meets Purpose

Ever wondered what it takes to build one of the largest and most respected healthcare staffing and total talent solutions companies? It takes trailblazers, innovators, and exceptional people like you.

At AMN Healthcare, we don’t just offer jobs — we build careers that make a difference.

Why AMN Healthcare? Because Excellence Is Our Standard:

• Named to Becker’s Top 150 Places to Work in Healthcare — three years running.
• Consistently ranked among SIA’s Largest Staffing Firms in America.
• Honored with Modern Healthcare’s Innovators Award for driving change through innovation.
• Proud holder of The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for Staffing Companies since 2006.

Job Summary

The Principal, Academic Executive Search is a senior search leader responsible for driving business development, achieving individual sales targets, and leading complex executive search engagements within academic medical centers. This role manages multiple retained searches simultaneously, with a focus on identifying and placing exceptional leadership talent at the Dean, Chair, Division Chief, Physician Executive, and other senior academic healthcare leadership levels including Institute Directors, and Scientific Leadership roles.

The Principal serves as a trusted advisor to clients, providing market intelligence, physician leadership insights, and recruitment strategy expertise throughout the search process. This individual plays a key role in both business development and search execution, leveraging deep industry knowledge, academic medicine experience, and executive search expertise to deliver exceptional client outcomes and generate new business opportunities.

Job Responsibilities

• Identify, develop, and close executive-level retained search and leadership consulting engagements with new and existing academic healthcare clients.

• Achieve and exceed individual sales, revenue, and business development goals through strategic prospecting and relationship management.

• Lead full-cycle executive search engagements for Dean, Chair, Division Chief, Physician Executive, C-suite, and other senior academic and physician leadership positions.

• Partner with clients to develop customized search strategies, including target markets, competitor analysis, physician leadership mapping, candidate profiles, and recruitment plans.

• Conduct client intake meetings and gather organizational, cultural, clinical, research, and position-specific information to ensure successful search execution.

• Provide proactive communication and consultative guidance to clients throughout the engagement lifecycle.

• Identify, attract, assess, and recruit high-caliber academic physician leaders, executives, and healthcare professionals while delivering an exceptional candidate experience.

• Conduct in-depth candidate evaluations, leadership assessments, and behavioral interviews to determine organizational fit, leadership capabilities, and long-term success potential.

• Develop and maintain strong client relationships that lead to repeat business, long-term partnerships, and additional search opportunities.

• Deliver market intelligence, compensation insights, physician workforce trends, and competitive landscape analysis to clients and internal stakeholders.

• Collaborate with colleagues across the Academic Executive Search Practice and Academic Sales Team to support business development initiatives, proposal development, and client presentations.

• Serve as a subject matter expert in physician leadership recruitment, academic medicine, and executive search best practices while mentoring team members and sharing industry knowledge.

Key Skills

• Proven executive search and business development expertise within academic medicine, physician leadership recruitment, healthcare, or professional services environments.

• Strong consultative selling, relationship-building, and client management skills.

• Demonstrated ability to assess executive-level leadership competencies, physician leadership potential, organizational fit, and succession readiness.

• Exceptional communication, presentation, and influencing skills with physician executives, department chairs, deans, and healthcare leadership audiences.

• Strategic thinker with strong market-mapping, research, physician talent identification, and candidate assessment capabilities.

• Highly organized with exceptional project management and multi-search management skills.

• Results-oriented self-starter with strong business judgment, initiative, and accountability.

• Ability to thrive in a collaborative, team-based environment while independently driving outcomes.

Qualifications

Education & Years of Experience

• Bachelor's Degree

Additional Experience

• Executive search, physician recruitment, or leadership recruiting experience within academic medicine, healthcare, faculty practice plans, medical schools, or integrated health systems strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated success leading retained executive search engagements and achieving sales and business development targets.

• Experience recruiting senior physician leaders, department chairs, division chiefs, deans, chief medical officers, physician executives, scientific leadership and/or C-suite healthcare leaders.

• Strong understanding of academic health systems, faculty practice plans, physician leadership structures, graduate medical education, research enterprises, and healthcare organizational dynamics.

• Established network within academic medicine, physician leadership, healthcare administration, or healthcare executive search preferred.

Work Environment / Physical Requirements

• Work is performed in an office/home office environment.
• Team Members must have the ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards.
• Demonstrate the ability to effectively use technology, automation, and AI-enabled tools to improve productivity, support decision-making, and enhance business outcomes while adhering to company policies and responsible AI practices.

AMN Healthcare will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities to enable them to perform the essential functions of the job.

Our Core Values

● Respect ● Passion ● Continuous Improvement ● Trust ● Customer Focus ● Innovation

At AMN we embrace the ways we are similar and different; respecting all voices and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to contribute to our collective success. We acknowledge our shared responsibility to foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels recognized and valued. We cast a wide net to recruit and retain competitive talent and build healthcare workforces supportive of the communities we serve. We believe in the power of compassion and collaboration to build healthy communities where access to quality care is available to all. Equal opportunity employer as to all protected groups, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

At AMN we recognize that in-person connections have value and promote collaboration. You will be expected to come into an AMN Healthcare office at a frequency dependent on the work arrangement for your role.

Pay Rate

$112,000 - $140,000 Salary

Final pay rate is dependent on experience, training, education, and location.

This position may include additional compensation such as bonus or commission.  Please ask your recruiter for more information.