Allison Dunsmore
Allison Dunsmore
Director, Talent Operations, Seismic
Allison Dunsmore didn’t set out to build a career in talent operations—in fact, she started in sales and quickly realized it wasn’t where she was meant to be.
Early in her career, Allison worked in sales roles in New York City and discovered something important: the parts of the job she loved most weren’t about closing deals, but about working with people, organizing processes, and supporting teams behind the scenes. That realization led her back to school to earn a master’s degree in Human Resources Management, determined to pivot into a field that felt like a better fit.
Breaking into HR wasn’t immediate. It took persistence before she landed an entry-level role as a recruiting coordinator at PwC. But once she was in, Allison’s instinct for improving the candidate experience quickly stood out. Noticing that candidates repeatedly asked the same questions, she began creating structured “candidate information kits” that proactively answered them. What started as a personal efficiency hack soon spread across the coordinator team—and caught leadership’s attention.
That initiative led her into one of the earliest iterations of PwC’s recruitment marketing function. From there, Allison built a career at the intersection of storytelling, employer brand, and recruiting operations—helping organizations better explain who they are, what they offer, and why candidates should care.
Over the years, her work expanded across industries and specialties. She’s supported hiring for highly unique roles—from flight attendants and pilots to veterinary professionals—experiences that deepened her appreciation for the complexity behind every hiring process. Gradually, her focus shifted further into Talent Acquisition Operations: improving systems, refining workflows, and designing processes that make life easier for both recruiters and candidates.
Today at Seismic, Allison leads Talent Operations through a Talent Solutions team that acts as both a support hub and a strategic engine for improvement. Her team fields employee and recruiter questions, identifies patterns in feedback, and turns recurring challenges into scalable process and technology solutions. It’s a role that blends service, systems thinking, and continuous improvement—right in her wheelhouse.
What Energizes Her Most
What energizes Allison most right now is the opportunity to build structure out of complexity.
Talent operations sits at the center of countless moving pieces—technology, process, policy, and people. Allison thrives on listening closely to what employees and recruiters are experiencing, then translating that feedback into practical solutions that make work smoother at scale. Whether it’s refining how tools are used, clarifying processes, or improving how information flows, she’s motivated by turning friction into clarity.
She’s especially energized by leading a highly technical team within HR—one that not only solves day-to-day problems but also thinks proactively about how systems and processes can evolve as the company grows. Helping her team develop that operational muscle while keeping a strong service mindset is a balance she finds both challenging and deeply rewarding.
How Recruiting Is Changing
From Allison’s vantage point in talent operations, AI is accelerating change—but not replacing the human core of recruiting.
She sees AI as a powerful enabler of efficiency, particularly in the operational and administrative layers of talent work. Automation can reduce manual tasks, improve data organization, and help teams move faster with fewer errors. For operations leaders, this creates space to focus on higher-impact work: optimizing systems, improving user experience, and designing smarter processes.
But with that speed comes uncertainty. The rapid pace of technological change means talent teams are often building the plane while flying it. For Allison, the key is not having all the answers upfront—it’s being willing to test, learn, and adapt quickly.
AI may change how work gets done, but it doesn’t remove the need for thoughtful design, strong communication, and a deep understanding of how people actually experience hiring and HR processes. In many ways, it raises the bar for operations leaders to be even more intentional.
Allison’s Advice for 2026
As organizations navigate constant change, Allison’s advice to talent leaders is simple but powerful: be flexible, and don’t wait for perfect information.
The pace of change—especially with AI and evolving workplace expectations—means leaders rarely have 100% clarity before making decisions. Allison encourages talent leaders to move forward with the best information they have, knowing they can adjust as they learn more. Progress, even if imperfect, is often better than standing still.
She also believes that mindset matters. Leaders who model adaptability, curiosity, and resilience make it easier for their teams to do the same. Change is inevitable—but how teams respond to it is a choice.
For Allison, the future of talent operations isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about building teams and systems that are ready to handle whatever comes next.
