Steven Dilworth

Steven Dilworth

Vice President, Global Talent Strategy & Global Business Partnering Clinical Network - Fortrea

For Steven Dilworth, recruiting was never part of the original plan.

He initially studied dental sciences and knew early on that he wanted to build a career connected to science, healthcare, and human impact. But as he progressed through that path, he realized the direction he was heading in did not fully align with what he truly wanted professionally.

At the same time, Steven had always been drawn toward working with people, building relationships, and solving problems collaboratively.

That combination ultimately led him into recruitment.

His first role was in agency recruiting, where he quickly discovered that the pace, variety, and human connection involved in talent acquisition matched both his personality and professional strengths.

From there, he transitioned into an in-house recruiting role within a clinical research organization — a move that would define the trajectory of his career.

“I found my calling, for want of a better phrase, by working in the pharmaceutical industry,” Steven shared.

Over time, Steven built a highly specialized career within life sciences and pharmaceutical recruiting, eventually stepping into broader talent leadership responsibilities that now extend beyond hiring into workforce strategy, learning and development, talent management, and organizational capability building.

The Leaders Who Shaped His Leadership Style

Throughout his career, Steven has been fortunate to work alongside leaders who each influenced different aspects of his leadership philosophy.

One of the earliest and most impactful figures in his career was Kaushik Pankania, known to many as KP, who gave Steven his first opportunity within the clinical research sector.

Together, they helped build the in-house recruiting function at Chiltern.

According to Steven, KP established an incredibly high operational standard for how recruiting should be managed.

“Everything was just so well coordinated,” Steven explained.

From detailed candidate notes to hiring manager preferences and vendor management, KP demonstrated the importance of organization, accountability, and meticulous execution inside talent acquisition.

That experience helped shape Steven’s own disciplined and highly structured approach to recruiting leadership.

Another major influence was Scott Page, whom Steven worked with during his time at Labcorp.

Scott brought a completely different dimension to talent leadership through his deep financial acumen and executive search background.

Steven admired Scott’s ability to connect recruiting strategy directly to broader business operations and financial decision-making.

“He showed up with a real degree of ownership,” Steven shared.

That experience reinforced Steven’s belief that recruiting leaders must understand not only people and hiring, but also how businesses operate strategically and financially.

Steven also highlighted Dave Cooper, whom he currently reports to and who gave him the opportunity to lead talent acquisition for TRIA following the company’s spinout from Labcorp.

Under Dave’s leadership, Steven expanded far beyond traditional recruiting responsibilities into broader people strategy work, including learning and development, talent management, and organizational capability building.

What stood out most to Steven was Dave’s deeply human and inspirational leadership approach.

“He shows a different way of doing it,” Steven explained. “A real human and inspirational way to approach your teams.”

Together, those leaders helped shape Steven into a talent leader who balances operational rigor, business strategy, and people-centered leadership.

How AI Is Changing Talent Acquisition

Steven believes artificial intelligence is already reshaping the way recruiting teams operate — particularly in terms of efficiency, productivity, and strategic advisory work.

For him, AI has become much more than a simple automation tool.

“It’s definitely kind of a part of the team,” he explained.

Within his own organization, Steven and his team actively leverage AI tools to support workforce planning, operational transformation, recruiting strategy, and market intelligence initiatives.

He describes AI as an always-available sounding board that can help recruiters think through challenges, generate ideas, and accelerate execution.

At the same time, Steven believes there is still significant confusion across the industry around what AI can and cannot realistically accomplish.

“There’s a lot of noise around what it can and can’t do,” he shared.

While AI can automate certain administrative tasks, summarize conversations, generate reports, and support hiring workflows, Steven cautions against over-reliance on technology at the expense of the core human skills that make great recruiters successful.

According to him, some recruiting professionals risk becoming overly dependent on AI and losing the personal relationship-building abilities that originally made them effective.

“There are tried and tested traditional techniques that made you such a good recruiter in the first place,” he said.

For Steven, the future of recruiting is not about replacing recruiters with AI, but about enabling recruiters to become more strategic, more consultative, and more impactful through the intelligent use of technology.

Building AI-Driven Recruiting Teams

One area Steven is especially excited about is the use of internally developed AI agents to support recruiting strategy and market intelligence.

Within his organization, members of the talent strategy group are already helping build AI-powered tools that centralize market insights, customer conversations, and recruiting intelligence into systems that can generate business-ready reports and recommendations.

Rather than functioning solely as recruiters focused on filling open positions, Steven wants his team operating as strategic advisors to the business.

“We’re being a little bit more consultative,” he explained.

By leveraging AI tools effectively, recruiting teams can provide deeper labor market insights, support workforce planning decisions, and elevate stakeholder engagement across the organization.

Steven believes the recruiters and talent leaders who succeed moving forward will be the ones who embrace technology while still preserving the relationship-building and human-centered instincts that remain essential to great recruiting.

That balanced and forward-thinking approach is exactly what makes Steven Dilworth a standout voice in modern talent acquisition — and a deserving member of the Talent 100.