Diamond Acevedo
Onbe
“It's about understanding people's strengths, motivations, and potential and matching them with teams where they can thrive.”
Diamond Acevedo has been named to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, the annual award recognizing up to 100 leaders in each category of talent acquisition. Honorees are nominated by peers or found by committees that look for excellent work wherever it happens, then chosen for the depth of their craft and their impact on hiring. This is Diamond's story.
For Diamond Acevedo, recruiting has always been about creating opportunities that genuinely change people's lives.
That conviction took root long before she entered talent acquisition. Diamond began her career in higher education and admissions, where she quickly discovered a passion for helping people navigate important career and educational decisions. While working in higher education, she completed her master's degree in HR Management and began thinking more seriously about her long-term career path. Talent acquisition, she realized, combined everything she enjoyed most: relationship-building, people development, business partnership, and helping individuals grow professionally. "I realized while I was in admissions, I loved the recruitment side," Diamond explained.
Originally from the Bronx, New York, Diamond describes herself as the first graduate in her entire family, a milestone that shaped both her perspective and her work ethic. Coming from humble beginnings, she credits much of her drive and resilience to her mother. "My mother tried her best to give us everything she could with nothing," Diamond shared. That foundation motivated her to keep investing in herself through networking, education, and professional development opportunities.
After completing graduate school, she pursued opportunities in talent acquisition and joined Onbe in 2021 as a Talent Acquisition Coordinator. From the beginning, she was intentional about finding the right leadership environment. "I always say interview the company, their beliefs, and their values, but also interview your leadership," she said. The leadership team at Onbe immediately stood out to her, and she quickly recognized it was an organization where she could continue learning and growing. Since then, Diamond has continued building her career within talent acquisition while helping support business growth through thoughtful hiring and relationship-driven recruiting.
For Diamond, recruiting has never been just about filling open positions. "It's about understanding people's strengths, motivations, and potential and matching them with teams where they can thrive," she explained. That people-first mindset continues to shape the way she approaches talent acquisition today.
How AI Is Reshaping Recruiting
As AI rapidly transforms the recruiting industry, Diamond believes the technology is fundamentally changing how talent teams operate. "AI has significantly shifted recruiting from primarily transactional to becoming much more strategic," she explained. Many of the traditionally administrative aspects of the job, including sourcing, resume screening, interview scheduling, and candidate outreach, can now be accelerated through AI tools. That shift frees recruiters to spend more time on higher-value responsibilities such as relationship-building, candidate experience, hiring manager partnership, and strategic talent evaluation.
At the same time, Diamond believes AI is raising the expectations placed on recruiters. Because candidates are increasingly using AI tools to optimize resumes and prepare for interviews, recruiters now need to evaluate talent more thoughtfully and look past surface-level qualifications. "Talent professionals need to dig deeper to truly evaluate skills, impact, and cultural alignment," she said.
While Diamond fully embraces AI's potential, she believes the human side of recruiting remains irreplaceable. For her, the most successful recruiting organizations will be the ones that balance technology with empathy, strategic thinking, and authentic relationship-building. "The organizations that will win are the ones that combine AI-driven efficiency with human judgment, empathy, and relationship building," she explained. She sees AI not as a replacement for recruiters but as a collaborator that allows recruiting teams to operate more effectively. "It's more of a partnership and an enhancement, it's not a replacement," she said.
Advice for Talent Leaders in 2026
As recruiting continues evolving, Diamond encourages talent leaders to approach AI with an open mindset while staying grounded in the human side of hiring. Recruiters who learn how to leverage AI tools effectively while maintaining strong communication and relationship-building skills, she believes, will continue to provide enormous value to their organizations.
The future of recruiting, in her view, will belong to leaders who can combine efficiency with empathy. Technology can automate workflows and improve speed, but recruiters still play a critical role in assessing potential, understanding motivations, and creating meaningful candidate experiences. Mindset, she adds, will play a major role in how successfully organizations adapt in the years ahead. "If everyone can get on board with the mindset that AI is a partnership and an enhancement, then we will be that much more effective and efficient," Diamond shared.
For Diamond, recruiting ultimately remains centered around people. Whether she is helping candidates reach career milestones, supporting business growth, or building strong partnerships with hiring managers, she believes the human connection behind recruiting will always matter most. That relationship-driven approach, combined with her resilience, her leadership mindset, and her passion for helping others grow, defines the way Diamond Acevedo works.
The Talent 100 exists to celebrate the people shaping the future of how the world hires, and few embody that better than Diamond. We are honored to welcome Diamond Acevedo to the Talent 100, Class of 2026, and grateful for the experience, perspective, and craft they bring to this community. Congratulations, Diamond. Welcome to the Talent 100.
About the Talent 100
The Talent 100 is an annual list spotlighting the leaders who push HR and talent acquisition forward, organized by Noon AI. Honorees are selected through peer nominations and independent selection committees. Selection is entirely merit-based, with no fees or pay-to-play requirements.
