Senior Manager: Talent Acquisition and Employer Talent Brand

Talent Acquisition Strategy

• Develop and implement a comprehensive talent acquisition strategy aligned to business priorities and workforce plans.
• Translate organisational growth plans into practical recruitment and sourcing strategies.
• Build proactive talent pipelines for scarce, critical and future-facing skills.
• Continuously review and improve recruitment processes, systems and operating models.
• Benchmark talent acquisition practices against leading market standards.
• Identify emerging talent trends and adapt sourcing strategies accordingly.
• Ensure talent acquisition remains agile, scalable and responsive to changing business requirements.

Executive & Strategic Business Partnership

• Build strong relationships with senior executives, HR leaders and hiring managers.
• Act as a trusted advisor on talent availability, market conditions and recruitment strategy.
• Provide insight into competitor talent movements, scarce skills and salary trends.
• Influence and guide hiring managers on effective sourcing, assessment and selection approaches.
• Support workforce planning by identifying future talent risks and opportunities.
• Challenge conventional hiring approaches where alternative solutions may deliver better outcomes.

Sourcing & Talent Pipelines

• Develop innovative sourcing strategies across multiple talent channels.
• Drive direct sourcing and reduce over-reliance on external agencies.
• Build sustainable pipelines of active and passive candidates.
• Develop talent communities for recurring and specialist skills.
• Introduce sourcing approaches that improve access to hard-to-find talent.
• Leverage digital platforms, professional networks, referral programmes and market mapping.
• Ensure recruitment teams maintain strong knowledge of target talent markets.

Employer Brand & Talent Attraction

• Lead the organisation’s employer brand and talent attraction strategy.
• Strengthen the company’s position as an employer of choice.
• Develop clear and compelling messaging for prospective candidates.
• Ensure the employee value proposition is consistently reflected throughout the recruitment journey.
• Partner with Marketing, Communications and HR to amplify employer brand visibility.
• Identify opportunities to showcase culture, leadership, careers and employee experiences.
• Build strong external talent-market presence through relevant platforms and channels.

Candidate Experience

• Create a professional, engaging and consistent candidate experience.
• Ensure candidates receive clear communication throughout the recruitment process.
• Establish candidate-experience standards across the organisation.
• Use candidate feedback and survey data to continuously improve the recruitment journey.
• Ensure all candidate interactions reflect the organisation’s culture, professionalism and values.
• Monitor candidate drop-off, offer acceptance and experience trends.

Recruitment Analytics & Performance

• Develop meaningful talent acquisition metrics and dashboards.
• Use data to evaluate recruitment performance, productivity and effectiveness.
• Track and analyse measures including:
  • Time to hire
  • Quality of hire
  • Cost per hire
  • Offer acceptance
  • Source effectiveness
  • Candidate experience
  • Hiring-manager satisfaction
  • Recruiter productivity
  • Agency utilisation
  • Pipeline strength
  • Critical-skills fulfilment
• Identify recruitment bottlenecks and implement corrective actions.
• Provide leadership with clear talent acquisition insights and market intelligence.

Talent Acquisition Operations

• Ensure recruitment processes are efficient, consistent and well governed.
• Review and optimise recruitment systems and technologies.
• Improve process automation and reduce unnecessary administrative complexity.
• Ensure appropriate controls are maintained across recruitment activities.
• Drive consistent recruitment standards across business units.
• Ensure recruitment documentation, approvals and governance requirements are appropriately managed.

Vendor & Agency Management

• Lead the selection and management of recruitment agencies and external talent partners.
• Establish clear vendor performance measures and service expectations.
• Negotiate commercial terms and manage supplier agreements.
• Review agency effectiveness, cost and quality of delivery.
• Consolidate or rationalise suppliers where appropriate.
• Ensure external providers complement internal sourcing capability.

Team Leadership & Capability Development

• Lead, coach and develop the Talent Acquisition team.
• Build strong sourcing, interviewing, stakeholder-management and market-mapping capability.
• Establish a high-performance culture focused on quality, accountability and delivery.
• Develop succession and growth plans within the recruitment function.
• Encourage knowledge sharing and continuous learning.
• Ensure the team remains current with evolving recruitment practices, technologies and market trends.

Key Competencies

Strategic Thinking

Able to connect business strategy, workforce planning and talent requirements.

Commercial Acumen

Understands how talent decisions influence organisational performance, cost and growth.

Stakeholder Influence

Able to engage confidently with executives and senior leaders and influence hiring decisions constructively.

Market Insight

Maintains strong awareness of talent markets, competitor activity and scarce-skill trends.

Results Orientation

Focused on delivery, measurable outcomes and continuous improvement.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Uses analytics and evidence to improve recruitment effectiveness.

Innovation

Challenges traditional recruitment approaches and identifies new ways of accessing talent.

Resilience

Performs effectively in a fast-paced and demanding environment.

Relationship Management

Builds trusted partnerships across the organisation and externally.

Integrity

Handles confidential candidate and business information with discretion and professionalism.

Personal Attributes

The successful individual should be:

• Commercially minded
• Highly credible
• Strategic yet hands-on
• Confident and influential
• Collaborative
• Curious and adaptable
• Solutions focused
• Highly organised
• Comfortable operating in complexity
• Passionate about talent and people
• Driven by quality rather than volume
• Able to balance pace with sound judgement