Talent Acquisition Lead

Closing date for applications: 07/07/2026

Location London, United Kingdom

Job typePermanent | Contract typeFull Time

Remote / On-site Hybrid

You’ll spend some of your time at home, working with your team digitally. You’ll also regularly work at your office or hub to collaborate with your colleagues.

Senior Manager

This is a general indication and doesn’t always reflect day-to-day responsibilities. Check the job description for full details.

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Job description

This role is based in the United Kingdom and as such all normal working days must be carried out in the United Kingdom.

Join us as a Talent Acquisition Lead

We’re hiring Talent Acquisition Leads to set the strategic direction for Talent Acquisition across our key customer businesses. Each role will align hiring plans with business priorities and workforce strategy within a specific franchise:

Retail & Payments – role to be based in Edinburgh, London or Manchester

Commercial & Institutional – role to be based in London

Digital X & Functions - role to be based in Edinburgh, London or Manchester

You’ll partner senior business and People leaders, providing expert guidance across the recruitment lifecycle and delivering differentiated attraction strategies tailored to role, market and channel

You’ll have the opportunity to shape how the organisation attracts and hires talent at scale, building capability and delivering meaningful impact on business performance and growth

What you’ll do

As a Talent Acquisition Lead, you’ll drive the delivery of scalable, efficient and high‑quality recruitment services, providing leadership and operational oversight across end‑to‑end Talent Acquisition services. You’ll enable your assigned franchise, function or geography to attract, assess and hire high‑quality talent aligned to current and future workforce needs.

You’ll build strong, sustainable relationships with senior stakeholders to shape a cohesive Talent Acquisition plan. You’ll continuously enhance attraction, sourcing and selection strategies, using innovative approaches to attract diverse and critical talent. You’ll do this while making sure strong governance, risk management and compliance are embedded across all hiring activities.

Your work will focus on:

Attracting and hiring high‑quality talent, delivering a strong candidate and colleague experience while ensuring hiring outcomes meet business needs

Delivering Talent Acquisition services across seniority levels that are informed by labour market insight, workforce demand and business priorities to enhance future‑focused hiring strategies

Using data and insights to drive performance, tracking outcomes, identifying trends and enabling continuous improvement in recruitment effectiveness

Leading and developing high‑performing Talent Acquisition teams, building capability in modern recruitment practices and acting as a trusted partner on talent strategy

Driving strategic stakeholder engagement, influencing senior leaders with insights on market trends, risks and opportunities to support better workforce decisions

The skills you'll need

To thrive in this role, you’ll be a highly credible leader with the presence and influence to operate confidently at executive level. You’ll bring significant senior leadership experience in Talent Acquisition within a large, complex organisation, ideally with exposure to regulated environments.

You’ll have deep expertise across the full Talent Acquisition lifecycle, alongside a strong understanding of modern, evidence‑based attraction and assessment approaches. You’ll also bring a proven track record leading large, diverse and geographically dispersed teams at scale, maintaining high performance while navigating transformation and change.

We’ll expect you to have:

Strong senior stakeholder management capability, building trusted relationships and influencing decisions at the highest levels of the organisation

Deep market insight and technical expertise, with the ability to translate external trends and intelligence into commercially focused talent strategies

A data‑driven mindset, using insight and analytics to shape Talent Acquisition strategy, improve outcomes and drive informed decision‑making

High levels of digital and technology awareness, turning emerging capabilities into practical, value‑adding solutions for the business

Strong commercial acumen, with experience managing budgets, supplier ecosystems, and delivering measurable return on investment

Your benefits breakdown

Here’s a quick look at what your pay package and annual leave could look like if you get accepted for the role. We have a wide range of benefits to support you in your working life and beyond.

Tap each segment for details.

Your pay package

80% Base pay This is the part your your pay package that you take home every month.

10% Pension funding 10% of your salary goes towards your pension every month.

10% Benefit funding 10% of your salary goes towards a range of benefits you can choose from.

Your leave allowance

30 days Annual leave You’ll also have the opportunity to purchase up to 5 additional days off.

3 days Volunteering Take time off to support the causes you’re passionate about.

3 days Training Take time to build the skills you need to grow your career.

Total rewards package

Welcome to our Bishopsgate hub

Based only a few minutes’ walk from Liverpool Street Station, the central location of this office makes working there incredibly convenient. Everything you need is close by, so you can run errands, go to the gym, and socialise with friends and colleagues before and after work.

Bishopsgate recently underwent a multi-year refurbishment programme to improve spaces and facilities as well as become more sustainable.