Talent and Capability Specialist

Job summary

Are you passionate about using workforce and skills insight to help organisations prepare for the future?

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is looking for a Talent and Capability Specialist to help us build a clearer, evidence-based understanding of the skills, capability and talent pipelines needed to deliver our future business priorities.

This is an opportunity to shape capability frameworks, develop practical workforce insight and provide executive-level reporting that supports informed workforce planning, talent and succession decisions across the organisation.

Working closely with HR colleagues, business leaders and People Strategy stakeholders, you will help identify future capability risks, strengthen succession resilience and support delivery of the MCA People Strategy.

The role focuses on future skills, capability frameworks, evaluation and assurance rather than the delivery of learning and development programmes.

If you enjoy turning complex information into clear recommendations and practical tools that influence strategic decision-making, we'd love to hear from.

The role sits within Human Resources in the Corporate Services Group. Human Resources is responsible for delivering the MCA People Strategy and a wide range of people services including culture and capability, talent management, employee relations, reward and resourcing.

As part of the Talent, Capability & Inclusion team, you will work across HR and MCA business areas to help the organisation understand future skills requirements, identify emerging capability risks and strengthen talent and succession approaches.

You will collaborate with HR Business Partners, Learning & Development colleagues, People Strategy Group members and senior leaders, providing insight, frameworks and practical tools that support evidence-based workforce decisions.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at: MCA Homepage , Civil Service Careers

Job description

As a Talent and Capability Specialist you will report to the Talent, Capability & Inclusion Lead and support delivery of the MCA People Strategy by providing future-focused skills, capability and workforce insight. Your work will help the organisation anticipate capability risks, strengthen succession resilience and make informed workforce decisions.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

1. Building and maintaining an evidence-based understanding of future skills and capability requirements, informed by workforce data, organisational priorities and external trends.
2. Analysing workforce, capability and talent insight to identify emerging risks, gaps and opportunities that may affect organisational resilience and future workforce capability.
3. Producing clear, executive-ready insight and reporting for the HR Leadership Team, the People Strategy Group and other senior governance forums.
4. Working collaboratively with HR Business Partners, Learning & Development colleagues and business leaders to embed future-skills thinking into workforce planning and people decisions.
5. Supporting leaders to understand capability risks and make evidence-based workforce decisions, while measuring the impact of talent and capability initiatives against organisational outcomes.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Person specification

Required experience:

This role may suit candidates from workforce planning, talent management, people analytics, organisational development, capability, evaluation or other strategic people profession backgrounds.

To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:

• Demonstrable experience working with data and qualitative insight to inform senior stakeholders.
• Ability to design frameworks, models or tools that support consistent, evidence‑based decision‑
• Strong written and analytical skills, with the ability to translate complexity into clear, practical outputs.
• Understanding of workforce planning, skills analysis, talent management, evaluation and/or people insight in a complex organisation.

Additional Information

Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week.

Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 30 hours per week.

Hybrid working available

This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.

The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

Regular UK wide travel including some overnight stays expected.

If you have a question about hybrid working, part time/job share hours, flexible working, travelling for work, or require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Vacancy Holder during the recruitment process to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role (see below for contact details).

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that we will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. Therefore, this role is not open to applications from those who require sponsorship – candidates must ensure they have the appropriate right to work in the UK before applying. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,663, Maritime and Coastguard Agency contributes £10,331 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.