Recruitment Partner

Swindon, South West England, United Kingdom UK Research and Innovation Job Description

Recruitment Partner.

UK Research & Innovation.

Salary: £30,895 per annum.

Band: UKRI Band C.

Contract Type: Fixed Term (12 months parental leave cover).

Hours: Full-time/ Part Time (Minimum 28.5 hours per week). We understand the importance of work-life balance and are happy to discuss the possibility of flexible working with applicants.

Location: Polaris House, Swindon or Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell (Hybrid working available, likely to require at least 40% of time in the office).

Closing Date: 6th September 2026.

About the role

This role will provide advice and assistance on recruitment solutions to enable our hiring managers to carry out all recruitment activity, while also ensuring a high-quality candidate experience.

Working within the UKRI HR team, the main role of the Recruitment Partner is to provide recruitment support, completing the transactional elements of the recruitment process and support to Hiring Managers and Senior Recruitment Partners to ultimately ensure UKRI are best placed to attract suitable candidates and ensuring a high-quality candidate experience.

Your responsibilities:

• Provide advice and guidance on recruitment solutions to hiring managers, including advertising, interviews, all forms of assessment and on-boarding.
• Provide support and guidance to enable hiring managers to carry out all recruitment activity. This includes ensuring the vital approvals are in place, coaching hiring managers to input vacancies correctly onto the relevant System, providing/uploading the relevant paperwork and forms for completion and being responsible for progress of recruitment campaigns.
• Deliver the full range of activities relating to candidate management, including where appropriate, working with our onboarding service provider, UK SBS, to ensure a flawless, timely and professional experience for candidates.
• Provide information and support to candidates from the point of application to on boarding, acting as an ambassador for UKRI to present a positive and engaging impression.
• Assist with/writing recruitment adverts.
• Arrange interviews when required.
• Oversee the new starter process to ensure successful candidates can take up employment quickly and seamlessly.
• Administer the relevant talent pool. This includes reviewing CVs, adding candidates, keeping the database up to date through keeping in contact with candidates and collaborating closely with relevant staff about candidates.
• Working closely with HR colleagues to ensure they are kept up to date with progress on recruitment activity.
• Providing updates on key accountabilities to allow for analysis for continuous improvement.
• Adapt to new ways of working identified in overarching resourcing strategy to improve the UKRI offering, working alongside our Talent Team.
• Support corporate recruitment campaigns when required (e.g. senior hires, graduates, generic programmes and students).
• Assist and support with the administration and communication of the resourcing pool and secondments when required.
• Support, organise and attend occasional careers events as necessary to help raise the employer profile.

Contacts and Communication
• Work closely with all members of the UKRI HR Team.
• Collaborating regularly with the UK SBS onboarding colleagues where appropriate.
• Provide recruitment advice and support to the hiring community.
• Liaise with colleagues in other functional areas on process related matters.
• Liaise with external partners, such as advertising suppliers, as required.

About You/ Personal Specification

The below criteria will be scored during Shortlisting (S), Interview (I) or both (S&I).

Essential

• Experience working in recruitment, or similar environment (S&I).
• Strong administrative experience (S).
• Outstanding organisational skills with the ability to coordinate and prioritise work in a fast-paced environment (S&I).
• Knowledge of recruitment best practice and process stages such as writing/placing engaging recruitment adverts, reviewing CVs and organising interviews (I).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills (S&I).
• Able to adapt to change and demonstrate a continuous improvement approach (I).
• Ability to establish effective working relationships with a variety of stakeholders (I).

Benefits

We recognise and value our employees as individuals and aim to provide a favourable pay and rewards package. We are committed to supporting employees' development and promote a culture of continuous learning!

A list of benefits below:
• An outstanding defined benefit pension scheme.
• 30 days' annual leave in addition to 10.5 public and privilege days (full time equivalent).
• Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities.
• Employee assistance programme, providing confidential help and advice.
• Flexible working options.

Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance!

For further information on our benefits please see:

Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

UKRI is an Equal Opportunity & Disability Confident Employer.

Please apply online, if you experience any issue applying, please contact [email removed].

As this job does not fulfil the UK Government minimum criterion for obtaining sponsored migrant worker status we will be unable to apply for sponsorship for anyone not eligible to work in the UK. At interview, all shortlisted candidates are required to bring with them identification documents and original documents that prove they hold or can obtain the right to work in the UK. You can check your eligibility here https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y.

Join us and let's transform tomorrow together!

About Us

UKRI - UK Research and Innovation
UKRI is an organisation that brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Together, we build an independent organisation with a strong voice and vision ensuring the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation.

Supporting some of the world's most exciting and challenging research projects, we develop and operate some of the most remarkable scientific facilities in the world. We are pushing the frontiers of human knowledge through fundamental research and delivering benefits for UK society and the economy through world-class research, skills and business-led innovation.

More information can be found at www.ukri.org.

Choosing to come to work at UKRI means that you will have access to a whole host of benefits from a defined benefit pension scheme, excellent holiday entitlement, access to employee shopping/travel discounts and salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme. For more details, visit benefits of working for UKRI.

How we support EDI in the workforce

At UKRI, we believe that everyone has a right to be treated with dignity and respect, and to be provided with equal opportunities to thrive and succeed in an environment that enables them to do so. We also value diversity of thought and experience within inclusive groups, organisations and the wider comm