Talent Acquisition Lead

Bristol, London, Edinburgh Motability Operations Ltd This is a great opportunity to play a leading role in shaping how Talent Acquisition operates across Motability Operations. Reporting into the Head of HR Operations & Enablement, the role will bring specialist Talent Acquisition expertise and take day-to-day ownership of developing and embedding a more proactive, structured, insight-led and strategically partnered Talent Acquisition model.

The Talent Acquisition Lead will act as the lead partner for key business areas, manage recruitment directly and lead a small Talent Acquisition team. The role combines senior recruitment delivery, functional leadership, commercial control and expert judgement, helping to strengthen sourcing decisions, candidate management, team standards, service resilience and overall Talent Acquisition effectiveness.

This role would suit someone who enjoys building capability as well as delivering high-quality recruitment. You’ll have real scope to influence how Talent Acquisition partners with the business, strengthens direct hiring, improves control and creates a more consistent candidate and hiring manager experience.   Key Accountabilities:
Talent Acquisition leadership, delivery and control

• Lead and develop a small Talent Acquisition team, providing direction, coaching and support to strengthen capability, consistency and service resilience.
• Work with the Head of HR Operations & Enablement to shape and deliver the Talent Acquisition roadmap, providing expert recruitment input across sourcing, attraction, hiring manager partnering, agency control, candidate experience, data and process improvement.
• Lead recruitment delivery for key business areas, partnering early with leaders and hiring managers to shape hiring plans, challenge approach, strengthen assessment quality and ensure hiring activity is well-managed, prioritised and delivered consistently.
• Create and embed consistent Talent Acquisition standards, ways of working and review routines, helping the team deliver a more joined-up, accountable and high-quality service.

Sourcing strategy, agency management and hiring quality

• Lead sourcing strategy across external hiring, making strong use of direct channels and applying agency support with clear commercial discipline, challenge and cost control.
• Own the assessment and oversight of contractor engagements for IR35 purposes, ensuring decisions are well-governed, compliant and properly documented.
• Monitor agency usage, source effectiveness, recruitment spend and quality of hire, using insight to improve retention, strengthen hiring outcomes, reduce avoidable agency reliance and improve cost effectiveness over time.
• Strengthen attraction and go-to-market activity, ensuring roles are positioned effectively and relevant talent pools are developed.
• Maintain strong candidate management and process discipline, ensuring vacancies, workflows, candidate records and recruitment documentation are handled accurately and consistently.

Performance insight, governance and continuous improvement

• Use recruitment reporting, service measures and management information to generate actionable insight, highlight risks, support decision-making and drive improvements where needed.
• Maintain strong governance and compliance across recruitment activity, including requisitions, candidate data, offer processes, contractor engagements and recruitment records.
• Identify and implement improvements to recruitment processes, workflows and ways of working to increase consistency, resilience and efficiency.
• Support inclusive hiring practices, fair recruitment processes and attraction approaches that widen access to talent and support EDI goals.

Service resilience and senior partnering

• Build service resilience across Talent Acquisition, ensuring recruitment activity can be maintained during peak demand, absence, reduced cover and high-volume recruitment periods.
• Set clear expectations for recruitment quality, stakeholder experience and ways of working, while developing stronger partnering capability across the team.
• Work closely with HR Operations, hiring managers and wider stakeholders to ensure recruitment activity is joined up, well-co-ordinated and effectively handed over at the right stages.
• Provide credible strategic input on workforce priorities, recruitment risks, market insight and delivery options, helping leaders make better hiring decisions and plan ahead with confidence.