Lead Recruitment Manager
Salary: £34,000 - £46,500 (depending on location and experience)
Location: Newcastle (Candidate can be based anywhere in the North East)
Contract: Permanent, Full-Time
About the Role
We are seeking an experienced and commercially minded Lead Recruitment Manager to drive employer engagement, develop strategic partnerships, and lead recruitment activity across a regional area.
In this role, you will build strong relationships with employers and key stakeholders to identify recruitment opportunities, secure vacancies, and support the development of sector-focused employment pathways. Alongside managing your own portfolio of employer accounts, you will lead and coach Recruitment Managers, ensuring high performance and exceptional service delivery.
This is an excellent opportunity for a motivated leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment and enjoys building partnerships that create positive employment outcomes.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and implement a regional employer engagement strategy aligned to local labour market needs.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with employers, local authorities, sector organisations and other key stakeholders.
- Identify business development opportunities and secure new employer partnerships.
- Manage a portfolio of key employer accounts and coordinate large-scale recruitment campaigns.
- Source, screen and assess candidates, managing the end-to-end recruitment process.
- Lead, coach and develop Recruitment Managers to achieve performance and business objectives.
- Monitor recruitment performance, vacancy generation and fill rates, using data to drive continuous improvement.
- Organise and attend recruitment events, employer forums and networking opportunities.
- Work collaboratively with internal teams to develop sector-based training and employment pathways.
- Ensure excellent customer service is delivered to both employers and candidates while maintaining compliance with organisational policies and procedures.
Skills & Experience
We're looking for someone who can demonstrate:
- Experience managing or leading recruitment, employer engagement or business development teams.
- A proven track record of developing employer relationships and securing new business opportunities.
- Experience within recruitment, business-to-business sales, employability, welfare-to-work or a similar environment.
- Strong people management skills, including coaching, mentoring and performance management.
- Experience managing recruitment campaigns and employer accounts.
- A results-driven approach with a history of achieving and exceeding performance targets.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management and relationship-building skills.
- Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
- Good IT skills, including Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
- A Level 3 qualification (or equivalent) and GCSE English (or equivalent).
- A willingness to travel across the region as required.
- Knowledge of employability programmes or welfare-to-work services.
- Understanding of workforce development and local labour market trends.
