- Ready to shape how an organisation attracts, assesses and develops the talent that will drive its future success?
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Looking for a role where you'll influence how an organisation attracts, assesses and appoints exceptional people?
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Do you enjoy combining strategic thinking with hands-on delivery, leading high-profile recruitment campaigns while helping evolve how recruitment is delivered?
As our Senior Talent Acquisition Partner, you'll play a leading role in delivering and evolving Talent Acquisition at StepChange. Combining strategic thinking with hands-on delivery, you'll lead complex recruitment campaigns, design and facilitate evidence-based assessment centres, help shape our Early Careers strategy and contribute to the continued development of our Recruitment function.
This goes far beyond delivering recruitment. You'll work across almost every aspect of Talent Acquisition, from specialist recruitment and executive appointments to assessment innovation, employer branding, recruitment technology and continuous improvement. Working alongside the Talent Acquisition Manager, you'll help shape how we attract, assess and develop talent across the charity.
About the Role
You'll be a trusted partner to hiring managers and senior leaders, leading strategically important recruitment activity while supporting the ongoing development of our Talent Acquisition function.
A significant part of the role will involve designing, facilitating and continuously improving evidence-based assessment centres across our large-scale Contact Centre recruitment programmes, specialist hiring and Early Careers initiatives.
You'll ensure our assessment approaches are engaging, inclusive and evidence-based, giving candidates an outstanding experience while enabling hiring managers to make confident recruitment decisions.
Alongside recruitment delivery, you'll contribute to the continued evolution of Talent Acquisition. Whether it's supporting executive and Trustee recruitment, developing future talent pathways, strengthening employer branding, improving candidate experience or introducing new recruitment technology, you'll help shape how recruitment continues to develop at StepChange.
What You'll Be Doing
Day to day, you'll:
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Lead end-to-end recruitment for specialist, niche and strategically important vacancies across the charity.
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Design and lead engaging assessment centres, recruitment events and capability-based selection processes across Contact Centre recruitment, Early Careers and specialist recruitment campaigns, delivering activity across StepChange locations as required.
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Partner with hiring managers to develop effective attraction, assessment and recruitment strategies for priority, complex and hard-to-fill roles.
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Support senior leadership and Trustee recruitment, delivering high-quality recruitment processes for strategically important appointments.
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Help shape and develop StepChange's Early Careers strategy, creating sustainable talent pathways through work experience, placements, apprenticeships and future talent initiatives.
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Develop and maintain strong partnerships with schools, colleges, universities, community organisations, professional networks and external partners to strengthen future talent pipelines and promote StepChange as an employer of choice.
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Build sustainable talent pipelines through proactive sourcing, market insight and workforce intelligence.
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Coach and develop Recruiters, helping build capability, consistency and assessment excellence across the Recruitment Team.
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Use recruitment data, labour market insight and performance measures to identify opportunities, improve hiring outcomes and support informed decision-making.
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Lead and contribute to Talent Acquisition initiatives covering employer branding, Employee Value Proposition (EVP), candidate experience, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI), recruitment technology, quality, compliance, workforce planning and the continued development of the Recruitment function.
About You
You'll be an experienced Talent Acquisition professional who enjoys building strong relationships, solving recruitment challenges and helping organisations attract exceptional people.
You're equally comfortable partnering with senior stakeholders, leading assessment centres or managing complex recruitment campaigns. You enjoy balancing strategic thinking with hands-on delivery and are always looking for better ways to attract and assess talent.
You will bring:
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Strong stakeholder partnership skills, with experience influencing hiring decisions and building trusted relationships across all levels of an organisation.
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Experience designing and leading evidence-based assessment and selection processes, including structured interviews and assessment centres, together with experience delivering specialist, executive, high-volume Contact Centre and/or Early Careers recruitment.
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Excellent facilitation, presentation and communication skills, with the confidence to represent StepChange professionally when engaging candidates, hiring managers, education providers, community organisations and external partners.
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Strong organisational, analytical and project management skills, using recruitment data, market insight and workforce trends to manage competing priorities and continuously improve recruitment outcomes.
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A collaborative approach with sound judgement, combined with the ability to coach and develop colleagues while delivering an exceptional candidate and hiring manager experience.
You'll thrive in this role if you're motivated by:
Purpose: Helping build the workforce that enables more people across the UK to access life-changing support.
Growth: Developing innovative recruitment approaches, leading high-profile recruitment programmes and broadening your expertise across specialist recruitment, assessment and early careers.
Balance: Hybrid and flexible ways of working that support collaboration, wellbeing and high performance.
Belonging: Joining a collaborative Recruitment & Talent Acquistion team where ideas are welcomed, expertise is valued and continuous improvement is encouraged.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
Belonging is central to who we are. We're committed to building a workforce that reflects the people we support and creating a culture where everyone feels valued, respected and able to be themselves.
We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences. If you need a reasonable adjustment during the recruitment process so you can perform at your best, just let us know.
Additional Info
National Travel: Regular travel will be required across our Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle and Chester locations to facilitate assessment centres, recruitment events and other Talent Acquisition activities. Occasional overnight stays may be required.
