Recruitment Partner

Join a forward-thinking college where education changes lives! Barking & Dagenham College is seeking a proactive Recruitment Partner to lead end-to-end talent acquisition, coach and train hiring managers, and optimize the college's hiring processes. You will join us on a full-time, 36 hpw, permanent contract. In return we offer a salary of £42,656 to £45,052 pa inclusive of London Weighting, dependent on qualifications and experience.

Barking & Dagenham College of Further & Higher Education is a dynamic, community-focused college with a strong reputation for technical and vocational excellence. Established in 1961 and operating across Barking and Rush Green campuses, we support thousands of learners and apprentices each year to develop the skills, confidence and qualifications they need to thrive. With significant investment in our facilities — including our East London Institute of Technology — we provide outstanding learning and working environments for both staff and students.

Our Human Resources team plays a vital role in attracting, engaging and appointing talented individuals who support our students to build confidence, achieve their ambitions, progress into employment, access higher-level study, and make a positive impact within their families and communities.

What You’ll Be Doing

As a Recruitment Partner at BDC, you will balance talent strategy with hands‑on execution. You will work closely with HR Operations Partners, HR Assistants, and hiring managers to streamline recruitment, elevate our employer branding, and build sustainable candidate pipelines for hard‑to‑fill positions. This is a great role for someone who is a strong relationship builder and problem solver.

Key Responsibilities

• End-to-end recruitment: Source passive talent, design skills-based assessment methods, manage interview logistics, and build direct pipelines to cut agency costs.
• Manager coaching & engagement: Advise managers on workforce planning, help define role requirements, challenge ATRs, and upskill teams on inclusive interviewing techniques. Strong influencing skills to coach, challenge, and support hiring managers.
• Candidate experience: Ensure all candidate touchpoints and job postings are accessible, engaging, and reflective of best-practice hiring.
• Data driven process improvement: Use the ATS reporting to track metrics, eliminate process bottlenecks, shorten time-to-hire, and manage Preferred Supplier List (PSL) performance.
• Safeguarding & compliance: Maintain strict adherence to Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidelines throughout the recruitment process.

What We’re Looking For

You should have:

• A proven track record in full-lifecycle hiring.
• Demonstrable skills using analytics to understand and project recruitment needs, fix process bottlenecks, and report ROI to leaders.
• Proven ability to redesign recruitment processes, shorten time to hire, and improve hiring outcomes.
• Evidence of achieving continuous improvement to drive results.

In addition, you will demonstrate:

• Strong commercial drive. Experienced in managing PSL performance and relationships, and lowering cost per hire.
• Solid understanding of relevant and up to date employment legislation.
• Working knowledge of KCSIE guidelines and their impact on recruitment best practices in the education context.

What’s In It for You?

We offer a wide range of benefits, including:

• A competitive salary.
• Generous holiday and pension packages.
• Ongoing CPD and strong links with industry.
• Free parking and access to travel-to-work and technology assistance schemes.
• The opportunity to be part of a passionate, supportive team focused on learner success.

Barking & Dagenham College is committed to best practice relating to safer recruitment and safeguarding. Please note that all employment checks are made in-line with the Keeping Children Safe in Education guidelines and Barking & Dagenham College use AI automation as part of our candidate processing. Job offers will be subject to onboarding checks including social media checks.

Barking & Dagenham College is proudly an inclusive employer, striving towards an open culture where everyone can bring their whole selves to work, safely and without fear of judgment or persecution. We welcome applications from all, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, race, religion, beliefs, disability, neurodiversity, sexual orientation or age. Should you require any reasonable adjustments as part of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know. You will not be disadvantaged for stating your needs and we want to support you to do your best in this process.