Senior Resourcing Partner: Direct Hiring & Strategy in London

The Resourcing Partners (Senior & Specialist) delivers a proactive, high-quality, inclusive and outcome-focused recruitment service across the Council, with a particular focus on senior (exec), specialist and hard-to-fill roles. The role is responsible for managing complex recruitment campaigns, advising hiring managers on effective recruitment strategies, and improving outcomes through direct sourcing, stakeholder engagement, market insight and data-led decision-making. The postholder acts as a trusted advisor to managers and senior stakeholders, ensuring recruitment activity is efficient, compliant, cost-effective and aligned to organisational priorities. A key part of the role is to reduce reliance on agency and interim solutions by strengthening direct attraction and sustainable resourcing approaches.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end recruitment campaigns for a varied portfolio of vacancies, including senior (exec), specialist and hard-to-fill roles.
• Act as the primary recruitment contact for hiring managers, providing expert advice and challenge on attraction strategy, selection approach, timescales and market conditions.
• Design and deliver targeted, inclusive and cost-effective attraction campaigns using a range of methods, including direct sourcing, talent pooling and proactive candidate outreach.
• Support managers to reduce avoidable agency and interim use by identifying sustainable alternatives and improving direct hiring outcomes.
• Work collaboratively with hiring managers and HR colleagues to resolve hard-to-fill vacancies through tailored sourcing and attraction strategies.
• Ensure recruitment activity complies with employment legislation, equality duties, internal policy and governance requirements.
• Support effective use of the Applicant Tracking System and maintain accurate recruitment records, audit trails and pre-employment checks.
• Use recruitment data, market insight and service feedback to identify trends, improve performance and strengthen candidate and manager experience.
• Build strong working relationships with internal stakeholders and external suppliers where required, ensuring value for money and service quality.
• Promote the Council as an employer of choice through inclusive practice, strong candidate care and professional delivery.
• Support redeployment activity in line with Council procedures.

Key Deliverables / Outcomes

• Improved time-to-hire, particularly for complex and hard-to-fill roles.
• Increased direct attraction and sourcing success.
• Reduced agency and interim reliance and associated spend.
• Strong compliance, governance and audit readiness across recruitment activity.
• Positive candidate and hiring manager experience.
• Improved consistency and quality of recruitment service delivery across the Council.

Candidate Profile

We are looking for recruitment professionals with strong end-to-end recruitment experience, including delivery of senior (exec), complex or hard-to-fill campaigns – gained in an in-house environment. You will bring sound knowledge of direct sourcing methods, attraction strategy, recruitment compliance and stakeholder management. You will be confident working with hiring managers and senior stakeholders, using evidence, insight and professional judgement to influence decisions and improve outcomes. You will also be comfortable using recruitment systems and data to track performance, identify issues and contribute to continuous improvement. Experience in public sector, and ideally local government recruitment is essential.

Essential Experience and Knowledge

• Strong knowledge of end-to-end recruitment, including senior (exec), specialist or hard-to-fill recruitment.
• Experience managing recruitment campaigns in-house, from briefing through to offer stage.
• Experience gained in local government or public sector recruitment.
• Experience of advising and influencing hiring managers, including senior stakeholders.
• Knowledge of direct sourcing approaches and targeted attraction methods.
• Understanding of compliant recruitment practice, including equality and employment-related requirements.
• Experience using ATS/recruitment systems and recruitment data or metrics.
• Experience working in a customer-focused recruitment or HR environment.
• Evidence of supporting cost-effective recruitment outcomes and reducing unnecessary external spend.

Desirable

• Experience using recruitment insight and metrics to inform service improvement.
• CIPD Level 5 qualification in HR/People/Recruitment or equivalent experience.

Personal Style / Behaviours

• Collaborative and relationship-focused.
• Confident, credible and solutions-oriented.
• Organised and able to manage multiple campaigns simultaneously.
• Commercially aware and focused on value for money.
• Committed to equality, inclusion and excellent candidate care.
• Comfortable using data and evidence to challenge constructively and improve performance.