Global Talent Acquisition Lead in London

Collinson is the global, privately-owned company dedicated to helping the world to travel with ease and confidence. The group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market-leading airport experiences, loyalty and customer engagement, and insurance solutions for over 400 million consumers. Collinson is the operator of Priority Pass, the world’s original and leading airport experiences programme. Travellers can access a network of 1,500+ lounges and travel experiences, including dining, retail, sleep and spa, in over 650 airports in 148 countries, helping to elevate the journey into something special.

We work with the world’s leading payment networks, over 1,400 banks, 90 airlines and 20 hotel groups worldwide. We have been bringing innovation to the market since inception – from launching the first independent global VIP lounge access Programme, Priority Pass to being the first to sell direct travel insurance in the UK through Columbus Direct and creating the first loyalty agency of its kind in the travel sector with ICLP. Today we still invest heavily in innovation to ensure that we continue to deliver superior customer experiences.

Key clients include Mastercard, American Express, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM, Flying Blue, Accor, EasyJet, HSBC, Chase, HDFC. Our mission is focused on doing good beyond profit, which for us means we seek out opportunities for our people to share in our success and that we give back to the communities and people within which we work. Never short of ambition, the success of our business is delivered through the diverse and talented team of over 2,200 global colleagues.

Purpose of the job

The Talent Lead role is responsible for designing and delivering forward-thinking, data-informed talent initiatives that attract, develop, and retain exceptional people, while driving operational excellence across the full talent acquisition lifecycle. With a strong emphasis on process efficiency, strategic workforce planning, proactive sourcing, and an outstanding candidate experience, this role combines innovation with inclusive practices to build scalable solutions and robust talent pipelines.

Working closely with hiring managers, business leaders, and recruitment partners, the Talent Lead plays a pivotal role in shaping and executing Collinson’s global hiring strategy, ensuring alignment with current and future workforce needs and contributing directly to the organization’s overall success. By embedding talent intelligence, elevating the employer brand, and empowering hiring managers, this role ensures the delivery of high-quality hires that drive Collinson’s continued growth and innovation across global markets.

Key Responsibilities

• Talent Strategy & Workforce Planning: Design and implement global talent acquisition strategies aligned to business priorities and long-term workforce plans. Partner with senior stakeholders to anticipate talent needs and build proactive, diverse talent pipelines. Leverage market insights and talent intelligence to strengthen employer brand positioning and attract top talent.
• Process Innovation & Optimisation: Operate with considerable latitude to redefine and optimise global talent processes, tools, and frameworks to improve efficiency, scalability, and candidate quality. Champion continuous improvement and automation across the recruitment lifecycle, embedding data-driven decision-making and inclusive hiring practices. Identify and address systemic challenges, applying creative problem-solving to deliver sustainable process improvements. Optimise use of ATS, sourcing tools and analytics to streamline hiring operations. Ensure processes are equitable, inclusive, and aligned with best practices.
• Leadership & Collaboration: Lead key cross-functional projects that have significant impact within the Talent Acquisition function and the broader business. Collaborate with senior HR and business stakeholders to ensure alignment between talent strategies, workforce planning, and organisational goals. Provide mentorship, guidance, and professional development support to talent team members and hiring managers.
• Data, Reporting & Insights: Own and analyse talent acquisition metrics, translating data into actionable insights and strategic recommendations. Provide regular reporting to senior leadership to inform workforce and hiring decisions. Monitor external market trends to proactively adapt talent strategies.
• Candidate & Employee Experience: Directly shape and evolve the candidate and onboarding experience to ensure consistency, inclusivity, and engagement. Develop and embed global standards and feedback loops for continuous improvement of hiring and onboarding practices. Act as an advocate for Collinson’s EVP, ensuring that every stage of the recruitment journey reflects the company’s culture and values.
• Training & Capability Building: Partner with the Talent Development team to design and deliver capability-building programmes for hiring managers and TA professionals. Establish a culture of learning and feedback within Talent Acquisition, equipping hiring teams with the knowledge and tools to deliver exceptional experiences. Track training KPIs and performance data to continuously raise the standard of hiring capability across the business.

Experience

• Proven experience designing or transforming end-to-end Talent Acquisition functions.
• Background in both in-house and/or RPO environments.
• Experience within high-growth, start-up, or scale-up organisations preferred.
• Extensive experience in global Talent Acquisition leadership roles.
• Demonstrated track record of leading large-scale transformation initiatives (e.g., multiple end-to-end projects).
• Strong analytical capability with experience leveraging data to inform strategy.
• Hands-on experience with Workday (essential).
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across senior leadership levels.

Collinson is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes differences in all their forms including: colour, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, family status, age, individuals with disabilities and people from all backgrounds, cultures and experiences as we strongly believe this contributes to our on-going success. We are focused on continually evolving our purpose driven, high performing culture, providing an environment where our people have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and do interesting and meaningful work.

Our company values are: Take Action, Do the right thing, One team and Be insight led. These help guide everything we do internally in terms of how we think, act and interact, right through to how we deliver value to our customers and clients.

In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use (For example - she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, etc). If you need any extra support throughout the interview process, then please email us at.