Early Careers Partner, COO in Southampton

Fixed Term Contract Duration - 24 Months

About the Business

Quilter plc is a leading wealth management business, helping to enable brighter financial futures for every generation. Quilter oversees £141.2 billion in customer investments (as of December 2025). It has an adviser and customer offering spanning financial advice, investment platforms, multi-asset investment solutions, and discretionary fund management. The business is comprised of two segments: Affluent and High Net Worth.

Affluent encompasses the financial planning business, Quilter Financial Planning, the Quilter Investment Platform and Quilter Investors, the multi-asset investment solutions business. High Net Worth includes the discretionary fund management business, Quilter Cheviot, together with Quilter Cheviot Financial Planning – offering a highly personalised service to private clients, charities, trustees, and professional partners. Quilter Cheviot has presence throughout the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands.

At Quilter we never stand still. Our foundations are rooted in our extraordinary expertise, which is trusted by hundreds of thousands of customers, but we have great ambitions to stay one step ahead and make an even greater difference to the people and communities we serve, including our colleagues. Our business is transforming, continually modernising, and becoming even more customer centric. So, if you want to be bold in the pursuit of your ambitions, bring new ideas, and challenge and evolve what we do, it’s the perfect time to join us!

About the Role

• Level: 3
• Department: COO, Operations
• Location: Southampton, United Kingdom (Hybrid)
• Contract Type: Permanent
• Regulated/Non-Regulated: Non-Regulated

This role provides functionally embedded support for early careers activity within the COO function, working in close partnership with the central Early Careers team. It focuses on local coordination, delivery and stakeholder engagement, ensuring centrally designed early careers programmes are implemented effectively within the COO function and aligned to workforce needs.

Partnership with the Early Careers Team

• Act as the day-to-day functional liaison between the COO function and the central Early Careers team
• Support the delivery of centrally led early careers initiatives within the COO function
• Operate consistently within centrally defined frameworks, policies and programme design
• Provide insight and feedback from the COO function to inform continuous improvement of early careers approaches
• Collaborate on programme planning, attraction activity and improvement initiatives, as led centrally

Recruitment & Selection

• Support recruitment activity for COO-aligned early careers roles, in partnership with the Early Careers team
• Support centrally led attraction initiatives such as campaigns, events and outreach activity
• Co-deliver selection processes, including interviews and assessment activities, in line with central standards
• Ensure all activity aligns with the organisation’s early careers recruitment principles and candidate experience approach

Onboarding & Programme Delivery

• Coordinate local onboarding activity for early careers hires within the COO function, aligned to centrally designed onboarding frameworks
• Deliver agreed local programme elements while supporting centrally led programme activity
• Coordinate the delivery of rotations and placements within the COO function to ensure they are meaningful and development-focused
• Act as the day-to-day operational contact for early careers activity within the COO function

Development, Support & Day-to-Day and line management

• Act as the day-to-day functional line management lead for early careers participants in the COO function, with accountability for engagement, performance, wellbeing, and effective contribution
• Hold regular check-ins to monitor performance, workload, development and academic or apprenticeship commitments, addressing issues early and escalating where needed
• Serve as the primary point of accountability for day-to-day issues, conduct, expectations and practical queries, escalating formal concerns to the central Early Careers team and contributing to action plans where required
• Provide clear guidance, challenge and escalation to line managers hosting early careers talent, ensuring meaningful work, feedback and exposure aligned to programme objectives and COO capability needs

Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as the functional point of contact for COO managers hosting early careers talent
• Build strong relationships across the COO function to enable engagement with early careers activity
• Work closely with the Early Careers team to ensure a consistent experience for participants across the organisation

Career Progression & Outcomes

• Support centrally led end-of-programme planning and progression discussion with line managers
• Contribute COO-specific outcomes data and insight to central reporting and programme success measures

Consumer Duty

This role will directly impact good customer outcomes by focusing on the end customer, challenging industry practices, and striving for a more efficient and digital processes, both internally and externally to positively impact the overall customer experience.

About You

To be successful in this role, you will bring strong organisational and stakeholder coordination skills, alongside practical experience supporting early careers or early talent activity within a business environment. You will have experience working with recruitment, onboarding or programme coordination activity, and be comfortable partnering with central HR or early careers teams. You will understand how early careers roles contribute to workforce planning and future capability needs and have experience working with line managers and stakeholders to coordinate placements, rotations or development opportunities. You will be confident balancing multiple priorities and stakeholders, organised and detail-oriented in your approach, and proactive in identifying and resolving delivery issues. Approachable and supportive, you will be comfortable providing day-to-day guidance and signposting to early careers participants, while understanding the importance of fair, consistent and inclusive processes. Collaborative and pragmatic in your style, you enable programmes, managers and early careers talent to succeed.

Inclusion & Diversity

We value diversity and strive to promote inclusivity in all aspects of our culture. We believe in equal opportunities for all, ensuring that no applicant encounters less favourable treatment based on anything but their skills, qualifications, experience, and potential. We celebrate the unique contributions of a diverse workforce and create a respectful, nurturing environment where every colleague can thrive.

Values

• Do the right thing: We act with integrity and are proudly committed to going above and beyond in service of our clients and the support we provide our communities.
• Always curious: We continuously seek new ideas and knowledge so we’re one step ahead of our clients’ needs. We look for inspiration everywhere and encourage experimentation, recognising that this is how we create brilliant solutions for brighter futures.
• Embrace challenge: We aim high to transform our potential into meaningful outcomes. With ambition as our driving force and a steadfast commitment to growth, we succeed for the good of every generation.
• Stronger together: Combining our diverse talents, we accomplish more collectively than we ever could do alone. We speak openly, actively listen, and support each other, and constructively challenge and embrace new ideas. We seek empowerment and demonstrate ownership and trust, with the confidence to make impactful decisions.

Core Benefits

• Holiday: 182 hours (26 days)
• Quilter Incentive Scheme: All employees are eligible to participate in incentive scheme, to incentivise business performance and their contribution.
• Pension Scheme: A non-contributory company pension scheme that can be boosted through personal contributions.
• Healthcare Cash Plan: Jersey employees only.
• Benefit Allowance: A cash benefit allowance is payable in lieu of some of our core benefits.

In addition to our core benefits, we offer a range of flexible benefits to UK employees that you can choose from and pay for conveniently via a salary deduction.