Senior Resource Manager in Leeds

We're looking for an experienced and commercially minded Resource Manager to play a pivotal role within our Real Estate business group. This is a fixed term contract role, for approximately 15 months. This is a highly visible position where you will work in close partnership with Partners, lawyers, and senior stakeholders to ensure work is allocated effectively, people are supported to perform at their best, and data is used to drive smarter resourcing decisions.

You’ll take ownership of the end‑to‑end resource management framework for the group, acting as a trusted adviser on capacity, utilisation, wellbeing, and future resourcing needs. Alongside this, you’ll be the subject‑matter expert for BigHand Resource Management, helping the business unlock insight and value from its data.

The Role

In this role, you will centralise and manage the allocation of work across the Real Estate group, ensuring matters are distributed in a way that drives productivity, profitability, and healthy high performance. You’ll develop a deep understanding of individual skills, experience, and development aspirations, using this insight to inform resourcing decisions and support long‑term capability building. You will closely monitor utilisation trends, proactively identifying risks of under‑ or over‑utilisation and working collaboratively with Partners to smooth workloads, support wellbeing, and ensure fair access to opportunities that contribute to progression and reward.

Using BigHand RM as your core tool, you’ll analyse and interpret resource data, produce meaningful reports, and guide stakeholders on what the data is telling us. Acting as the primary point of contact for BigHand RM within the group, you’ll provide training, inductions, and day‑to‑day support, while also managing the firm’s relationship with BigHand itself, including licence usage, system improvements, and issue escalation. You’ll also contribute to strategic decisions, advising on capacity constraints, recruitment needs, and team structures, and working closely with Commercial Finance on profitability and resourcing alignment.

Beyond day‑to‑day delivery, you’ll continually review and enhance resource management processes, support KPI tracking, contribute to tender activity, and help lead conversations around the expansion of resource management into other teams. You’ll also line‑manage a CDRI Assistant Resource Manager, supporting their development and progression.

About You

You are a confident, data‑driven Resource Manager who thrives on building strong relationships and influencing at all levels of the business. Comfortable operating within a fast‑paced professional services environment, you combine commercial awareness with a genuine commitment to people, wellbeing, and high performance. You enjoy working closely with Partners and senior leaders, using insight and analysis to shape smarter resourcing decisions and anticipate future capacity needs. You’re naturally proactive, trusted for your judgement, and able to balance competing demands while keeping teams productive, engaged, and fairly utilised. Detail‑oriented yet strategic, you’re motivated by continuous improvement, technology‑enabled solutions, and the opportunity to shape and grow a mature resource management function.

Qualifications

• A minimum of 2–3 years' experience in a Resource Management role (or closely related capacity/planning role) within a professional services environment
• Demonstrable experience using resourcing data to monitor utilisation, identify capacity risks, and inform workload or workforce decisions at team or business‑group level
• Proven ability to work directly with senior stakeholders (e.g. Partners, Directors, or equivalent), providing clear, confident advice on resourcing, capacity, and performance

We encourage applicants from all social backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities, gender identities and sexual orientations.