Early Careers Development Partner

Balfour Beatty plc; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Smart working

Remote up to 40%

25 days annual leave

Pension and share incentive plan

Volunteer and recognition schemes

Job summary

Balfour Beatty plc is seeking an Early Careers Development Partner on a 12-month fixed term contract. The role is flexible in base location and focuses on delivering strategic Early Careers projects across business areas.

You will design engaging content, oversee onboarding, and provide workforce planning insights while maintaining data-driven reporting and continuous improvement across EC programmes.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering talent, learning or Early Careers programmes within a complex organisation.
• Strong design, delivery and facilitation skills in virtual and face-to-face settings.
• Strong senior stakeholder management and influencing skills, with ability to build credibility at all levels.
• Experience partnering with business leaders and HR teams to deliver strategic people outcomes.
• Strong project and programme management capability, balancing multiple priorities and stakeholders.
• Ability to use data and insight to drive decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Passion for developing future talent and creating outstanding Early Careers experiences.

Responsibilities

• Deliver strategic Early Careers projects and programmes aligned to business priorities and the Early Careers strategy.
• Design and deliver engaging programme content in both virtual and face to face settings.
• Deliver a consistent, high-quality experience for EC graduates, EC apprentices, summer placements and Year Out placement students across the assigned business areas.
• Produce and maintain an annual delivery plan for assigned business areas, setting out key activity, milestones, stakeholder inputs and measures of success.
• Provide workforce planning insight and recommendations that help business areas identify and plan future Early Careers requirements.
• Deliver programme improvements informed by data, participant feedback, business insight and external good practice.
• Provide clear reporting on engagement, retention, progression, attendance, programme delivery and emerging risks, with agreed actions followed through to completion.
• Deliver a consistent onboarding experience that prepares Early Careers employees and their line managers for a successful start.
• Point of contact for line managers and provide practical guidance, resources and development that enable them to support, mentor and develop Early Careers employees effectively.
• Deliver and maintain a buddy approach that connects new starters with the wider Early Careers community.
• Ensure Early Careers queries and escalations are resolved or signposted promptly, with recurring themes used to improve guidance and processes.
• Design and deliver engaging programme activity, including welcome calls, inductions, bite-sized learning, networking, programme activity and senior leader engagement.
• Contribute to the successful delivery of EC Fest and other cross-business Early Careers events.
• Deliver business-area engagement activity that strengthens connection, belonging and understanding of career opportunities across Balfour Beatty.
• Maintain accurate, timely Early Careers data for assigned business areas and ensure data issues are resolved with the relevant manager or team.
• Deliver regular dashboards and insight on retention, progression, attendance and programme participation to support decision-making and targeted intervention.
• Work with HRSS to improve Early Careers processes, data quality and the participant and manager experience.
• Ensure missed training, college or programme attendance is escalated and followed through with the relevant SBU HR team and line manager.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Design & facilitation

Data-driven decision-making

Programme delivery

Talent and Early Careers

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic projects

Job description

About The Role

Balfour Beatty has an exciting opportunity for an Early Careers Development Partner to join our growing team on a 12 months fixed term contract.

Base location for this role is flexible.

What you'll be doing

Core deliverables

• Deliver strategic Early Careers projects and programmes aligned to business priorities and the Early Careers strategy.
• Design and deliver engaging programme content in both virtual and face to face settings
• Deliver a consistent, high-quality experience for EC graduates, EC apprentices, summer placements and Year Out placement students across the assigned business areas.
• Produce and maintain an annual delivery plan for assigned business areas, setting out key activity, milestones, stakeholder inputs and measures of success.
• Provide workforce planning insight and recommendations that help business areas identify and plan future Early Careers requirements.
• Deliver programme improvements informed by data, participant feedback, business insight and external good practice.
• Provide clear reporting on engagement, retention, progression, attendance, programme delivery and emerging risks, with agreed actions followed through to completion.

Onboarding and ongoing support

• Deliver a consistent onboarding experience that prepares Early Careers employees and their line managers for a successful start.
• Point of contact for line managers and provide practical guidance, resources and development that enable them to support, mentor and develop Early Careers employees effectively.
• Deliver and maintain a buddy approach that connects new starters with the wider Early Careers community.
• Ensure Early Careers queries and escalations are resolved or signposted promptly, with recurring themes used to improve guidance and processes.

Programme engagement and events

• Design and deliver engaging programme activity, including welcome calls, inductions, bite-sized learning, networking, programme activity and senior leader engagement.
• Contribute to the successful delivery of EC Fest and other cross-business Early Careers events.
• Deliver business-area engagement activity that strengthens connection, belonging and understanding of career opportunities across Balfour Beatty

Process and data

• Maintain accurate, timely Early Careers data for assigned business areas and ensure data issues are resolved with the relevant manager or team.
• Deliver regular dashboards and insight on retention, progression, attendance and programme participation to support decision-making and targeted intervention.
• Work with HRSS to improve Early Careers processes, data quality and the participant and manager experience.
• Ensure missed training, college or programme attendance is escalated and followed through with the relevant SBU HR team and line manager.

Who we're looking for

• Experience delivering talent, learning or Early Careers programmes within a complex organisation.
• Strong design, delivery and facilitation skills in virtual and F2F settings
• Strong senior stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to build credibility at all levels.
• Experience partnering with business leaders and HR teams to deliver strategic people outcomes.
• Strong project and programme management capability, balancing multiple priorities and stakeholders.
• The ability to use data and insight to drive decision‑making and continuous improvement.
• A passion for developing future talent and creating outstanding Early Careers experiences.

Why work for us

Day in, day out, our teams deliver some of the UK's most ambitious, exciting and meaningful projects; developing, building and maintaining the vital infrastructure that supports national economies and strengthens communities.

Why join us?

Benefits

• Smart working, giving you more flexibility such as staggered start and finish times, with up to 40% remote working, where roles allow.
• 25 days paid annual leave (pro rata)
• Family friendly policies which include 28 weeks full pay for maternity/adoption leave and four weeks full pay for paternity/partners leave
• Pension, share incentive plan, volunteering leave, recognition schemes and much more...

About Us

Balfour Beatty Group Enabling Functions are Legal, Finance, IT and Procurement, Communications, Health Safety and Environment, HR and Sustainability. Together, they support delivery of our Build to Last strategy whilst improving efficiencies and standardising our approach, systems and processes.

Diversity and inclusion

At Balfour Beatty, we want everyone to be able to thrive and achieve their full potential, regardless of their identity or background. We’re making great progress through our Value Everyone DEI Action Plan, but we know we’ve got more to do. Find out more about our values and DEI initiatives.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this role will be offered an interview.

We are committed to our processes being barrier-free and will support adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Please let the recruiter for this role know if you require any adjustments.

We’re looking to continually improve our recruitment process, so if you have any feedback, please share this with us via [e-mail]