Senior Manager - Recruitment & Onboarding

Irwin Mitchell; England; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holidays plus bank holidays

Flexible pension schemes

Volunteering days

Job summary

A national law firm in the UK is seeking a Recruitment Leader to manage and enhance their recruitment function. This critical role involves leading a high-performing team, designing effective recruitment strategies, and ensuring a seamless onboarding experience for new colleagues. The ideal candidate will have significant experience in the legal sector and strong stakeholder management skills. This opportunity offers a chance to make a real difference in a supportive and inclusive work environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience managing an RPO solution and leading high-performing recruitment teams.
• Strong stakeholder management, negotiation, and influencing skills.
• A commercial mindset with deep knowledge of market trends and recruitment legislation.
• Experience in the legal sector is essential.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of recruitment experts across the full recruitment lifecycle.
• Manage relationships with third-party recruitment agencies.
• Own the onboarding experience for all new colleagues.
• Design and deliver recruitment strategies that attract top talent.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Negotiation

Leadership

Resilience

Creativity

Job description

Overview

We’re a national law firm with a local reach. Our legal experts are here for you. Whether it’s personal or business, we understand that everyone’s situation is different. But we’re more than just a law firm – we’re a team of people working together to help individuals and businesses navigate life’s ups and downs. Working here you’ll feel a part of our friendly and inclusive environment.

We’ll value you for who you are and what you bring. We support each other and push boundaries to achieve incredible things and make a real difference to our clients and communities.

We’re always looking to support our colleagues to work in a way that works best for them and everyone else, including our clients, the business and the regulators. Please speak to a member of our Recruitment and Onboarding team for more information.

Your Role and What You’ll Be Doing

Are you an influential and solution-focused leader with deep experience in the legal or professional services sector and a proven track record of leading strategic hiring solutions? We’re looking for someone who has successfully managed a high-performing recruitment function, including an RPO model. You should thrive on stakeholder influence, understand the importance of working effectively beyond HR, and bring data-driven thinking to every decision. You must also be in tune with the market to anticipate and respond to changing business needs.

This is a critical leadership role – the most senior recruitment specialist in our team – responsible for shaping and delivering inclusive, efficient, and future-focused recruitment and onboarding strategies.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Leading a team of recruitment experts across the full recruitment lifecycle – from partner-level hiring to administrative support – and managing an extended RPO team to deliver a robust sourcing model.
• Partnering with HR Operations and HRBPs to ensure recruitment processes, role profiles, and interview planning are timely, accurate, and aligned.
• Owning the onboarding experience for all new colleagues, ensuring it is seamless, inclusive, and creates moments that matter from day one.
• Designing and delivering recruitment strategies that attract top talent, maximize profitability, and flex with business needs.
• Committing to continuous improvement and service excellence.
• Managing and developing strong relationships with third-party recruitment agencies and suppliers, ensuring contract adherence, value for money, and alignment with our values and D&I strategy.
• Championing technology and data to create efficiencies, improve hiring outcomes, and enhance the candidate journey.
• Driving diversity and inclusion through innovative sourcing and onboarding practices.
• Building and influencing relationships across the business – beyond HR – with the ability to negotiate and influence at all levels.
• Collaborating with internal communications and engagement teams to strengthen our employer brand and candidate value proposition.
• Ensuring strong future talent pipelines aligned with strategic workforce plans and D&I goals.
• Effectively leading a dynamic function, enabling the team to manage multiple priorities.
• Acting as the escalation point for all recruitment-related issues, providing expert guidance and resolution across the function.

What You’ll Bring

• Proven experience managing an RPO solution and leading high-performing recruitment teams.
• Strong stakeholder management, negotiation, and influencing skills.
• A commercial mindset with deep knowledge of market trends and recruitment legislation.
• Experience in the legal sector is essential.
• A passion for coaching, mentoring, and developing others.
• Resilience, creativity, and the ability to thrive in a changing environment.
• A commitment to continuous improvement and service excellence.

Location & Flexibility

You’ll be based in or near Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, or Birmingham, with the flexibility to travel as needed.

Our Benefits

• 25 days holidays as standard plus bank holidays - You can ‘buy’ up to 35hrs of extra holiday too.
• Generous and flexible pension schemes.
• Volunteering days – Two days of volunteering every year for a cause of your choice (fully paid)
• Westfield Health membership, offering refunds on medical services alongside our Aviva Digital GP services.

We also offer a wide range of well-being initiatives to encourage positive mental health both in and out of the workplace and to make sure you’re fully supported. This includes our Flexible by Choice programme which gives our colleagues more choice over a hybrid way of working subject to role, team and client requirements.

We have been ranked in the Best Workplaces for Wellbeing for Large Organisations for 2024!

Our responsible business programmes are fundamental to who we are and our purpose. We’re committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace where our colleagues can flourish, and we have established a number of inclusion network groups across our business to support this aim.

Our commitment to Social Responsibility, community investment activity and tackling climate change is a fundamental part of who we are. It’s made up of four strands: Our People, Our Community, Our Environment and Our Pro Bono.

Additional Information

As part of the Irwin Mitchell Group’s on-boarding process all successful applicants are required to complete the group’s employment screening process. This process helps to ensure that all new employees meet our standards in relation to honesty and integrity therefore protecting the interests of the Group, colleagues, clients, partners and other stakeholders.

We carry out pre employment screening to establish your eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record and financial checks with our trusted 3rd parties.

The employment screening process will fully comply with Data Protection and other applicable laws.

Irwin Mitchell LLP is an equal opportunity employer.

Details

• Seniority level: Mid-Senior level
• Employment type: Full-time
• Job function: Legal and Human Resources
• Industries: Law Practice