Senior Talent Acquisition Lead

National Physical Laboratory; Teddington; Remote; GBP 60,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is seeking a senior Talent Acquisition leader to shape and drive the recruitment strategy across the organisation. You’ll lead a high-performance TA team, partner with senior stakeholders and act as a trusted advisor on hiring priorities and processes.

You’ll champion inclusion, monitor recruitment metrics, and implement best practices across the lifecycle while balancing quality, cost, and speed in a dynamic science environment.

Qualifications

• Extensive people management experience including coaching, performance management and developing high‑performing recruitment teams.
• Experience delivering business unit recruitment strategies balancing quality, cost and timescales in fast‑paced environments.
• Budget management with data‑driven insights and ROI reporting.
• Experience designing and delivering assessment methodologies, including assessment centres and selection exercises.
• Implementing SLAs and KPIs for a recruitment team to drive accountability and continuous improvement.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and influencing skills at all levels.
• Strong IT capability with ATS, HR systems and recruitment technologies.
• Seasoned networking across TA and HR to stay abreast of market trends.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Talent Acquisition team to achieve exceptional results.
• Shape and deliver NPL’s talent strategy alongside senior stakeholders.
• Provide trusted advice to hiring managers and senior leaders.
• Champion diversity and inclusion across recruitment.
• Monitor metrics and implement best practices across the recruitment lifecycle.

Skills

People management

Recruitment strategy

Stakeholder management

Data-driven recruiting

Assessment design

SLA / KPI design

ATS / HRIS systems

Market insights

Diversity & inclusion

Tools

ATS

HRIS

Job description

About the Role

Talent Acquisition is a critical driver of NPL's success, with a direct impact on our ability to attract the specialist talent needed to deliver our ambitious organisational goals. Our TA team is highly regarded across the business, acting as trusted partners to leaders while driving innovation, continuous improvement and best practice across the attraction, assessment and hiring lifecycle.

You will work closely with our Talent Pipelines Manager, People Team colleagues and senior stakeholders across the organisation. You will help shape and deliver NPL’s talent strategy ensuring we remain competitive in a challenging market. Combining strategic oversight with operational excellence, you'll provide leadership across the TA function, driving performance, innovation and continuous improvement.

A key focus of the role will be leading and developing the TA team to achieve exceptional results, fostering a high-performance culture centred on accountability, customer service and continuous development. Alongside managing your own complex portfolio of recruitment activity, you will act as a subject matter expert, providing trusted advice to hiring managers and senior leaders, identifying opportunities for improvement and implementing best practice across the recruitment lifecycle.

You’ll champion diversity and inclusion, leverage data and market insight to inform decision‑making, support budgeting processes, manage and monitor metrics to ensure the function delivers measurable value to the organisation.

Note: Internally this role will be called "Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist"

About You

You’ll be an experienced Talent Acquisition leader who combines strategic thinking with a hands‑on approach. Collaborative, credibleand commercially aware, you’ll inspire your team, build trusted relationships with stakeholders and use insight to deliver an inclusive, high‑performing recruitment service.

If you are excited by this opportunity, these are the essential skills we are looking for:

• Extensive people management experience, including evidence of coaching, performance management, managing underperformance and developing high‑performing recruitment teams.
• Evidence of delivering business unit led recruitment strategies, balancing quality, cost and timescales in fast‑paced, high‑volume environments whilst using innovative sourcing methods.
• Budget management experience, adopting a data‑driven approach, including experience analysing recruitment metrics, identifying trends and demonstrating ROI through reporting and insights.
• Experienced designing and delivering assessment methodologies, including assessment centres and selection exercises.
• Demonstrable experience of implementing SLAs, KPIs for a recruitment team, driving accountability, operational excellence and continuous improvement.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to build credibility and challenge constructively at all levels.
• Strong systems and IT capability, with experience using ATS, HR systems and recruitment technologies to manage data, reporting and process improvement.
• A seasoned networker, experience building relationships across the Talent Acquisition and HR community to staying abreast of market trends.

Why join us?

At NPL, you'll be part of an organisation whose work has real‑world impact. You'll join a supportive and collaborative team where your ideas and expertise will help shape the future of talent acquisition. In return, you'll have opportunities to develop your career, influence recruitment strategy and play a key role in attracting the people who enable NPL to deliver world‑leading science and innovation.

About Us

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is a world‑leading centre of excellence that provides cutting‑edge measurement science, engineering and technology to underpin prosperity and quality of life in the UK. Find out more about what it is like working here - The measure of us - Overview

NPL and DSIT have strong commitments to diversity and equality of opportunity, and welcome applications from candidates irrespective of their background, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, or age, providing they meet the required criteria. Applications from women, disabled and black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates in particular are encouraged. All disabled candidates (as defined by the Equality Act 2010) who satisfy the minimum criteria for the role will be guaranteed an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme.

At NPL, we believe our success is a result of the diversity and talent of our people. We strive to nurture and respect individuals to ensure everyone feels valued by treating everyone on the basis of their own individual merits and abilities regardless of their own or perceived identity, as part of our commitment to diversity & inclusion, we ensure we’re creating an environment where all our colleagues feel supported and welcome. More about this on our Diversity & Inclusion page.

We are committed to the health and well‑being of our employees. Flexible working and social activities are embedded in our culture to create a positive work‑life balance, along with a broad range of rewards, benefits and recognition. Our values are at the heart of what we do, and they shape the way we interact, develop our people and celebrate success. To ensure everyone has an equal chance, we’re always willing to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process. If you would like to discuss, please contact us.

We actively recruitcitizens of all backgrounds, but the nature of our work in specific departmentsmeans that nationality, residency and security requirements can be more tightlydefined than others. You will be asked about this throughout the recruitmentprocess. To work at NPL, you will need to obtain BPSS security clearance.