Talent Acquisition Lead, art-K

art-K Limited; Greater London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Vitality health

Mental health support

Sick pay

Pension contributions

Training after 2 years

28 days annual leave

Service-based leave

Job summary

art-K is seeking a Talent Acquisition Lead to drive recruitment across our 60+ studio locations in the UK. You will own the talent acquisition lifecycle, partnering with studio managers, spending time on-site to understand local hiring needs and to champion a candidate-centric experience.

Reporting to the Directors, you’ll design innovative attraction strategies, analyse market trends, and streamline processes to support art-K’s expansion.

Qualifications

• Talent acquisition across multiple studios.
• Strong stakeholder management and candidate experience.
• Experience partnering with studio managers.

Responsibilities

• Develop talent acquisition strategy and candidate experience.
• Analyse regional hiring trends and metrics.
• Coordinate on-site recruitment with studio managers to support expansion.

Job description

Salary

£35,000 - 45,000 per annum (depending on experience)

Location

In-person role with regular travel to art-K studios.

Possible base locations include:

• Beckenham
• Greenwich
• Nottingham
• Croxley Green
• High Wycombe

Contract

Full Time

Start Date

end of September – beginning of October

What You'll Do

• Talent Acquisition Strategy & Candidate Experience

You will be the passionate voice and brand ambassador for art-K’s full recruitment journey. You’ll partner closely with studio managers, spending time on-site to truly understand their local hiring needs.

You will ensure candidates feel valued by listening deeply and curiously to their motivations and interests throughout the process, whilst building strong relationships across our 60+ locations.

• Recruitment Analytics, Market Intelligence & Optimisation

Driven by an inquisitive and analytical mindset, you will explore regional hiring trends and talent metrics to refine our attraction strategies. You will bring a curious, proactive approach to solving recruitment challenges, making clear, recommendations to the senior leadership team. Your goal is to optimise our hiring pipelines, streamline our processes, and directly shape art-K’s ongoing expansion.

What Support You’d Have

Our HR & Recruitment team works closely together to ensure we attract, nurture, and retain the best team members as art-K grows.

You’ll Thrive in This Role If...

• You are genuinely eager to ask questions, uncover candidate motivations, and spend time in studios listening to Branch Managers' hiring needs.
• You combine warm, authentic relationship-building with a practical focus on hiring numbers and market trends to support your decisions.
• You love taking full accountability for hiring strategies, proactively solving bottlenecks, and even running studio trial sessions to spot top talent.
• You thrive on testing new initiatives and evaluating their success of failure based off evidence gathered in the process. As a result you can make informed decisions that you can qualify to your manager.

Working Hours

Monday to Friday: 9am–5pm

Why Join art-K?

Join art-K, a growing private art education service where over 8,500 students attend skill based art classes every week.

As the Talent Acquisition Lead, you will play a strategic role in driving art-K’s ongoing expansion. You will take full ownership of the talent acquisition lifecycle designing innovative attraction strategies, conducting high-level assessments, and partnering directly with Directors and Branch Managers to build exceptional teams. As a medium-sized, family owned brand, we deeply value every team member.

Benefits

art-K is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. All appointments are subject to safer recruitment checks.

• Vitality private health insurance (post-probation), 24/7 BUPA mental health support and wellness care via HEKA.
• Enhanced sick pay, maternity/paternity pay (following one year of continuous service) and annual leave loyalty scheme.
• 3x salary Death in Service insurance.
• NEST pension contributions and Blue Light Card discounts.
• Company-funded external training after 2 years.
• 28 days annual leave.
• Additional annual leave linked to length of service, starting after one year.