Senior Talent Lead

Location: UK (Ideally, 1 day in the office a week)

Department: People & Talent

Hours: Full-time

About YLD:

Everything we do is to empower our clients to move forward. Our purpose is to help our clients develop the capabilities they need to outperform their competitors. Our success is a consequence of ensuring our clients are successful. Our company is built on extraordinary people; we aim to attract, inspire, develop and retain them. YLD is a software engineering and design consultancy; we create digital capabilities for our clients that last beyond our engagement. We have offices in London, Lisbon, Porto.

About the role:

As our Senior Talent Lead, you'll drive YLD's growth through strategic talent acquisition and resource planning. Reporting to the Head of People, you'll own our end-to-end recruitment strategy while partnering with our Head of Client Services to ensure optimal staffing allocation across client projects. Working alongside our Talent Lead (who manages the day-to-day operations of two Talent Partners), you'll act as a hands-on sourcing expert and strategic partner with delivery teams to forecast and fulfil our workforce needs.

Your day-to-day responsibilities:

Team Leadership & Development

• Manage the Talent Lead and provide strategic guidance and mentorship to the Talent team
• Lead by example in complex sourcing, stakeholder management, and candidate experience
• Support talent team development through coaching on advanced sourcing techniques and consulting industry knowledge
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing across the talent function
• Act as escalation point for complex hiring challenges and senior stakeholder relationships

Strategic Partnership & Stakeholder Management

• Partner with the Head of People & Talent Lead to build a flexible hiring and staffing strategy
• Act as senior advisor to The Head of Client Services and Client Partners on workforce planning
• Lead strategic initiatives across talent acquisition and resource optimisation
• Drive data-driven recruitment processes with clear metrics and dashboards
• Train hiring managers on best practices and inclusive hiring

Resource Planning & Staffing Allocation

• Partner with The Head of Client Services and Client Partners to forecast staffing needs based on project pipeline
• Optimise consultant utilisation and keep to 0% bench time through strategic workforce planning
• Create flexible staffing models for different engagement types and client demands

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Expert Sourcing & Delivery

• Execute high-level sourcing strategies across technical and non-technical roles
• Build and maintain diverse talent pipelines through direct outreach and community engagement
• Own full recruitment lifecycle for critical hires
• Manage supplier relationships and optimise our ATS (Greenhouse)

Cross-functional Collaboration

• Advise our Head of Client Services and Function Heads on workforce planning and hiring strategy
• Support employer branding and EVP development
• Collaborate with the Head of People & Finance on headcount planning aligned to business forecasts

Preferred experience:

• Proven senior talent acquisition experience in fast-paced tech/consulting environment and at least 2 years experience leading a team/department
• Strong resource planning background, ideally in consulting or professional services
• Expert-level sourcing skills with track record of finding hard-to-fill technical roles
• Deep recruitment analytics and data-driven decision making
• ATS expertise (preferably Greenhouse) and process optimisation
• Experience managing teams and people.

This role is for you if:

• You’re a strategic thinker with strong business acumen and understanding of how staffing impacts client delivery
• You’re data-driven with strong forecasting and analytical capabilities
• Have experience hiring both perm and contractors across different geographies
• You are exceptional at sourcing passive candidates and building talent communities
• You are a collaborative senior professional who influences stakeholders and works effectively with talent teams
• Passionate about diversity, inclusion, and candidate experience

This role is not for you if:

• You want a lively office with lots of in-person time. Whilst you would be in our office (near Kings Cross) once a week, most of the team is remote
• You prefer predictability. We’re growing and pivoting, adaptability is key
• You don’t enjoy managing volume hiring, we’re growing quickly and have some short assignments which requires volume
• You don’t enjoy switching from strategy to tactical decision making

Why join us

You’ll be part of a team that grows every day, sharing knowledge and learning together. We include everyone — hierarchy doesn’t get in the way of great ideas. We win together by doing what’s right for our clients, delivering honest, sustainable solutions. We build relationships grounded in trust and ethics, and we celebrate innovative, inspiring solutions that push technology forward.

As well as the chance to work with a forward-thinking, ethical, and fun group of people, you’ll also get:

• Company Private Health Care
• Enhanced fully paid maternity and paternity leave for up to 6 months
• Company’s Pension Scheme (UK staff)
• 25 days annual holiday (excluding Public Holidays)
• £2000 / €2000 annual allowance for Training/Conferences
• £300 / €300 annual allowance for additional hardware
• Mental Health support: access to the Spill app
• Meditation/Sleep support: Headspace or Calm app subscription
• Company laptop
• Generous referral schemes

Our Recruitment Process for this role looks like this:

• 1st Interview with Jonny, our Fractional Head of Talent
• 2nd Interview with Katie, our Head of People
• 3rd stage task interview with; Jessica (Head of Client Service), Katie (Head of People), Sergio (Head of Engineering), Luis (Head of Design), Jonny (Fractional Head of Talent)
• Final stage coffee meeting with Julie (Interim CEO)

We live and breathe our values, and know you will too:

• Growing every day
• Including everyone
• Relationships built on honesty and ethics
• Inspiring solutions
• Winning together

We’re an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity of all kinds. We don’t discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, age, marital status, or disability status. We also offer a remote-first working environment, meaning that flexible working and work-life balance come as standard for all employees.

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