Executive Talent Acquisition Partner

West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA),

The leaders we appoint shape our organisation, our culture and the impact we deliver for the West Midlands.

As our Executive Talent Acquisition Partner, you will lead the recruitment of Directors, Chief Officers, Executive Directors and other critical senior appointments. You will combine executive search expertise, market intelligence and credible stakeholder advice to help WMCA make informed, inclusive and evidence-based leadership appointments.

You will work closely with senior leaders, appointment panels and external partners, building high-quality executive talent pipelines and delivering a professional candidate experience throughout every campaign. You will also oversee executive search and recruitment suppliers, ensuring strong governance, service excellence and value for money.

This is an opportunity to influence leadership capability across WMCA and support our ambition to create a values-driven, high-performing organisation where people can do their best work and belong.

• Lead inclusive and compliant executive and senior leadership recruitment campaigns, from the initial brief and market positioning through to assessment and appointment.
• Advise, influence and constructively challenge senior stakeholders and appointment panels, using evidence and market insight to support fair and informed decisions.
• Build executive talent pipelines through market mapping, research, targeted sourcing and credible engagement with senior candidates across the public, private and third sectors.
• Design robust, inclusive and evidence-based assessment and selection processes that provide a high-quality experience for candidates and stakeholders.
• Manage executive search firms, recruitment agencies and the Managed Service Provider, monitoring service levels, expenditure, governance, performance risks and recruitment outcomes.
• Use recruitment data, workforce information and executive market intelligence to improve campaign outcomes, diversity, succession planning, value for money and future leadership capability.

• Significant experience leading senior or executive-level recruitment campaigns.
• Experience working with executive search firms, recruitment agencies and senior external suppliers.
• A strong understanding of executive search methodologies and talent mapping techniques.
• Experience advising, influencing and constructively challenging senior leaders and executive stakeholders on recruitment and appointment decisions.
• Knowledge of recruitment governance, employment legislation and best-practice selection methods.
• Experience developing and managing supplier performance frameworks and service level agreements.
• Account management - enterprise level experience.
• Experience delivering inclusive recruitment strategies.
• Experience managing Managed Service Provider or recruitment supplier relationships, including monitoring service level agreements, expenditure, performance risks and recruitment outcomes.
• Strong stakeholder management, influencing and relationship-building skills, with the ability to build credibility and challenge effectively at Chief Executive, Executive Director, Chief Officer, Board and Committee level.
• Extensive knowledge and application of executive search methodologies, market mapping and executive talent identification techniques.
• The ability to use labour market intelligence, executive talent insight and organisational workforce information to inform recruitment and succession-planning decisions.
• Strong executive assessment and selection capability, including interviewing, candidate evaluation and evidence-based decision-making.
• Strong analytical, reporting and problem-solving skills, with the ability to translate data and…