Talent Acquisition Officer

Talent Acquisition Officer

Department: HR / Talent Acquisition

Location: Manchester

Position Type: Permanent, Full-Time

Working Hours: 37.5 hours per week/ 9am to 5pm

Working Pattern: Monday to Friday

Reports To: HR Manager

Travel Required: Yes – travel to other campuses within the UKMC Group, as required

Company Description

UK Management College (UKMC) is a growing higher education provider offering a range of business-focused and professional programmes.

Our focus is on delivering practical, career-driven education that prepares students for real opportunities in industry.

We work with experienced academics, established professionals and industry partners to ensure our courses remain relevant, supportive and high quality.

UKMC values the student experience and student support, promotes inclusivity, diversity and equity, embraces innovation expects integrity-led professional behaviour. We foster a culture of respect, environmental sustainability social responsibility.

Job Description

The Talent Acquisition Officer is responsible for delivering a professional, compliant, efficient and candidate-focused recruitment and selection service across UKMC.

The role is responsible for managing recruitment campaigns for academic, professional services operational positions, working closely with hiring managers to attract, assess and appoint high-quality candidates.

The postholder will ensure that recruitment processes are fair, transparent, timely, evidence-based and aligned with UK higher education regulatory expectations, equality and diversity principles and best-practice recruitment standards.

The role will contribute to organisational growth, academic quality and the student experience by ensuring UKMC attracts and appoints suitably qualified and experienced employees.

Key Responsibilities

Recruitment Delivery

• Manage end-to-end recruitment campaigns for academic, professional services operational roles.
• Work with hiring managers to develop role briefs, job descriptions, person specifications, selection criteria and recruitment plans.
• Advise hiring managers on effective recruitment strategies, advertising channels, sourcing methods and assessment approaches.
• Coordinate recruitment timelines and ensure vacancies progress in line with agreed service levels.
• Ensure vacancies have the appropriate approvals and align with workforce planning requirements.
• Maintain accurate recruitment records throughout the recruitment lifecycle.

Candidate Attraction & Employer Branding

• Create high-quality, inclusive, engaging compliant job advertisements.
• Promote vacancies through appropriate higher education, professional, specialist and recruitment platforms.
• Support the development and promotion of UKMC's employer brand to strengthen candidate attraction and market positioning.
• Develop sustainable talent pipelines through proactive candidate sourcing and market mapping.
• Support outreach and attraction initiatives that promote equality, diversity, inclusion broad participation.

Selection & Assessment

• Support hiring managers with objective, criteria-based shortlisting processes.
• Advise managers on structured interviews, competency-based assessment and fair selection practices.
• Prepare interview packs, interview questions, scoring matrices and selection documentation.
• Participate in interviews and selection panels where required.
• Ensure consistent and accurate candidate assessment records are maintained for audit and compliance purposes.
• Support hiring managers in making evidence-based selection decisions.

Regulatory, Compliance & Pre-Employment Checks

• Conduct and verify appropriate pre-employment checks, including:

· Right to Work checks

· Qualification verification

· Employment references

· Background screening, where applicable

• Maintain accurate recruitment records to support audit, inspection assurance requirements.
• Support recruitment compliance requirements relating to sponsored workers, where applicable.
• Ensure recruitment processes comply with relevant legislation, institutional policies, equality requirements higher education regulatory expectations.
• Support fair access and equality of opportunity throughout recruitment and selection.
• Contribute…