Head of Talent Operations

Civil Service
Part Time
Birmingham
69,675 - 82,860
Posted Yesterday

Categories: Government HR & Recruitment Employer website Report this listing

Job Description

Job summary

DSIT

At DSIT were all about improving peoples lives by maximising the potential of science & technology.

We accelerate innovation, investment and productivity through world-class science, research and development.

We use technology for good by ensuring new and existing technologies are safely developed and deployed across the UK, with the benefits more widely shared.

We are driving forward a modern digital government which gives citizens a more satisfying experience and their time back.

We do all this to enable the Governments 5 national missions: kickstarting economic growth, making Britain a clean energy superpower, taking back our streets, breaking down barriers to opportunity and building an NHS fit for the future.

Above all, we focus on improving peoples lives. Whether its researching new treatments for disease, developing better batteries, reducing burdens through better public services, keeping children safe online, and much more, outcomes for citizens are at the heart of what we do.

Our Inclusive Environment

We offer flexible working benefits, employee well-being support and a great pension. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.

Find Out More

We regularly run events where you can find out more about the department and tips for the application and interview process. You can sign up for upcoming events here: https://forms.office.com/e/Jae3B4w7xm

You can also follow our LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/dsitcareers/

Job description

Build the hiring engine that powers the UKs most ambitious technology programmes.

DSIT is the department behind the UK's AI strategy, semiconductor investment, and digital public services. We're hiring the people who build the technology that runs the country. This role puts you at the heart of that.

Were hiring engineers, data scientists, AI specialists, cyber experts and more, to deliver some of the most important digital work in the country. As Head of Talent Operations (Grade 6), you will lead the team that will make sure we find them, land them, and keep them, all the while offering a best-in-class service and experience.

Why now?

We're in a race for scarce technical talent against some of the most innovative companies in the world, and we think government should be winning more of those battles.

Over the past year, we've started building something different. New tooling, new processes, and a team that's hungry to raise the bar.

Theres genuine momentum, and we need someone to take the wheel and turn early progress into a hiring machine that rivals the best in tech. Were building a hiring operation that genuinely competes with places like Monzo, Octopus and Stripe, and DSITs senior leadership is fully behind it.

Person specification

Key Responsibilities

What youll do:

Run hiring like a product: Understand user pain points. Ship continuous improvements. Measure what matters. Repeat.

Own the whole journey: You own the technical hiring process end-to-end. From launching the role to a candidates first day.

Champion user experience: "Nobody falls into a black hole." Candidates get updates and hiring managers get support. Things move at pace and you set the standards that make this real.

Be the hiring expert in the room. When directors and programme leads need to build teams, you're the person they come to. You'll know the market, the pipeline, and what's realistic.

Build a high performing talent team: You'll lead a team of talent partners and talent coordinators working with key stakeholder and hiring managers to build our technical teams. Help them do their best work.

Own the bar: Hiring quality isn't negotiable. You'll run a process that ensures we identify the strongest candidates, whilst making sure we are inclusive, fair and secure. No corners cut.

Move fast and close the loop. Clear handoffs. Clear owners. No excuses. You'll create a culture where things get done, not discussed.

Make onboarding seamless: Youll partner with Integrated Corporate Services (ICS) to make onboarding seamless.

Push the tools forward. We're rolling out a new ATS and exploring how we implement AI. You'll lead the charge.

Measure everything that matters: Build dashboards, set alerts, spot bottlenecks. You'll be able to quickly show whats working well and where we need additional improvements.

As a line manager, you will be responsible for working with your members of staff to define their objectives, as well as managing their development and performance.

Essential Criteria

This role is for you if:

You've built or rebuilt a hiring operation from the inside. You've owned the outcomes, not just the process. You've shipped real improvements (not made slide decks about improvements!), and you can point to the metrics that prove it. You will thrive in this role if:

You have personally owned end‑to‑end technical recruitment operations in a fast‑moving or high‑pressure organisation.

Youve operated at meaningful scale or complexity. Youve hired at scale (hundreds of technical roles a year), in competitive markets (engineers, product, data, AI, cyber) or across complex organisations with multiple stakeholders and parallel pressures.

You have been directly accountable for outcomes, not just activity. You can point to specific improvements youve driven, such as time‑to‑hire, offer acceptance, candidate experience, or hiring quality, and explain what actually moved the dial.

You obsess over the details that candidates actually notice: response times, feedback quality, and how the process feels.

You think about hiring as a product and an operating system. You start with user needs (candidates and hiring managers), you ship improvements, you measure impact, and you iterate; even when the environment is messy or constrained.

Youve built, implemented, or significantly redesigned recruitment tooling or systems in a live environment (for example ATS, scheduling, assessment flows, automation, or data dashboards), and youve had to make real trade‑offs between speed, fairness, quality, and experience.

You are comfortable making judgement calls under pressure. You know that perfect alignment rarely exists, and you can balance pace, fairness, and hiring bar without letting any of them collapse.

Youve led and coached teams doing hands‑on delivery work, setting a clear bar, creating urgency and ownership, and helping people operate at their best in demanding conditions.

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