Head - Talent Acquisition

Role Purpose: The Head - Talent Acquisition will build and lead the organisation's enterprise-wide talent acquisition agenda during a significant phase of product, workforce and market expansion. The role will own TA strategy, workforce planning, R&D and engineering hiring, commercial hiring, campus and early-career programmes, employer branding, talent intelligence, recruitment operations, technology, analytics and partner governance. As a senior member of the HR leadership team, the incumbent will partner closely with the SVP - Human Resources, founders, engineering and product leaders, manufacturing and supply-chain leaders, commercial leadership and corporate functions. The role requires a leader who can combine strategic thinking, market insight and function building with strong execution discipline. Key Responsibilities: 1. Talent strategy, workforce planning and talent intelligence: - Translate the organisation's business, product, engineering and commercial roadmap into annual and quarterly workforce plans. - Develop hiring forecasts by function, level, skill, location and product programme, with clear assumptions and scenario options. - Establish robust requisition, prioritisation and demand-governance mechanisms with business and HR leaders. - Identify critical capabilities and determine the appropriate build, buy, borrow, campus, contract or partner strategy. - Provide talent-market intelligence covering talent availability, target organisations, compensation, competition and location dynamics. - Create succession and external-pipeline strategies for critical leadership and specialist positions. - Align internal recruiter capacity, embedded resources, RPO support and specialist search partners to forecast demand. - Build an annual TA plan and budget linked to business priorities, productivity expectations and measurable outcomes. Talent Intelligence & Market Mapping: - Develop evergreen talent maps for business-critical capabilities rather than starting every search from zero. - Build communities of engineers, product specialists, commercial leaders, alumni and future-ready early-career talent. - Use external market evidence to advise leaders on role design, location, compensation, timelines and talent trade-offs. - Create competitor and talent-flow insights that support workforce planning, retention and capability-building decisions. 2. Commercial & Market-Expansion Hiring: - Build hiring strategies for national and regional sales, dealer and channel development, retail, experience centres and service operations. - Support hiring across customer experience, after-sales, marketing, digital growth, product marketing, business development and partnerships. - Develop multi-location sourcing and assessment models that can support rapid market launches without diluting quality. - Build pipelines for commercial leadership, field management and specialist go-to-market roles in current and future markets. - Partner with business leaders to define productivity, ramp-up and retention measures for commercial hires. 3. Campus, Internships & Early Careers: - Create a tiered campus strategy across engineering, design, management, technician and apprenticeship institutions. - Develop structured internships, graduate engineer programmes, management trainee programmes and pre-placement pathways. - Build partnerships with Formula Student, SAE, EV, robotics, embedded-systems and specialised research communities. - Establish campus-assessment standards and track internship completion, PPO conversion, joining, performance and retention. - Use campus and early-career programmes to build long-term capability in skills that are difficult to buy laterally. 4. Employer Branding & Talent Marketing: - Develop a differentiated employee value proposition for engineering, commercial and early-career talent segments. - Build a year-round content engine featuring products, engineering challenges, innovation, laboratories, employee journeys and leadership perspectives. - Strengthen careers-site discoverability, social talent channels, employee advocacy, technical communities and referral campaigns. - Ensure that the external talent promise is reflected in interview quality, communication, decision speed and onboarding experience. - Measure employer-brand effectiveness through reach, qualified applications, source conversion, offer outcomes and candidate experience. Experience & Track Record: - Approximately 14-18 years of progressive experience in Talent Acquisition, with meaningful in-house leadership responsibility. - Proven experience leading a significant TA portfolio, business unit, geography or enterprise function. - Track record of supporting high-growth, high-volume or transformation-oriented workforce plans. - Strong experience hiring product, R&D, embedded, electronics, automotive, industrial or deep-technology talent. - Demonstrated exposure to commercial, sales, retail, service, operations, customer or field-hiring portfolios. - Direct ownership of campus, internships, early-career or university-relations programmes. - Experience building or materially improving employer branding, talent marketing or employee value propositions. - Evidence of building, restructuring or scaling a TA team, operating model, technology stack or partner ecosystem. - Strong executive stakeholder capability, including partnership with founders, CXOs, engineering leaders and commercial leaders. - Comfort using analytics to improve source, speed, conversion, cost, quality and candidate experience.