Public Sector Recruitment Consultant
Delivery and market development | Surveying, Property, Estates, Engineering, Housing and Planning
Job title Public Sector Recruitment Consultant
Division Public Sector
Specialism Professional and technical disciplines, with a focus on Surveying, Built Environment, Property, Estates, Engineering, Housing and Planning
Reports to Thomas Humphreys
Location Remote
Hours 08:00 – 17:00
Model Delivery and market development. Filling live requirements while growing the desk, the network and our share of the market.
Purpose of the role
We are looking for an experienced Public Sector Recruitment Consultant to join our team, with responsibility for both delivering against existing vacancies and proactively developing our presence within the market. This is not purely a candidate delivery role. We are looking for someone who can successfully manage and fill inbound requirements while also using their candidate relationships, market knowledge and recruitment activity to identify leads, uncover opportunities and increase our market share across existing and prospective public sector clients. The ideal candidate will have previous UK public sector recruitment experience and be comfortable recruiting across a range of professional and technical disciplines. Experience within Surveying, Built Environment, Property, Estates, Engineering, Housing, Planning or similar markets would be particularly advantageous.
Key responsibilities
Sourcing and candidate engagement
▪ Source, identify and engage suitable candidates for a broad range of public sector vacancies.
▪ Proactively source candidates through job boards, internal databases, LinkedIn, referrals and other appropriate channels.
▪ Build and maintain strong candidate networks and talent pools across key public sector disciplines.
▪ Build pipelines of candidates ahead of anticipated demand rather than relying solely on advertised vacancies.
▪ Monitor applications and submissions, following up appropriately and keeping candidates engaged throughout the recruitment process.
Qualifying and negotiating
▪ Review inbound roles and quickly understand the key skills, experience, qualifications and market required.
▪ Assess candidate suitability through effective screening and qualification conversations.
▪ Discuss opportunities with candidates confidently, including responsibilities, location, working arrangements, contract duration, availability and pay rates.
▪ Negotiate pay rates while balancing candidate expectations, client budgets and commercial requirements.
▪ Establish candidate availability, notice periods, existing applications and potential barriers to accepting a role.
▪ Demonstrate strong objection handling, particularly around pay rates, location, hybrid working, contract length and competing opportunities.
Submissions and delivery
▪ Produce accurate, high-quality candidate submissions within often short submission timescales.
▪ Manage multiple live vacancies simultaneously, prioritising requirements based on urgency and commercial opportunity.
▪ Work at pace without compromising candidate quality, compliance or accuracy.
Systems and vendor portals
▪ Maintain accurate candidate, vacancy and submission information across internal systems and external vendor platforms.
▪ Work effectively across multiple Vendor Management Systems (VMS) and Managed Service Provider (MSP) portals.
Market development and lead generation
A key part of the role will be developing the market rather than simply servicing vacancies as they arrive. The successful candidate will be expected to:
▪ Proactively develop their specialist market and increase our presence within targeted public sector organisations.
▪ Use candidate conversations to gather relevant market intelligence and identify potential recruitment opportunities.
▪ Identify leads relating to vacancies, upcoming projects, hiring managers, team changes, contractor movements and future recruitment requirements.
▪ Build a detailed understanding of the organisations, departments and hiring teams operating within their market.
▪ Identify opportunities to increase our share of vacancies within existing public sector clients and frameworks.
▪ Develop relationships with candidates that generate referrals, recommendations and introductions.
▪ Map target markets and identify organisations, teams and individuals regularly recruiting relevant skill sets.
▪ Recognise commercial opportunities arising from daily recruitment activity and ensure these are appropriately followed up.
▪ Develop strong knowledge of competitor activity, candidate availability, market rates and recruitment trends within their specialist areas.
▪ Use market intelligence to help the wider business identify new clients, hiring managers and areas for growth.
▪ Take ownership of developing their desk and market, with a clear focus on increasing placements, revenue and market share over time.
Person specification
CRITERIA
Previous recruitment experience within the UK public sector
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
Experience recruiting professional, technical or specialist roles in Surveying, Property, Estates, Engineering, Housing, Planning or related disciplines
ESSENTIAL
DESIRABLE
Yes
CRITERIA
Experience working across a variety of job families, with the ability to understand unfamiliar roles and markets quickly
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
Experience working through public sector MSPs, neutral vendors and vendor management systems such as Matrix, Comensura, XMS or Vector
ESSENTIAL
DESIRABLE
Yes
CRITERIA
A strong understanding of how public sector contingent recruitment operates
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
Strong candidate sourcing, networking and headhunting skills
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
Evidence of developing a recruitment market or desk rather than solely working inbound vacancies
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
The ability to identify and qualify recruitment leads through candidate and client conversations
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
A commercially minded approach, with an understanding of how daily recruitment activity translates into revenue and market share
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
Confidence discussing and negotiating candidate pay rates
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
Strong objection handling and influencing skills
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
Excellent telephone communication skills and confidence speaking with candidates and stakeholders at all levels of seniority
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage a high volume of concurrent vacancies and candidates
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
Experience working across multiple recruitment systems, databases and vendor portals
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
High levels of accuracy and attention to detail
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
The ability to prioritise effectively when working to short submission deadlines
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
CRITERIA
A proactive, resilient and commercially focused approach
ESSENTIAL
Yes
DESIRABLE
What success looks like
Success in this role is about more than filling the vacancies that arrive. We are looking for someone who can deliver today while developing tomorrow’s market. They will be able to pick up an unfamiliar requirement, quickly understand what the client needs, identify and qualify appropriate candidates and deliver strong submissions at pace. At the same time, they will be naturally inquisitive during candidate conversations, understanding where candidates have worked, who is recruiting, where teams are growing, what projects are coming up and where future opportunities may exist. They will take ownership of their market, continually developing candidate networks, gathering intelligence, generating leads and identifying opportunities to increase our penetration of existing accounts. Ultimately, they will combine strong recruitment delivery, organisation, commercial awareness and business development instincts to increase placements, revenue and market share.
