Talent Lead

We are looking for an experienced Talent professional to partner shape and deliver the Iris talent strategy while leading a best-in-class end-to-end recruitment experience.

As Talent Lead you are the connective tissue between ambition and capability: a trusted partner to senior leaders a champion of dynamic hiring and a hands-on operator who pursues the attraction of highperforming talent aligned to Iris future direction.

Equal parts strategic and practical this role thrives on pace complexity and influence.

Core tasks (expected day-to-day)

• Own the talent agenda: Act as a strategic Talent Advisor to senior leaders across Creative Client Leadership Strategy Production PR & Social and Performance. Partner closely to understand workforce plans future capability gaps and evolving business needs.
  
• Managing the Talent Manager and leading end-to-end recruitment cycle.
  
• Own the full recruitment lifecycle from role briefing and search strategy through to offer acceptance and preboarding with support from the People Partner and Talent Manager ensuring quality experience speed and consistency across all hires.
  
• Ownership of smart sourcing strategies: Build and execute proactive sourcing approaches across niche senior and leadership roles. Confidently market-map headhunt and engage talent in a competitive creative landscape.
  
• Champion inclusive hiring: Coach and challenge hiring managers on best-practice interviewing equitable decision-making and bias-aware processes. Ensure every candidate experience reflects fairness clarity and respect.
  
• Strengthen employer brand: Champion Iris employer brand in-market ensuring it authentically reflects our culture values and creative ambition. Collaborate with Leadership to deliver compelling attraction campaigns and storytelling.
  
• Be a visible talent ambassador: Represent Iris at industry events networking sessions and talent communities: building credibility relationships and long-term pipelines.
  
• Use insight to improve: Track and analyse recruitment data to inform decisions spot trends and measure impact. Continuously evolve tools processes and ways of working to keep Talent Acquisition future-fit and ambitious.

Stretch tasks (with support or to grow into)

• Shape future capability: Partner with senior leadership to anticipate how the agency/department needs to evolve their talent acquisition from emerging disciplines to new operating models and translate that into forward-looking talent plans or campaigns.
  
• Evolve TA practice: Help define and embed best-in-class Talent Acquisition standards frameworks and governance that scale with the business while protecting craft inclusion and candidate experience.
  
• Influence beyond hiring: Contribute to wider people and culture initiatives supporting retention development and engagement through insight gained from the talent market.
  
• Build long-term pipelines: Develop strategic relationships with communities partners and educational institutions to strengthen diverse early mid and seniorlevel pipelines.

What were looking for:

• Significant experience in an in-house Talent Acquisition or Senior Recruitment Partner role within a creative agency environment
• Strong cultural awareness and instinct for whats relevant and resonant in the creative industry
• Expertise in direct sourcing headhunting and market mapping
• Confidence to work with internal stakeholders including a fast-paced parent company/HoldCo
• Deep understanding of inclusive hiring principles and best practice
• High emotional intelligence with the ability to build trust through empathy self-awareness and sound judgement
• Exceptional stakeholder management skills with confidence influencing at senior level
• Commercially minded with a strong grasp of agency dynamics and pressures
• Curious improvement-oriented and comfortable navigating change
• Highly organised resilient and able to manage multiple priorities with pace and precision

Required Experience:

Manager