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Talent Sourcing Specialist

Rowden

Job Location:

Bristol - UK

Yearly Salary: GBP 40000 - 45000

Posted: 29 September 2026 (Yesterday)

Application Deadline: 27 December 2026

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Were building the UKs next generation engineering powerhouse providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.

We specialise in turning advances in sensing AI and communications into operational capability for the edge where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology improving decision-making for frontline teams and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments.

Headquartered in Bristol Rowden employs around 200 people and operates over 20000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europes fastest-growing engineering businesses.

The role

Rowden operates in markets where candidates arent browsing job boards and are not always on LinkedIn. Reactive hiring isnt good enough. We need someone who is already talking to the right people before we even know we need them.

Were looking for a Talent Sourcing Specialist to build and own our proactive pipeline capability. This is a new function within a small high-performing People & Talent team created because were serious about staying ahead of demand as Rowden continues to scale.

This is a role for a resourceful tenacious sourcer who thrives in specialist markets builds relationships before theyre needed and turns data plus insight into pipelines that give Rowden a genuine competitive edge.

This role offers hybrid working with a minimum of 3 days per week on-site at our Bristol HQ.

Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance.

More information about security clearance is available here: Key areas of responsibility

Build and maintain proactive talent pipelines

Develop warm candidate pipelines for Rowdens hardest-to-fill disciplines before vacancies are formally raised. These can range from RF engineering machine learning systems engineering and software through to highly specialist GTM roles.
Own Rowdens sourcing strategy across passive candidate channels: LinkedIn Recruiter comes as standard were looking for you to inform & build the other channels/platforms we should be utilising.
Build and maintain living candidate pools: regularly engage nurture and update contacts so pipelines stay warm.
Ensure the ATS is kept up to date with sourced candidates pipeline status and engagement history.

Deliver talent intelligence and market insight

Produce talent mapping outputs that give Rowden a clear view of candidate availability competitor hiring activity compensation benchmarks and location considerations.
Inform workforce planning decisions by providing data-driven insight on the talent landscape for key disciplines.
Track and share market signals that could affect our ability to hire emerging skills shortages competitor movements salary & benefit inflation in a format the business can act on.
Support location strategy decisions with evidence on where relevant candidate pools exist.

Partner with the TA team to accelerate hiring

Work closely with TA Partners to understand upcoming demand agree sourcing priorities and handover qualified pipelines ahead of roles going live.
Support TA Partners with headhunting and direct outreach on live roles particularly for niche or senior searches where inbound volume is low.
Run initial candidate engagement and screening conversations to assess interest and fit before passing to the relevant TA Partner.
Contribute to shortlist quality by ensuring candidates in the pipeline have been meaningfully assessed not just collected.

Strengthen Rowdens employer brand in specialist communities

Represent Rowden credibly and compellingly in conversations with passive candidates someone who can articulate what makes Rowden different and why its worth a conversation.
Identify and recommend events communities and forums where Rowden should have a presence to build brand awareness in key candidate markets.
Feed candidate sentiment and market perception back into the TA team to inform how we position Rowden externally.

Key skills experience and behaviours

Were less interested in the tools youve used and more interested in your ability to find people others cant.

Youll likely bring:

Demonstrable experience in proactive sourcing and headhunting not just reactive CV reviewing. You know how to find passive candidates and more importantly how to nurture and bring them into process at the right time.
Strong Boolean search skills and fluency with LinkedIn Recruiter. Familiarity with additional sourcing platforms (Metaview Seekout JuiceBox Hackajob or similar) is a plus.
Experience sourcing for technical or specialist roles eg engineering technology or science disciplines preferred. You dont need to be a subject matter expert but you need to understand enough to have a credible conversation.
A genuine curiosity about the people youre looking for: their career paths motivations and what it would take to get them interested.
Strong relationship-building skills. Youre comfortable reaching out cold and turning that into a warm conversation.
A data-driven approach to pipeline management you track whats working what isnt and adjust accordingly.
The ability to work autonomously in a fast-moving environment and manage multiple sourcing priorities simultaneously.
Experience within defence national security deep tech or highly specialist engineering sectors is a significant advantage but not a requirement.

What success looks like

Rowden has warm qualified pipelines in place for its hardest-to-fill roles before those roles are formally opened.
Time-to-hire reduces because the TA team isnt starting from scratch every time a vacancy lands.
Talent mapping outputs are trusted by the business and actively inform hiring decisions and workforce planning.
Candidate quality improves because sourced candidates are genuinely assessed not just forwarded.
Rowdens profile in specialist candidate communities continues to grows people have heard of us and they respond when we reach out.

Rowden is growing fast in markets that are genuinely hard to hire for. Thats not a problem its what makes this role interesting. Youll have real influence over how we build our teams access to modern sourcing tooling and a TA team that values what you bring.

If youre energised by finding the people nobody else can find and you want to do it somewhere the mission matters wed like to hear from you.

Working at Rowden

We are committed to building a flexible inclusive and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills experience and backgrounds so please apply and come as you are!

We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible hybrid-working model with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.

Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.

Finally if you feel that you dont meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience wed still love to hear from you!

Required Experience:

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About Company

Rowden

Rowden designs and builds systems, infrastructure, and applications to deliver mission advantage to those working to protect the security of the UK and its allies. We are setting a new standard in government technology provision: hyper-efficient engineering, better customer relationsh ... View more

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