Talent Acquisition Executive - Early Careers

The Recipe

The Early Careers Talent Acquisition Executive will join the Talent Acquisition team on a 6-month fixed-term contract, playing a key role in delivering Warburtons' 2026 Early Careers recruitment campaign. The role will manage the end-to-end recruitment campaign across Apprenticeships, Graduates, Internships and T Levels, coordinating attraction, assessment, selection and onboarding activities to ensure a seamless experience for candidates and hiring managers. Working closely with stakeholders across the business, you'll leverage recruitment tools, market insights and proactive attraction strategies to identify and secure high-quality early careers talent, while confidently managing multiple recruitment activities and ensuring key hiring milestones are delivered on time.

Key Accountabilities and Measures

End-to-End Recruitment Delivery

• Deliver end-to-end recruitment for Early Careers opportunities, from advertising and attraction through to offer management and onboarding.
• Ensure recruitment activities are delivered to agreed timescales to support the successful delivery of the 2026 Early Careers intake.
• Manage candidate pipelines and recruitment campaigns across Apprenticeship, Graduate, Internship and T Level opportunities.

Candidate Assessment & Selection

• Screen and assess candidates through telephone screening, competency-based interviews and assessment centre activities.
• Support hiring managers in making informed hiring decisions through robust and consistent assessment processes.
• Design, plan and deliver engaging assessment centres and recruitment events, ensuring exercises effectively assess capability, potential and cultural alignment. Coordinate event logistics, stakeholder participation, candidate communications and evaluation processes to deliver a positive candidate experience and robust hiring outcomes.

Stakeholder & Candidate Management

• Build strong relationships with hiring managers and key stakeholders across the business.
• Provide regular updates on recruitment activity, candidate progress and campaign performance.
• Act as the primary point of contact for candidates throughout the recruitment process, ensuring a positive experience from application through to onboarding.

Attraction & Employer Branding

• Support the delivery of employer branding initiatives, careers fairs, recruitment events and attraction campaigns.
• Promote Warburtons as an employer of choice across all candidate touchpoints.
• Work with external suppliers and education partners to support recruitment activities and candidate attraction.

Recruitment Operations & Compliance

• Maintain accurate candidate and vacancy records within SuccessFactors and associated recruitment systems.
• Ensure all recruitment activity is compliant with GDPR, employment legislation and company policies.
• Coordinate pre-employment checks and onboarding activities to ensure a smooth transition into the business.

Data & Reporting

• Produce and maintain recruitment reports, tracking key metrics such as pipeline activity, source effectiveness and time-to-hire.
• Monitor campaign progress, highlighting risks, challenges and opportunities for improvement.
• Use data and insights to support continuous improvement and efficient recruitment delivery.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to enhance recruitment processes, candidate engagement and team effectiveness.
• Share best practice and contribute ideas that improve the overall recruitment experience for candidates and hiring managers.
• Keep up to date with market trends, recruitment tools and emerging talent attraction approaches.

Essential Ingredients

• Extensive In-House Recruitment Experience: Demonstrated success managing recruitment across diverse business areas, with a strong focus on Early Careers, and Next Generation Talent (NGT) roles, ideally within FMCG.
• Professional Resourcing Expertise: Proven ability to apply best practice sourcing and screening techniques, leveraging modern recruitment technologies and methodologies.
• Comprehensive Recruitment Cycle Knowledge :Deep understanding of end-to-end recruitment processes within large, complex organisations.
• Specialist Knowledge in Early Careers & Technical Hiring: In-depth experience recruiting for Early Careers, understanding the unique requirements of these functions.
• Recruitment Systems Proficiency: Skilled in using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), preferably Success Factors, to manage and optimize recruitment workflows.
• Direct Sourcing & Headhunting Skills: Significant experience sourcing candidates directly, including headhunting, LinkedIn, job boards, social media, and branded advertising for both active and passive talent.
• Employment Law & Compliance Awareness: Up-to-date knowledge of employment legislation, GDPR, and recruitment compliance standards.
• Outstanding Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a professional and confident telephone manner.
• Collaborative Team Player: Strong ability to work effectively within a team, supporting collective goals and sharing best practices.
• Stakeholder Management: Experience engaging and influencing senior stakeholders, acting as a trusted advisor throughout the recruitment process.
• Attention to Detail: High level of accuracy and a commitment to delivering quality outcomes.
• Organisational & Time Management: Exceptional ability to prioritize tasks, manage workload independently, and meet deadlines.
• Results-Oriented: Demonstrated track record of working to SLAs, KPIs, and targets, including cost-per-hire, time-to-hire, and quality metrics.
• Analytical Capability: Proficient in producing, interpreting, and acting on recruitment data and analytics to drive continuous improvement.
• Drive & Resilience: Energetic, resilient, and motivated by achieving high-quality results in a fast-paced environment.

Extra Dough

At last and by no means least, you will want to know what your breads worth:

• A slice of the annual profits (discretionary profit share)
• Family time is important to us and we know it will be to you so you have the opportunity to purchase up to an extra weeks annual leave.
• Award winning pension scheme with company contributions of 7%
• Life assurance
• Products you will love along with deals and discounts for you and the family through our Extra Dough website
• Continued investment in your personal development
• Fully stocked kitchens filled with our delicious products for you to enjoy with your daily brew!
• Support for your health and wellbeing, including access to free physiotherapy, 24/7 access to a confidential helpline for practical advice and a comprehensive occupational health service

As ‘the UK’s No. 1 Bakery Brand’ we have been baking bread since 1876. Today, we are proudly a fifth-generation family, with the introduction of the sixth generation, supplying over 18,000 retail customers from 11 bakeries and 16 depots, producing a range of over 70 products including gluten and wheat free. Family and values are what makes us different, and we are a proud bunch, join us and you too could be proud to be Warburtons.

We respect and value difference. We look to create an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. Companies that are diverse in age, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, or any other aspect which makes them unique, are proven to be better companies. More importantly, creating an environment where everyone, from any background, can do their best work, is the right thing to do.