Talent Acquisition Specialist

Job Introduction
Are you looking for a career where you can make a real difference in people’s days?

We are seeking a Talent Acquisition Specialist to join the People Team based at the Careers and Skills Hub in Ashford, Kent.

This role requires at least 3 days’ a week in the office as well as travelling the network supporting hiring managers on interview panels and will also include attending recruitment events such as career fairs and talks.

Therefore, candidates are required to live a reasonable daily commute to the office in Ashford, Kent as well as have access to the wider network.

Can you move people? Apply today!

What you’ll do

Your role will be to deliver high‑quality, inclusive and efficient recruitment for Train Driver recruitment, while also being cross‑skilled to support recruitment activity across the whole organisation.

You will be expected to provide excellent candidate care, strong hiring manager support, and contribute to delivering best‑in‑class assessment and selection.

You will play a key role in building talent pipelines and ensuring our processes remain barrier‑free, compliant and aligned to the organisation’s inclusion and workforce priorities.

Your duties will include, but not be limited to:

• Owning the end‑to‑end recruitment for Train Driver recruitment across your allocated Depots, delivering timely and high‑quality hiring outcomes.


• Supporting recruitment across all other areas, being fully cross‑skilled in operational, specialist and assessment processes.


• Leading on the delivery of assessment centres across all roles to support selection processes.


• Delivering consistent, inclusive and fair selection through structured assessments, interviews and candidate evaluation.


• Building and maintaining healthy pipelines to support workforce plans and course allocation.


• Providing trusted guidance and recruitment expertise to hiring managers.


• Delivering attraction and sourcing activities tailored to different role types and diversity goals.


• Ensuring recruitment processes remain barrier‑free for under‑represented groups.


• Maintaining high standards of compliance, accuracy and documentation.


• Issuing contracts of employment, arranging inductions and ensuring that new entrant documentation is complete and correct (ensuring right to work status and criminal record history is satisfactory).


• Providing excellent candidate experience through timely, clear and supportive communication.


• Ensuring accurate and up‑to‑date ATS records and supporting recruitment reporting needs.


• Championing inclusive hiring practices across every stage of the process.


• Supporting continuous improvement, including process reviews, system updates and new ways of working.


• Supporting with outreach events engaging with our target audience and under\-represented groups


• Managing your recruitment portfolio independently, prioritising activity to meet hiring needs.


• Progressing diverse candidates fairly and consistently, supporting inclusive shortlists and hiring outcomes.


• Making informed sourcing and assessment decisions aligned to best practice and workforce needs.


• Resolving day to day recruitment issues quickly to keep processes and candidate journeys on track.

The experience you’ll need

To be successful, your application needs to demonstrate the below:

• Extensive experience delivering high volume end‑to‑end recruitment across a range of roles in a fast paced and target driven environment. (essential)


• Extensive experience attracting, sourcing and conducting assessment activity within high\-volume recruitment. (essential)


• An excellent understanding of recruitment best practice and employment law requirements. (essential)


• Extensive experience in managing candidate pipelines, assessments and hiring manager relationships within high\-volume recruitment. (essential)


• The ability to prioritise and manage volume at pace, with excellent organisation and attention to detail. (essential)


• You are confident using recruitment systems (ATS) or similar and have exeprience supporting accurate data capture. (essential)


• You are committed to inclusive hiring, fair selection and barrier‑free candidate experience. (essential)


• You have strong communication, judgement and customer‑focused decision‑making skills (essential)


• That you ideally hold required certifications such as Level A or RSSB MMI or are willing and able to gain these qualifications upon starting the role.

As proud members of the Armed Forces Covenant and Disability Confident Scheme, we will offer you an interview if you apply under these schemes and meet the minimum criteria for the role. Find out more here.

Other things to know

• This vacancy may close early if we receive a large number of applications. So, make sure you get yours in early.


• All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory references, a right to work verification, a basic criminal record check, and a pre\-employment medical assessment. Work visa sponsorship isn’t available for this role.


• If you applied but weren’t successful in getting a similar role at Southeastern, please wait six months before applying again.

Find out more about our recruitment process and get tips to help you apply.

What you’ll get in return

Along with your salary, the rewards you’ll get include:

• a final salary pension


• 25 days annual leave allowance (plus bank holidays)


• free rail travel across our networks.

Meaning you can feel secure in your career as well as fulfilled by your work. Click here to see our full range of amazing benefits.

A bit about Southeastern

We’re one of Britain's busiest train operators, serving London, Kent and parts of East Sussex. We run over 1,700 trains a day, carrying more than 500,000 passengers and serving 180 stations.

However, working on our railway is more than getting passengers from A to B. It’s about all the little moments that make a difference to their journey.

It’s also about making our railway a great place to work. With a team that represents the communities we serve. This is a journey we’re fully committed to and we’re proud to have been named a ‘Great Place to Work’ at the 2023 National Rail Awards and endorsed as a WORK180 Employer for Women.

*Our ways of working are what we expect of everyone at Southeastern. They are powerful. Tiny moments, every day, from every one of us, add up to massive, positive change. Improving how it feels to work here and how it feels to travel with us.*

At the heart of everything we do, our Safeguarding Team works to keep our customers, colleagues, and the public safe by improving safeguarding measures and knowledge making sure everyone gets home safe, every day.

Learn more about our railway.

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