Head of DfT Group Recruitment Strategy and Policy

Can you demonstrate experience leading large-scale recruitment services and delivering strategic improvements across complex systems?

Do you have the ability to build strong relationships with stakeholders, suppliers, and delivery partners to drive successful change and high-performing recruitment outcomes?

Have you developed and implemented recruitment strategies that align policy, operational delivery, commercial considerations, and workforce objectives while leading teams through change and ambiguity?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

Join the Department for Transport at a pivotal time as we reshape recruitment and onboarding across the DfT Group! This influential leadership role will help ensure the Department attracts, recruits and retains the talent needed to deliver a modern, efficient and inclusive transport system. Working across DfT and its agencies, you will lead the development of recruitment strategy, policy and governance, driving continuous improvement and supporting major transformation programmes. You will collaborate with senior leaders, government partners and service providers to create future-focused recruitment services that deliver value for money, support diversity and inclusion, and meet the workforce and capability challenges facing the Department both now and in the years ahead.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at DfT.

Lead the future of recruitment across the Department for Transport Group! As the Grade 6 functional lead for Recruitment, Strategy and Policy, you will shape and oversee recruitment and onboarding services, ensuring they are effective, compliant, and aligned with workforce priorities. You will lead strategic planning, recruitment policy, governance, and supplier relationships, while driving continuous improvement and transformation. Working with senior stakeholders across DfT and government, you will provide leadership for recruitment strategy, diversity and inclusion outcomes, financial management, and the development of services that meet the workforce challenges of today and the future.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Lead the development and delivery of DfT Group's recruitment strategy, ensuring it supports organisational priorities and future workforce needs.
• Drive the vision for recruitment services, maximising the value of technology, expertise, and resources across the DfT family.
• Provide strategic leadership of the Recruitment Hub, ensuring a high-performing, customer-focused recruitment service.
• Develop and enhance DfT's talent acquisition approach, leveraging in-house capability, external partners, government schemes, and professional networks.
• Continuously improve recruitment policy and practice through data, insight, and evidence-based decision making.
• Take accountability for recruitment performance, including time-to-hire, diversity and inclusion outcomes, and wider government people metrics.
• Manage key commercial relationships and service providers, ensuring effective delivery and smooth transition to new arrangements where required.
• Lead and influence a broad range of stakeholders, while providing leadership for a team of recruitment professionals and managing financial and commercial responsibilities.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills set out in the Civil Service Line Management Standards.

Colleagues are expected to work with a degree of flexibility, meaning responsibilities may change to support priority delivery.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

How to apply:

Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's qualifications, skills, and potential fit within our organisation.

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Sift of CV and personal statement

Stage 2: Staff Engagement Temperature Check

Stage 3: Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

Stage 1: Sift

At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

Experience – you will be asked to provide a CV (unlimited wordcount) and personal statement (1000-word count). Please provide evidence of your Experience of the following:

• Recruitment Leadership and Delivery

Significant experience leading recruitment delivery across public and private sectors, driving operational excellence and implementing service improvements.

• Change Management and Stakeholder Engagement

Proven ability to leader recruitment transformation, engaging operational teams, stakeholders, and suppliers to deliver high performance through change.

• Strategic Recruitment Expertise

Deep understanding of how resourcing strategy, recruitment policy, and operational delivery align to support organisational objectives and workforce needs.

• Commercial and Digital Partnership Working

Strong experience working with technology specialists, commercial partners, and finance teams to deliver recruitment solutions, manage budgets, and forecast costs and benefits.

• Influential and Resilient Leadership

Credible and resilient leadership with the ability to shape vision in a complex system, build senior stakeholder relationships, navigate competing priorities, and lead teams through ambiguity and change.

The sift will take place week commencing 14th September 2026.

Stage 2: Employee Engagement Exercise

If you are shortlisted, you will be asked to take part in the following assessments :​

• An informal Employee Engagement Exercise with a representative staff group from across the DfT.

These assessments will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, they are designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.

The Employee Engagement will take place week commencing 28th September 2026 and will be held via Microsoft Teams.

Stage 3: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours – Seeing the Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Leadership, Managing a Quality Service
• Experience
• Strengths

You will also be required to create and deliver a presentation to assess the Experience highlighted in the persons specification. Guidance will be provided if you are invited to interview.

The interviews will take place from the 8th October 2026.

This interview will be conducted either online via Microsoft Teams or in person at our Birmingham office (The Colmore Building, 20 Colmore Circus Queensway, Birmingham B4 6AT). Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site (opens in a new window).

Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change

Further information on the selection process

We will also hold a 12-month reserve list for this role, which may lead to potential opportunities beyond the role you applied for.

During your application, you should indicate which location(s) you wish to be considered for and, if successful, you will be placed on an individual list of candidates for each location. Candidates will be held on that list and drawn from it in merit order. We advise you to carefully consider which locations you wish to be considered for. If you decline an offer for a location you have expressed a preference in or have expressed an interest in more than one location and accept an offer, you will be withdrawn from any lists you may be held on. We may also offer candidates a location that they have not expressed a preference for where we have the requirement to do so but this will again be done on the basis of your place in the overall merit order and, in this event, you will not be removed from the list if you decline.

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert or the information on our website, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

Pre-employment Checking

If your application is successful but you have been dismissed from the Civil Service, your application could be removed at the pre-employment checking stage depending on the nature of the dismissal.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

All external applicants and current employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will be required to undergo a Social Media Check. A Social Media Check is a review of your publicly available online activity, typically across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and others. The purpose is to identify any public posts or content that could raise concerns for employers, such as:

• Hate speech or discriminatory behaviour
• Threats or acts of violence
• Illegal activity or substance misuse
• Sexually explicit material
• Extremist views or affiliations

Importantly, this check does not involve hacking into your accounts or accessing private messages. It only considers content you have chosen to make public. Employers use this kind of screening to help ensure their workplace remains safe, inclusive, and aligned with company values. It’s not about judging your personality or lifestyle - it’s about checking for potential red flags that might affect the role or company culture. If you have questions or concerns about the social media check, we would be happy to explain in more detail what’s being looked at and how your data is handled securely and fairly.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.