Head of Talent Acquisition and Development

Head of Talent Acquisition and Development (Belfast)

Head of Talent Acquisition and Development

Belfast

TeamFeePay (TFP) is one of the biggest grassroots football club management platforms in the UK. We support over 2,000 football clubs and 250,000+ coaches, players, parents and guardians on the platform, and we're now expanding into Italy, Spain and the rest of Europe. We’re a scale‑up growing rapidly, and the people we hire and develop are what will determine how far and how fast we go.

We are seeking an experienced Head of Talent Acquisition and Development to own how we attract, hire, onboard and grow talent across the business. Reporting to the Chief People Officer you’ll be responsible for the talent function end to end, from workforce planning and hiring strategies to delivery through to learning, progression and succession. You will be directly accountable for the quality, speed and cost of our hiring, and for the capability of our people once they’re here. This is a multi‑market role. Alongside our established base in the UK and Ireland, you will design and deliver the hiring and development strategy that underpins our expansion across the EU, beginning with Italy and Spain.

The successful candidate will act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership and managers, shaping policies and initiatives that support performance, culture, and long‑term organisational growth.

What’s in it for you

• Highly competitive salary and bonus
• Income Protection
• Vitality healthcare
• Westfield Health
• Death in Service
• Wellbeing hub
• Good pension and holidays
• Professional development opportunities

Your day‑to‑day

Talent Acquisition Strategy and Workforce Planning

• Own and deliver the talent acquisition strategy across all functions and markets, covering the UK, Ireland and our EU territories, aligned to the company’s growth plans.
• Partner with Department leaders on workforce planning, translating commercial plans into headcount forecasts, role definitions and hiring roadmaps.
• Build and manage the annual recruitment budget, including agency spend, job board investment, tooling and assessment costs.
• Build sourcing channels and talent pipelines in each market, including local job boards, professional networks, universities and agency partners, and reduce reliance on agency supply over time.
• Set consistent hiring standards, scorecards and interview frameworks that can be applied across every market without losing local relevance.

EU Expansion and International Hiring

• Own the talent strategy for TFP’s European expansion, translating market‑entry plans into sequenced hiring roadmaps for Italy, Spain and future EU territories.
• Advise the executive team on the most appropriate employment model for each market, whether direct entity, employer of record or contractor, working with Finance, Legal and external advisers.
• Build local market intelligence, including salary benchmarking, notice periods, hiring lead times, candidate expectations and competitor activity, and use it to set realistic and costed hiring plans.
• Ensure hiring practice in each jurisdiction is compliant with local employment law, collective agreement or works council obligations where they apply, immigration and right to work rules, and cross‑border data protection requirements under UK and EU GDPR.
• Adapt sourcing, assessment and selection processes for language, cultural and legal differences while maintaining a consistent quality of hire across all markets.
• Manage relationships with international recruitment partners, employer of record providers and mobility or relocation suppliers, holding them to agreed service levels and cost.
• Support cross‑border mobility, relocation and international assignments, and work with the People team on contracts, benefits and reward frameworks appropriate to each market.

Employer Brand and Candidate Experience

• Develop and promote TFP’s employer brand and employee value proposition across the UK and European markets.
• Build a candidate experience that reflects the company’s values, ensuring every applicant is treated professionally regardless of outcome.
• Own careers content, employer profiles and recruitment marketing, working with Marketing to maintain a consistent brand voice.
• Work with Marketing in defining a strategy for awards across each region
• Localise employer brand messaging, careers content and candidate communications for each European market, so that TFP’s proposition reads as locally credible rather than as a translated UK message.

Onboarding and Learning and Development

• Design and deliver the learning and development framework, covering core skills, technical capability, management development and leadership.
• Identify capability gaps across the business through skills assessment, performance data and manager feedback, and build targeted interventions to close them.
• Manage the L&D budget, external training providers and any apprenticeship or funded learning opportunities available in the relevant markets.
• Measure the impact of learning activity on performance, retention and internal mobility, rather than on completion rates alone.
• Deliver an onboarding experience that works for a distributed, multi‑country workforce, covering local induction, compliance and policy training, and manager enablement across time zones.
• Build management capability in leading remote and multinational teams, including the practical differences in managing performance across jurisdictions.

Performance, Progression and Succession

• Build clear career pathways and ladders so that employees understand what progression looks like and what is required to achieve it.
• Support the performance review cycle, equipping managers to set objectives, give feedback and manage performance consistently.
• Identify high‑potential employees and build development plans that create a credible internal pipeline for senior roles.
• Work with the leadership team on succession planning for business‑critical positions, and on retention strategies for key talent.

Team Leadership and Operational Excellence

• Build, lead and develop the talent and development team as the function scales, setting objectives and managing performance.
• Select, implement and optimise the applicant tracking system, learning platform and related tooling, including multi‑language, multi‑currency and multi‑entity requirements.
• Define and report on talent metrics, including time to hire, cost per hire, offer acceptance rate, quality of hire, retention and internal mobility, reported by market as well as at group level.
• Ensure all recruitment and development activity is compliant with employment legislation in each market in which we operate, right to work and immigration requirements, UK and EU data protection obligations, and safeguarding standards relevant to the grassroots sport sector.
• Embed equality, diversity and inclusion into hiring and development practice, with measurable objectives rather than statements of intent.

About the role

You Should Apply If

• You have significant experience in a senior talent acquisition role, with evidence of building and scaling a hiring function in a fast‑growing business.
• You have hands‑on experience of learning and development or talent development and can design as well as deliver.
• You have recruited across a range of functions and levels, including senior and hard‑to‑fill roles.
• HR experience of EU expansion is required. You have supported a business entering or scaling in one or more EU markets and understand the practical, legal and cultural realities of doing so.
• You are confident working with local employment law, employer of record and international payroll providers, and cross‑border data protection requirements.
• You have built hiring plans and talent pipelines in markets where the employer brand was not yet established.
• You are commercially minded, comfortable owning a budget and able to demonstrate return on talent investment.
• You have strong analytical skills and use data to shape decisions, prioritise and report credibly to an executive audience.
• You are confident influencing and challenging senior stakeholders.
• You have excellent communication and presentation skills, both verbal and written.
• You have a working knowledge of UK and Ireland employment legislation, a sound understanding of employment and data protection frameworks in EU markets, and the judgement to know when to seek specialist advice.
• You have a passion for the football industry and a genuine interest in grassroots sport.
• You’re able to work independently and as part of a team.

Desirable

• CIPD Level 7, or an equivalent qualification or level of experience.
• Experience in a SaaS, technology or subscription business.
• Coaching accreditation, or experience of designing management development programmes.
• Experience of establishing a talent function in a newly opened international entity.
• Working proficiency in Italian or Spanish, or experience of hiring into Southern European markets.

TeamFeePay is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates regardless of age, disability, gender, gender identity, marital or civil partnership status, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic. If you require any reasonable adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know and we will accommodate them.

About the company

We are TeamFeePay , a Belfast‑based sports technology company dedicated to supporting grassroots football clubs.

Our platform helps clubs manage payments, registrations, communication and fundraising all in one place.

Built by coaches for clubs, we understand the challenges of grassroots football and provide tools that make running a club simpler, more efficient and more sustainable.

At TeamFeePay, we’re passionate about helping clubs thrive on and off the pitch .

Required Criteria

• Proven leadership experience in Talent Acquisition and Development, overseeing the full talent lifecycle.
• Demonstrable experience in developing and executing multi‑market talent acquisition strategies, particularly for European expansion.
• Strong understanding and practical experience with European employment law, immigration, and data protection regulations (UK and EU GDPR).
• Experience in workforce planning, headcount forecasting, and managing recruitment budgets.
• Ability to build and manage sourcing channels, talent pipelines, and set consistent hiring standards across diverse markets.
• Proven ability to design, deliver, and measure the impact of comprehensive learning and development frameworks.
• Experience in establishing career pathways, supporting performance management cycles, and succession planning.
• Proficiency in selecting, implementing, and optimising HR technology, including ATS and LMS, with multi‑language/multi‑entity capabilities.
• Ability to define, track, and report on key talent metrics (e.g., time to hire, cost per hire, quality of hire, retention).
• Experience advising senior leadership on talent strategies and international employment models.
• Commitment to embedding equality, diversity, and inclusion into all talent practices.

Desired Criteria

• Experience working within a rapidly scaling technology or SaaS company.
• Proficiency in Italian or Spanish languages.
• Experience with safeguarding standards relevant to the grassroots sport sector.
• Experience managing international recruitment partners, employer of record providers, and mobility suppliers.

Skills you’ll need

• Employment Law
• Regulatory Compliance
• Developing People
• Leadership

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