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Lead Early Careers strategy and development across EMEA at Norton Rose Fulbright.
Shape talent pipelines, innovation, and AI‑driven programmes in a leading global law firm.
Practice Group / Department: Talent & Reward Management - London
Job Description
We're Norton Rose Fulbright - a global law firm with over 50 offices and 7,000 employees worldwide. We provide the world’s preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service. At Norton Rose Fulbright, our strategy and our culture are closely entwined. We know that our expansion will mean little unless it is underpinned by truly global collaboration and we understand that pioneering work only takes place when our people have room to move and think beyond boundaries. As well as the relevant skills and experience, we're looking for people who are innovative, commercial and value the work that they do.
The Role
This is a unique opportunity to join the firm at a pivotal moment, as we reimagine Early Careers talent acquisition and development in response to evolving capability needs and future skills.
We are seeking an accomplished Early Careers Senior Manager (EMEA) to lead the design and delivery of Norton Rose Fulbright’s Early Careers agenda across the region, overseeing both recruitment and development from attraction through to scheme completion. Reporting to the Head of Talent and Early Careers EMEA, the role is ideal for someone with strong experience across Early Careers recruitment and development - ideally within Law or Professional Services - who is motivated to use their expertise to make a meaningful impact at firm level.
Sitting within the Talent and Reward Centre of Excellence, part of the firm’s People and Culture function, this role works closely with colleagues across Talent, Performance, Reward, Global Mobility and Resource Management to ensure Early Careers activity is aligned, joined ‑ up and future ‑ focused. Early Careers is a critical driver of the firm’s long ‑ term talent pipeline, diversity ambitions and high ‑ performance culture, and this role plays a key part in ensuring the firm attracts, develops and retains exceptional early talent - prepared for the profession and the increasing impact of AI.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy & Leadership
Lead, develop and coach a high‑performing Early Careers team across recruitment and development, including colleagues at different experience levels, fostering capability growth, collaboration and high standards of delivery
Play a key role in shaping the EMEA Early Careers strategy and lead its execution and delivery, aligned to firm-wide talent objectives
Shape and evolve the Early Careers proposition to ensure market-leading attraction, development and retention
Ensure effective delivery of all operational activity, including:
Recruitment cycles
Programme delivery
Induction, events, and communications
Own the quality, consistency and fairness of Early Careers assessment and development outcomes across EMEA.
Drive consistency of approach across EMEA while allowing for local nuance
Early Careers Recruitment (Attraction & Selection)
Oversee the end-to-end recruitment strategy for all Early Careers programmes (e.g. trainees, apprentices, graduates)
Lead the Early Careers Recruitment team to design and deliver:
Attraction and employer branding campaigns
Campus and Association partnerships
Assessment methodology and selection processes
Drive innovation in assessment, designing robust, fair and future‑focused processes that identify potential, learning agility and readiness for a changing, AI‑enabled environment.
Early Careers Development (Programme Design & Delivery)
Oversee the end‑to‑end development journey from onboarding through to scheme completion, ensuring early career talent build capability, confidence and readiness for qualification and progression.
Lead the Development Team to ensure timely design and delivery of:
Induction and pre‑joining engagement
Programme structure (e.g. seat rotations, secondments)
Performance and appraisal frameworks
Work in collaboration with our knowledge, L&D and innovation functions to create best in class learning curriculum for our Early Careers populations
Ensure early career programmes prepare talent effectively for qualification, progression and transition into the wider firm.
Develop a strong understanding of firm growth areas and future capability needs, shaping pathways for early career talent post‑scheme and supporting alignment between talent supply and long‑term demand.
Stakeholder & Partner Engagement
Build strong relationships with Partners, Chiefs, Training Principals, People and Culture teams.
Oversight of key supplier relationships, acting as an escalation point
Drive effective engagement across recruitment processes and trainee development, enabling partners and managers to play an active role in attraction, supervision and talent development
Influence senior stakeholders to ensure visible leadership commitment to Early Careers
Data, Insight & Continuous Improvement
Evaluate the effectiveness of attraction, assessment and development activity, using insight to continually strengthen outcomes, experience and fairness.
Analyse recruitment, performance and retention data to drive improvements
Monitor candidate and colleague experience data to continuously strengthen engagement, reputation and retention.
Key Skills and Experience
Expert in Early Careers, with the ability to translate strategy into practical, scalable solutions across early careers attraction, assessment and development
Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, including credibility with senior leaders, hiring managers and external partners
Commercial awareness, with an understanding of professional services environments and how early‑career pipelines support long‑term business needs
Data‑driven decision making, using insight to inform workforce planning, assessment effectiveness and continuous improvement
Clear communication and leadership capability, able to engage, align and mobilise diverse audiences
Expertise in assessment and programme design, including fair and inclusive early‑careers assessment approaches
A strong DEI and social mobility lens, with the ability to design pathways that widen access and reduce bias
Workforce planning and pipeline thinking, linking early‑careers activity to future skills, capability and demand
Change leadership capability, with confidence operating in ambiguity and leading multi‑year transformation initiatives
Programme and portfolio management skills, balancing multiple interdependent initiatives at pace
Technology and AI literacy, with a practical understanding of how digital tools and AI can be applied to attraction, assessment and development
A coaching mindset, supporting early‑career talent and enabling managers/ partners to build capability and confidence
Resilience and sound judgement, particularly in high‑visibility, high‑impact decision‑making contexts
Demonstrable experience managing and developing teams across multiple locations, navigating regional differences, and varying levels of experience, fostering collaboration, performance and capability.
#LI-JC1 #LI-Hybrid
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
To attract the best people, we strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work, have a sense of belonging, and realize their full career potential.
Our new enabled work model allows our people to have more flexibility in the way they choose to work from both the office and a remote location, while continuing to deliver the highest standards of service. We offer a range of family friendly and inclusive employment policies and provide access to programmes and services aimed at nurturing our people’s health and overall wellbeing. Find more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion here.
We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams. We strive to create an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for all candidates. If you require any tailored adjustments or accommodations, please let us know here.