Talent Acquisition Manager - R&D (AI/ML)

Salary: c. £60,000 Bonus: Discretionary Location: Kings X, London; Tues - Thurs (3 days) at HQ, Monday + Friday, anywhere Employment Type: Permanent, full time

Closing Date: Applications will remain open until November 3rd 23:59. After this date, we may move to a rolling review process; this section will be updated to reflect any changes.

About ARIA

ARIA is a R&D funding agency created to unlock technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. We fund scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of the possible.

From climate change to AI, society faces enormous challenges and opportunities that can be uniquely addressed by science and technology. ARIA was created to activate the UK’s world-class R&D in new ways, so we can meet these head on.

Our success is shaped by one question: how will ARIA transform the lives of the UK’s future generations? Whether that’s a life-changing new technology or a burgeoning new industry, it should be obvious that ARIA played a catalytic role.

Learn more about how we work here.

Role Summary

At ARIA, we believe breakthroughs are driven by people. As our Talent Acquisition Manager in R&D, you’ll play a pivotal role in bringing together the exceptional people who will turn ambitious scientific ideas into transformative technologies. This is more than recruitment; it’s about building relationships, challenging convention, and connecting extraordinary talent with a mission that matters.

Acting as the bridge between the world’s best talent and our mission, you’ll be the custodian of candidate relationships and experience, ensuring every interaction is human, thoughtful, and engaging. You’ll use your expertise to make everything run smoothly, allowing genuine connections to flourish between candidates and our programme teams.

Combining operational excellence with a proactive, relationship-led approach, you’ll lead full-cycle hiring with a particular focus on world-class AI/ML and computational talent. You’ll recruit across ARIA’s ambitious opportunity spaces, connecting exceptional scientists, engineers and technical pioneers with bold programmes designed to push the boundaries of what’s possible. From navigating complex, multi-time-zone interview processes to engaging visionary scientific leaders for our Programme Director roles, you’ll help build the teams that can turn high-risk, high-reward research into breakthroughs with the potential to transform the future.

What you’ll do

The scope of the role will evolve as ARIA continues to grow, but will broadly involve the following:

• Full-Cycle Hiring - with a particular focus on deep AI/ML and computational skillsets, you will drive intentional campaigns to find exceptional, diverse, and values-driven talent rather than just filling seats.
• Act as an ambassador for ARIA. You will manage complex (at times), multi-stage interview schedules, frequently aligning candidates across various global time zones, ensuring every candidate, regardless of the outcome, feels valued, heard, and receives a first-class experience.
• Act as a trusted strategic advisor to hiring managers and scientific leaders. You will guide them through complex hiring decisions, challenging assumptions when necessary, and coach them on inclusive, effective assessment techniques.
• Support the Talent Acquisition Lead in sourcing and selecting ARIA's Programme Directors. In this unique challenge, you will assist in identifying and engaging the visionary scientific leaders who will define our strategic direction, architect our funding programmes, and drive technological breakthroughs.
• Help tell the ARIA story - you’ll partner with our Comms team to manage our presence on platforms like LinkedIn and Glassdoor, and help at events to build a community around our mission; using your sourcing skills to build proactive pipelines of talent, driving faster time to hire.
• Represent ARIA at leading scientific conferences, academic symposiums, and tech industry events. You will support targeted talent gatherings and embed yourself in specialised communities to cultivate long-term relationships and build a warm pipeline of passive candidates.

Who you are

A successful candidate will bring the following skills/experience:

Essential criteria

• Bring proven in-house recruitment experience from a fast-paced startup or scale-up environment, specifically hiring for niche technical, scientific, or deep-tech roles relevant to ARIA’s mission.
• You have a strong track record of actively sourcing for hard-to-fill positions, moving beyond inbound applications to systematically hunt for exceptional, elusive talent and build scalable sourcing engines.
• You’re agile and adaptable, thriving in environments where the right way isn't always written down.
• You’re highly organised. We typically run campaign-style recruiting processes that require careful planning, communicating upfront timeframes, and close coordination both internally and externally.
• You operate with a high degree of autonomy. We don't micromanage; instead, we trust you to take full accountability for your campaigns, proactively identifying bottlenecks and building solutions before problems escalate.
• You’re a systems thinker where you don’t just do tasks; you build systems to make everything run smoother. You have a track record of using tech to eliminate friction.
• You understand the UK talent landscape. You can speak the language of R&D and innovation, and you appreciate the nuances of hiring for a high-profile public agency.
• Being detail-obsessed, you understand that in a high-stakes agency, small details, error-free comms, consistent branding and seamless scheduling - build the credibility that’s needed to hire the best.

Our current tech-stack

We are constantly looking to build on our talent tech-stack, where it will improve recruiting processes and outcomes. See below for some of the tools we’ve implemented so far:

• Pinpoint (ATS), LinkedIn Recruiter, Metaview, Applied, Airtable, and access to a suite of enterprise-grade LLMs (including Gemini and ChatGPT). We are a Google native organisation.

How to apply

Please submit your current CV and a cover letter detailing your suitability. We pride ourselves on reviewing every application personally.

Note: A cover letter is required to be considered.

Benefits

• 27 days annual leave provision, with the option to buy/sell additional days
• Hybrid working arrangements; 60% in office / 40% at home
• Discretionary bonus
• Supportive environment for learning and development opportunities
• Enhanced family leave arrangements
• A free and confidential 24/7 employee assistance programme
• Life Assurance
• 2 days of paid volunteer days
• 5% defined contribution pension scheme with Smart Pension
• Cycle to Work scheme
• An excellent office location in Kings X, London

Not sure you meet 100% of our criteria? Don’t worry! If you believe that you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply. We want to attract the broadest array of candidates, including those with diverse workplace experiences and backgrounds. Whether you’re new to the field, returning to work after a gap in employment, simply looking to transition, or taking the next step in your career path, we will be glad to have you on our radar. Please use your cover letter to tell us about your interests and what you hope to bring to this role.

If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please notify us and we will make every effort to accommodate you. Disclosing any requests are intended to provide ARIA with the best opportunity to support candidates and will have no negative impact on your recruitment process.

ARIA adopts a highly considered approach to ethical and social responsibility. You can read our policy here. Our research and development activity will abide by the 3Rs principle. You can read about those here.