EMEA Service Early Careers Lead

Location: United Kingdom Department: Service Operations

EMEA Service Early Careers Lead

POSITION SUMMARY

The Early Careers Manager is a strategic role responsible for building and leading Vertiv's early careers programme across the EMEA region. This role owns the full early careers lifecycle—from apprenticeship and fast-track engineer scheme design, technical college partnerships and government funding compliance through to university engagement, graduate pipeline development and structured talent transitions into permanent roles. The role is central to securing the next generation of technical talent to support the growth and long-term sustainability of Vertiv Services EMEA, ensuring participants achieve recognised qualifications while maximising available government funding.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Develop an Early Careers strategy aligned to business growth that contributes to forecasting future talent requirements with Workforce Planning, builds talent pipelines for critical skill shortages, and creates succession pathways into key operational and leadership roles.

Own the design, implementation and continuous improvement of apprenticeship and fast-track engineer schemes across EMEA—leading the end-to-end programme lifecycle from workforce demand planning, levy/funding optimisation and training provider governance through to recruitment, onboarding, off-the-job learning compliance, progress monitoring, End Point Assessment success and transition into permanent employment—ensuring all employer responsibilities for training, reviews and learner support are met throughout.

Own the end-to-end recruitment process with a focus on consistent, high quality candidate experience.

Design and operate graduate schemes encompassing annual intake planning, university engagement, assessment centres and a structured development curriculum covering leadership, business rotations, mentoring and professional qualifications where appropriate, culminating in placement into permanent roles. Complement this with structured rotation programmes across Operations, Sales, Service, Operations Excellence, Finance and HR—each with defined objectives, learning outcomes, manager feedback, pre/post skill assessments and final placement decisions.

Own the end-to-end government funding and compliance framework—including Apprenticeship Levy strategy, Skills England/Department for Education requirements, provider contracts, funding claims, evidence management and audit readiness—while delivering return-on-investment reporting and maintaining robust governance as funding rules and apprenticeship requirements continue to evolve.

Own the end-to-end recruitment process with a focus on consistent, high quality candidate experience

Build a compelling employer brand targeting technical colleges, universities, career changers, military talent and local communities through activities including careers fairs, school engagement, STEM events, university recruitment fairs, industry forums, social media, work experience placements and ambassador programmes—ensuring Vertiv's employer value proposition resonates with the target demographic across all channels.

Own relationships with external education bodies, training providers, government agencies and industry groups to maximise programme reach and impact, and lead the engagement strategy with technical colleges and other groups to build structured partnerships that deliver a pipeline of qualified early careers and engineering talent into the business.

Lead cross-functional collaboration with HR, Field Delivery and Technical Training teams to align early careers programmes with operational needs and workforce gaps, ensuring accelerated capability growth and retention.

Lead mentoring and coaching frameworks for early careers talent, ensuring structured support from day one through to role qualification.

Drive performance tracking and reporting across the early careers portfolio—define KPIs, measure programme effectiveness and deliver data-led insights to leadership.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

A degree (or equivalent experience) in HR, Education, Engineering, Business or a related field – Essential

Proven experience in early careers programme design and management, talent acquisition or workforce development within a technical or engineering services environment – Essential

Demonstrated ability to design and scale apprenticeship and graduate programmes across multiple geographies, including scheme governance and compliance – Essential

Excellent stakeholder engagement skills with experience partnering across education institutions, training providers, government bodies and industry groups at a senior level – Essential

Working knowledge of apprenticeship funding frameworks, regulatory requirements and industry standards – Essential

Experience developing recruitment strategies and building sustainable talent pipelines – Essential

Strong capability in data-driven reporting, programme evaluation and delivering insight to leadership – Essential

Excellent communication, presentation and interpersonal skills with the ability to influence cross-functionally – Essential

Experience in training and development pathway design – Essential

Experience building employer brand and early careers communications strategies – Essential

A coaching qualification – Desirable

CIPD Level 5–7 – Desirable

Experience leading apprentice and/or graduate programmes in a similar organisation – Desirable

PHYSICAL & ENVIRONMENTAL DEMANDS

This will be a hybrid role

TIME TRAVEL REQUIRED

Up to 50%

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