Recruitment Advisor

Job summary

Reporting to the Head of Talent Acquisition, you will manage and deliver a first-class end-to-end recruitment service for the Agency in a high-volume environment at pace. You’ll be working with hiring managers from across the Agency providing best practice advice and guidance on the whole recruitment cycle, including managing the full range of administrative duties associated with resourcing and recruitment.

You will work closely with your Recruitment Advisor counterpart and our three Recruitment Coordinators to deliver a customer focused service that reflects the world class organisation we are. You will be innovative and constantly looking to improve and streamline processes wherever the customer experience can be enhanced. This is a role that really touches all parts of the organisation as well as with candidates from a very broad range of professions, including but not limited to medical, scientific, technology, corporate, administrative, heads of functions, deputy directors, directors and more.

Job description

You will support the management of the agency-wide operational recruitment offering, ensuring all aspects of the service are delivered to the highest quality with customers at the core. You will need to engage with managers, including senior management, to identify possible interventions which lead to reductions in time to hire, cost and minimise the number of unsuccessful campaigns.

You will ensure the recruitment team provide instruction, advice and guidance around all aspects of the process including creation of recruitment criteria, direct sourcing, use of advertising media, creating advert text and interview content as well as complex pay issues and redeployment.

Working with designated business areas to run and deliver end to end recruitment campaigns - including scoping, advertising, selection and onboarding. You will be involved with the administration of the full recruitment process, using relevant databases to maintain accurate records, generating timely correspondence, ensuring a high level of attention to detail at all times.

You will have line management responsibility for a Recruitment Coordinator, ensuring they successfully deliver high quality outcomes in a timely and efficient manner and undertake the relevant development opportunities to enable them to contribute to the functions ongoing improvement, with customers at our core.

Person specification

Our successful candidate will have:

• Demonstrable experience of delivering the full recruitment cycle, from the posting of advertisements, advising hiring managers and candidates, through to selection and offer.
• Experience in leading on process and service delivery improvements, proactively and innovatively achieving recruitment outcomes in a way that most effectively supports the overall success of the organisation.
• Able to demonstrate ability to use knowledge to guide, advise and influence managers at the highest level around best practice ensuring they adopt suitable solutions
• Excellent verbal and written skills; ability to draft accurate correspondence and to deal with a range of queries and issues in person and via correspondence.
• Highly organised, and able to manage multiple tasks and work to competing deadlines while taking a positive and open approach to change and encourage others to do the same.
• Be responsible for ensuring the team delivers accurate and timely resourcing metrics - time to hire, stages of process, cost, effectiveness of campaigns etc. to HR colleagues and Group/Function Senior Management Teams (SMTs) as required.
• Ensure the recruitment team provide instruction, advice and guidance around all aspects of the process including creation of recruitment criteria, direct sourcing, use of advertising media, creating advert text and interview content as well as complex pay issues and redeployment.
• Challenge, influence and advise managers around the use of appropriate assessment methodology. Act as subject matter expert (SME) to HR colleagues and managers, including senior managers.
• Engage with managers, including senior management, to identify possible interventions which lead to reductions in time to hire, cost and minimise the number of unsuccessful campaigns.
• Identify and provide innovative solutions to tackle hard to fill roles, deliver high volume recruitment, recruit to temporary positions and maintain rolling recruitment campaigns for high turnover areas.
• To manage, co-ordinate and maintain the Agency redeployment process if and when required, working with managers and HR colleagues to ensure the process is followed and delivered.
• To undertake, and ensure conclusion of, full pre-employment and security checks for all recruited candidates, and other staff, contractors, contingent workers, interns and student placements within the Agency as required.
• Ensure smooth transitions during onboarding and internal staff moves, making sure the candidate experience is paramount.
• To proactively and innovatively work within the Recruitment team to identify strategic threads, improvements to processes and external best practice. Significantly contribute to the improvement of the Recruitment function by vigorously challenging current processes and ways of working, identifying and implementing improvements, ensuring we offer a streamlined, seamless and continuously improving recruitment service.
• Developing strategic relationships with external job boards, LinkedIn, recruitment agencies and other external stakeholders.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,456, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency contributes £10,851 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Initial Experience and Behaviour based Sift

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1: Sift

As part of the application process, you will be asked to demonstrate your Experience with a CV and provide examples for each of the behaviours (250 words each). Information on Civil Service Success Profiles can be found here

Experience

• Demonstrable experience of delivering the full recruitment cycle, from the posting of advertisements, advising hiring managers and candidates, through to selection and offer.
• Experience in leading on process and service delivery improvements, proactively and innovatively achieving recruitment outcomes in a way that most effectively supports the overall success of the organisation

Behaviours

• Communicating and Influencing - Strong influencing skills with the ability to liaise with staff at all levels, and challenge perceptions, ways of working and decision making where appropriate. Excellent verbal and written skills; ability to draft accurate correspondence and to deal with a range of queries and issues in person and via correspondence
• Changing and Improving – continually reviewing processes and suggesting/implementing improvements
• Managing a Quality Service - always paying attention to detail and delivering accurate, high quality service to stakeholders. Regularly check performance
  against objectives, making suggestions for improvement or taking corrective action where necessary.
• Delivering at Pace - juggling conflicting priorities with ease. Highly organised, and able to manage multiple tasks and work to competing deadlines while taking a positive and open approach to change and encourage others to do the same. Flexible and resilient, able to respond to urgent matters and divert from planned activities

We will review all applicants CV & Behaviour evidence to shortlist candidates. In the event of a high number of applications there will be an initial sift on the CV and Lead Criteria - Communicating and Influencing. After the initial sift, a second sift will be conducted on the remaining candidates on all behaviours

Some guidance to help you with your application can be found here.

Stage 2: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements: Behaviours and Experience as detailed above

The interviews will take place week commencing 1 June 2026.

This interview will be conducted in person. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

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

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

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

Security

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : The Resourcing Team
• Email : careers@mhra.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Careers@mhra.gov.uk

Further information

In accordance with the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles our recruitment and selection processes are underpinned by the requirement of selection for appointment on the basis of merit by a fair and open competition. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact the Resourcing team at Careers@mhra.gov.uk, in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission at: civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk - info@csc.gov.uk - Civil Service Commission Room G/8 1 Horse Guards Road London SW1A 2HQ