Talent Acquisition Lead

Location: Central London (EC2)

About Oxbow Partners

We are a fast-growing management consulting firm exclusively serving the insurance industry. We advise on strategy topics covering growth, operations and technology and M&A.

The firm was set up in 2015 and we are now around 25 full-time members of staff. We are proud of the business we have built:

• We have a stellar reputation for thought leadership thanks to our blog, reports and numerous press citations
• We have been recognised as one of the top consultancies in the UK in 2022 in a FT survey, the only ‘challenger’ firm in a field dominated by McKinsey, BCG and Oliver Wyman
• Our quarterly staff engagement tracker is consistently well ahead of competition, reflecting our focus on culture and work life balance

We advise management teams of insurers, reinsurers, brokers and private equity firms in the UK, Europe and Bermuda on a wide range of critical topics. Recent examples include:

• Global operating model design for a large reinsurer
• Growth strategy and post merger integration for one of the UK’s leading insurance brands
• Various technical and commercial due diligences for UK private equity firms

We are applying to be a B Corporation reflecting the ethical way we run our business, including a focus on diversity and inclusion. This makes us unique amongst strategy consulting firms.

Our values and culture

We want to be the most trusted, best informed, and most entrepreneurial insurance advisory firm in Europe and have more fun delivering than any of our competitors.

Our values guide everything we do and the way we behave at Oxbow Partners:

• Strive to be the best, but humble enough to recognise there’s always much to learn
• Be hard on facts, even when it means giving tough messages…
• …but soft on people
• Imperfect impact trumps perfect analysis
• Build the brand, and the business will build itself

We work hard but work-life balance is important to us.

We are obsessed with empowering our staff, giving them the freedom to network in their markets, build relationships and ultimately, pitch for and lead projects, regardless of level. In turn, Oxbow Partners will strive to deliver a high-quality working environment including reward, recognition and purpose, in an environment of mutual respect where creativity and ideas are encouraged.

This requires building a business with people who are passionate about what they do, who want to deliver the very best results for our clients but equally as important, who care about their communities, the environment and their colleagues.

The role

Oxbow Partners is hiring a Talent Acquisition Lead in London, to build an exceptional direct sourcing model that will meet the headcount growth ambitions of the business and retain our values and culture.

The Talent Acquisition Lead will take ownership of the talent acquisition strategy, particularly focusing on experienced and senior leadership hires, delivering a sourcing model that finds the best talent in the market.

Why this role is important to our work?

Our team is the single most important asset of Oxbow Partners and critical to the growth and success of the firm.

This role will be instrumental in directly sourcing our future team members and will be one of the most important hires we make.

With our services increasing in demand year on year, we must continue to grow our headcount, so that we can support our clients as we would wish, but also to ensure our existing team members achieve the work / life balance that they deserve.

Sourcing great talent is one of the biggest challenges a business can have and at Oxbow Partners, we have recognised the need to hire our own specialist who can help us on this journey.

What are our expectations of the role deliverables?

 You will become a key voice in representing Oxbow Partners to the market, particularly for experienced hires, ensuring that our vision and values are well understood and that individuals get a true version of our offering.

Our expectation is that you will be bold and constructive in how you work with colleagues, providing clear guidance on the talent market and its relation to budgeted headcount growth in the short, medium and long term.

You will be a champion of Oxbow Partners’ focus on advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace, ensuring that the people we hire continue to bring a variety of perspectives into our environment.

As this will be a new role to Oxbow Partners, this position will be able to bring fresh perspective and thinking to our approach to talent acquisition, advising the Partners and wider team on all aspects of external recruitment and the wider talent management process.

In this role, we are seeking:

A collaborative and motivated talent acquisition specialist who thrives in a fast paced, entrepreneurial, principles-driven environment.

An individual who  knows what it takes to build and run a direct sourcing model, ideally within a start-up or fast growth professional services company, although we are open to experience from all sectors.

Someone who has experience as an in-house talent specialist but may also come from a recruitment background.

Someone who can demonstrate the motivation and capability to lead a new function, effectively taking a blank sheet of paper and creating the role and ultimately, team, which will deliver the necessary headcount growth.

An individual who enjoys building relationships, networking and is passionate about the brand which they represent.

In return, we can offer..

• A competitive salary
• An annual discretionary company bonus, subject to meeting various objectives.
• Payment of your personal mobile bills including reasonable personal calls (provided you use it for Company business)
• Private health insurance (including for any spouse and dependent children)
• Company maternity pay at full salary for the first 26 weeks of maternity leave provided the Employee has been employed for 12 months ending with the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth
• 25 days’ annual leave (plus bank holidays)
• 2 days’ leave for charitable volunteering
• A pension scheme into which we contribute 8% of your basic salary

The insurance industry

Everyone needs insurance, but few people care about it. This poses interesting challenges around distribution and product development. With global megatrends ranging from climate change, the explosion of digital (and related cyber risk), and challenges with national healthcare systems, insurers are innovating like never before.

Insurance is hugely complicated. Insurers are selling protection against a possible future adverse event. They are involved in every industry in every country in the world. The industry demands a capabilities from retail marketing to software development, actuarial, meteorology and beyond. Insurers need management consultants to help them navigate this complexity.

How to apply

Please email [email protected] to find out more or apply for the role.