Location: Crawley, United Kingdom In fast changing markets, customers worldwide rely on Thales. Thales is a business where brilliant people from all over the world come together to share ideas and inspire each other. In aerospace, transportation, defence, security and space, our architects design innovative solutions that make our tomorrow's possible. Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that's why we offer you the flexibility to do what's important to you; whether that's part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions. Early Careers Manager - CHQ Crawley This role presents an exciting opportunity to work within Talent Learning & Culture in Thales UK, supporting our mission to hire the next generation of early career talent. We are looking for a passionate early career professional with experience of supporting employees at the start of their careers as they complete their apprenticeships. This role will sit within the Talent & Leadership practice supporting the learning, training, development and pastoral care of apprentices across our corporate function. This critical role will involve supporting approximately 50 of our graduates and apprentices, ensuring that they receive a consistent, high quality experience. A number of the apprentices within CHQ are our digital apprentices, so this role presents an opportunity to underpin the success of our new digital apprenticeship pathways and provides a unique opportunity to be involved in a key talent stream within Thales' digital transformation. Reporting into the Head of Talent - People and Practice Lead, this role will be responsible for maintaining the growth and progression of our early career members learning, whilst working with the UK Early Careers team to ensure successful attraction, selection, on boarding, development, and progression of entry-level talent within our organisation. In this role, you will: Have matrix management responsibility for approximately 50 apprentices across our corporate functions. Manage all pastoral care, from learning on programme to safeguarding and mental health support. You will be expected to be a designated safeguarding support officer (full training will be provided). Work directly with our apprentices to support their further education - facilitating tripartite reviews with apprentices, line managers and providers, taking the lead on training and performance reviews for individuals and teams as required. Be the main conduit between the business, the learner and the central function, to ensure a cohesive and seamless learning experience of our early career members. Provide mentoring and coaching to line managers when needed in order to ensure a positive learning and employee experience for our early career talent. Bring your knowledge and experience of management to support objective setting and development action planning. Support successful completion of all elements of the apprenticeship learning programme including exposure to appropriate work to meet the Knowledge Skills & Behaviours (KSBs) of the apprenticeship and the End-Point Assessment (EPA). Support the Thales UK business to ensure their apprenticeship programmes remains current and relevant and in line with apprenticeship legislation, staying ahead of Government Skills and Growth strategies. Work closely with other Early Career Managers, Line Mangers and the Early Careers Team across our UK business, to share best practice and support the end-to-end delivery of our early career programmes. You will have a pivotal role in supporting the attraction, selection and on boarding of our early career members - helping to hire the best early minds across the UK business, supporting our mission to hire the next generation of skilled talent. You are expected to work in partnership with colleagues across both the Talent, Learning and Culture practice as well as the wider Thales business to ensure that we are offering a positive career experience to our early career members. Key Skills and Experience Future talent/Early Careers experience (development and recruitment). Clear and demonstrable experience of managing, mentoring and coaching of both early and mid-career talent within a complex environment, with excellent people management skills and the ability to influence and challenge others. Ability to effectively communicate individual and team development needs to different stakeholders both internally and externally. Experience and strong understanding of apprenticeship programmes, specifically knowledge of digital apprenticeship programmes in disciplines like Data, DevOps, Software, IS and Cyber would be an advantage. Experience with process administration, data driven decision-making and continuous improvement. To excel in this role you will need effective communication skills, interpersonal skills, strong project coordination skills and the ability and flexibility to collaborate across teams. Previous experience of working within a training and development environment. A self-starter, capable of working under own initiative with a high level of integrity. Customer focussed, ensuring that you act professionally on behalf of Thales at all times. What We Can Offer We're committed to giving you opportunities to be your best. We believe in embracing the passion and potential of our people, and to achieve this we offer market leading training, development and experiences, along with the opportunity to be mentored and coached by some of the smartest minds in the industry. We hire from within as our first priority, so you'll have a myriad of opportunities within our diverse, global organisation. Flexibility Your health and well-being matters to us and that's why we offer you the flexibility to do what's important to you; whether that's part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions. If you are interested in this role, we would encourage you to have informal chat with the Talent Acquisition Partner. Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity and inclusion are integral to the success of Thales. This role will require SC Clearance. It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant will undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance. Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance. To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years' residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the National Security Vetting (NSV) Agency - United Kingdom Security Vetting - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) LI-RD1 In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency. At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working. Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles. Great journeys start here, apply now