Early Careers Senior Manager (EMEA)

Practice Group / Department:

We're Norton Rose Fulbright - a global law firm with over 50 offices and 7,000 employees worldwide. We provide the world’s preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service. At Norton Rose Fulbright, our strategy and our culture are closely entwined. We know that our expansion will mean little unless it is underpinned by truly global collaboration and we understand that pioneering work only takes place when our people have room to move and think beyond boundaries. As well as the relevant skills and experience, we're looking for people who are innovative, commercial and value the work that they do. 

The Role

This is a unique opportunity to join the firm at a pivotal moment, as we reimagine Early Careers talent acquisition and development in response to evolving capability needs and future skills.

We are seeking an accomplished Early Careers Senior Manager (EMEA) to lead the design and delivery of Norton Rose Fulbright’s Early Careers agenda across the region, overseeing both recruitment and development from attraction through to scheme completion. Reporting to the Head of Talent and Early Careers EMEA, the role is ideal for someone with strong experience across Early Careers recruitment and development - ideally within Law or Professional Services - who is motivated to use their expertise to make a meaningful impact at firm level.

Sitting within the Talent and Reward Centre of Excellence, part of the firm’s People and Culture function, this role works closely with colleagues across Talent, Performance, Reward, Global Mobility and Resource Management to ensure Early Careers activity is aligned, joined‑up and future‑focused. Early Careers is a critical driver of the firm’s long‑term talent pipeline, diversity ambitions and high‑performance culture, and this role plays a key part in ensuring the firm attracts, develops and retains exceptional early talent - prepared for the profession and the increasing impact of AI.

Strategy & Leadership

• Lead, develop and coach a high‑performing Early Careers team across recruitment and development, including colleagues at different experience levels, fostering capability growth, collaboration and high standards of delivery
• Play a key role in shaping the EMEA Early Careers strategy and lead its execution and delivery, aligned to firm-wide talent objectives
• Shape and evolve the Early Careers proposition to ensure market-leading attraction, development and retention
• Ensure effective delivery of all operational activity, including:
  • Recruitment cycles
  • Programme delivery
  • Induction, events, and communications
• Own the quality, consistency and fairness of Early Careers assessment and development outcomes across EMEA.
• Drive consistency of approach across EMEA while allowing for local nuance

Early Careers Recruitment (Attraction & Selection)

• Oversee the end-to-end recruitment strategy for all Early Careers programmes (e.g. trainees, apprentices, graduates)
• Lead the Early Careers Recruitment team to design and deliver:
  • Attraction and employer branding campaigns
  • Campus and Association partnerships
  • Assessment methodology and selection processes
• Drive innovation in assessment, designing robust, fair and future‑focused processes that identify potential, learning agility and readiness for a changing, AI‑enabled environment.

Early Careers Development (Programme Design & Delivery)

• Oversee the end‑to‑end development journey from onboarding through to scheme completion, ensuring early career talent build capability, confidence and readiness for qualification and progression.
• Lead the Development Team to ensure timely design and delivery of:
  • Induction and pre-joining engagement
  • Programme structure (e.g. seat rotations, secondments)
  • Performance and appraisal frameworks
  • Work in collaboration with our knowledge, L&D and innovation functions to create best in class learning curriculum for our Early Careers populations
• Ensure early career programmes prepare talent effectively for qualification, progression and transition into the wider firm.
• Develop a strong understanding of firm growth areas and future capability needs, shaping pathways for early career talent post‑scheme and supporting alignment between talent supply and long‑term demand.

Stakeholder & Partner Engagement

• Build strong relationships with Partners, Chiefs, Training Principals, People and Culture teams.
• Oversight of key supplier relationships, acting as an escalation point
• Drive effective engagement across recruitment processes and trainee development, enabling partners and managers to play an active role in attraction, supervision and talent development
• Influence senior stakeholders to ensure visible leadership commitment to Early Careers

Data, Insight & Continuous Improvement

• Evaluate the effectiveness of attraction, assessment and development activity, using insight to continually strengthen outcomes, experience and fairness.
• Analyse recruitment, performance and retention data to drive improvements
• Monitor candidate and colleague experience data to continuously strengthen engagement, reputation and retention.

Key Skills and Experience

• Expert in Early Careers, with the ability to translate strategy into practical, scalable solutions across early careers attraction, assessment and development
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, including credibility with senior leaders, hiring managers and external partners
• Commercial awareness, with an understanding of professional services environments and how early‑career pipelines support long‑term business needs
• Data‑driven decision making, using insight to inform workforce planning, assessment effectiveness and continuous improvement
• Clear communication and leadership capability, able to engage, align and mobilise diverse audiences
• Expertise in assessment and programme design, including fair and inclusive early‑careers assessment approaches
• A strong DEI and social mobility lens, with the ability to design pathways that widen access and reduce bias
• Workforce planning and pipeline thinking, linking early‑careers activity to future skills, capability and demand
• Change leadership capability, with confidence operating in ambiguity and leading multi‑year transformation initiatives
• Programme and portfolio management skills, balancing multiple interdependent initiatives at pace
• Technology and AI literacy, with a practical understanding of how digital tools and AI can be applied to attraction, assessment and development
• A coaching mindset, supporting early‑career talent and enabling managers/ partners to build capability and confidence
• Resilience and sound judgement, particularly in high‑visibility, high‑impact decision‑making contexts
• Demonstrable experience managing and developing teams across multiple locations, navigating regional differences, and varying levels of experience, fostering collaboration, performance and capability.

#LI-JC1 #LI-Hybrid

To attract the best people, we strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work, have a sense of belonging, and realize their full career potential. 
Our new enabled work model allows our people to have more flexibility in the way they choose to work from both the office and a remote location, while continuing to deliver the highest standards of service. We offer a range of family friendly and inclusive employment policies and provide access to programmes and services aimed at nurturing our people’s health and overall wellbeing. Find more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion here.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams. We strive to create an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for all candidates. If you require any tailored adjustments or accommodations, please let us know here.