Early Careers Lead - Americas

Arup’s purpose, shared values, and collaborative approach has set us apart for over 80 years, guiding how we shape a better world.

About the role

The Early Careers Lead is responsible for regional delivery of the global Early Careers framework, embedding consistent standards, coordinating campaign activity, coaching recruiters, and supporting continuous improvement. The role ensures the Early Careers strategy and programmes are embedded into local contexts while remaining consistent with global objectives and standards.

This is a critical role in embedding and operationalising the early careers recruitment framework, acting as a key partner to the business and senior leaders to attract, engage, and hire top early-career talent across the assigned region.

Responsibilities

• Global Strategy Implementation
  • Embed and operationalize Arup’s global early careers strategy within the region, ensuring consistent application of global standards while adapting for local regulations, cultural expectations, and market dynamics.
  • Play a leading role in Early Careers workstreams to develop and evolve the global framework, including technology, demand, assessment, and programmatic approaches.
  • Work with People Partnering teams and business leaders to forecast demand to ensure timely delivery of talent pipelines.
• Team Management
  • Lead, coach, and develop a team of early careers recruiters, fostering a high-performance and collaborative culture.
  • Allocate work, set priorities, and ensure consistent delivery standards across all recruitment activity.
  • Establish ways of working that support collaboration, continuous improvement, and a positive team culture.
  • Alongside the Global Early Careers Operations Leader, work with the RPO to ensure a strong relationship with the RPO team and smooth delivery of key campaigns.
• Future-Focused Candidate Attraction
  • Drive innovative sourcing strategies leveraging technology, social media, and data analytics.
  • Build strong relationships with universities, professional organizations, and diversity partners to expand talent pools.
  • Represent Arup at campus and in-office events, conferences, virtual fairs, and industry forums to strengthen our employer brand.
  • Build and maintain early career talent pipelines to ensure a strong and consistent pool of candidates.
  • Partner with EDI teams to embed and uphold inclusive practices to source diverse early careers talent.
• Recruitment Operations & Delivery Excellence
  • Own demand fulfilment by overseeing the full-cycle recruitment for early careers programs, ensuring compliance with local regulations and global standards and an exceptional candidate journey from application through to onboarding.
  • Implement relevant process improvements to reduce time-to-offer and enhance efficiency.
  • Oversee the intern program and intern conversion process within the region, ensuring return on investment and building a key graduate talent pipeline.
• Data & Insights
  • Monitor recruitment metrics through regular reporting and end-of-season reviews to regional and global leadership to understand the effectiveness of processes, refine strategies, and improve outcomes.
  • Stay up to date with market trends, competitor activity, and innovations, bringing in external thought leadership.

Measures of Success

• Delivery of overall regional campaign aligned to core KPIs, including:
  • Candidate Experience – time to offer, time in process, and feedback
  • Fulfilment – delivery against forecasted demand
  • Harmonisation – successful embedding of global processes and ways of working
  • Return on Investment – demonstrating value in attraction activities, cost per hire, and intern conversions

Requirements

• 6 or more years of experience in delivery of early careers recruitment seasons, with a future-focused mindset.
• Demonstrated passion and energy to embed a new early careers model within the region while remaining globally aligned.
• A bachelor’s degree in business, communications, psychology, or a related field.
• Strategic thinker with a passion for innovation in recruitment.
• Strong leadership and stakeholder management skills, particularly focused on change management and embedding new ways of working.
• Team leadership experience, including building and developing a team of recruiters.
• Expertise with using ATS and digital sourcing tools (Taleo and/or Oracle a plus).
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with the ability to translate global plans into defined regional actions for stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities across regions in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience operating in a global or matrixed organization and/or the Engineering & Consulting industry.
• Understanding of regional trends in early careers hiring and future skills.
• Familiarity with technical roles and disciplines and associated college/university student trends (preferred).

Benefits

At Arup, we care about each member’s success, so we can grow together. Guided by our values, we provide an attractive total reward package that recognizes the contribution of each of our members to our shared success.

• Profit Share: Key part of our reward, enabling members to share in the results of our collective efforts (paid bi-annually).
• Benefits at Work: Comprehensive and valuable benefits program, 100% paid for by Arup (except optional life insurance), providing health and welfare security as well as paid time off for rest and renewal.
• Retirement Savings: GRRSP 5% company match to help you save for your future.
• Flexible Working: Options for alternative schedules and the ability to work outside of the office for a portion of your workweek.

Pay

The good faith base salary hiring range for this job if performed in Toronto is CAD 91,000 to 108,000 per year. This range is commensurate with experience, educational background, and skill level. Benefits are not included in the base salary. Hiring ranges for candidates performing work outside of Toronto will differ.