Overview
Early Careers Programme Lead
Location: Suffolk (offices in Ipswich & Leiston) with occasional travel to London
Salary: £55,000 – £60,000 depending on experience
Contract: Full time, permanent
Closing date: Wednesday 11th February 2026
To clarify the focus of the role
While this position works closely with our talent and recruitment teams, it is not a recruitment role. We are seeking someone with hands-on experience in designing, leading, and delivering early careers programmes, not someone who has only supported early careers recruitment activity. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of how apprenticeships, graduate schemes, placements, and education partnerships operate end-to-end in practice.
As Early Careers Programme Lead, you will be responsible for the overall strategy, design, and delivery of our early careers offering. This includes apprenticeships (Level 3 and above), graduate and undergraduate programmes, internships, and placements. You will shape the learner experience, partner with the business to understand future skills needs, and ensure our early careers pathways are aligned with long-term workforce planning and talent development priorities. Recruitment is just one element of the broader remit; this role goes far beyond hiring and sits firmly within learning, development, and programme ownership.
Responsibilities
* Owning and leading early careers programmes from design through to delivery and continuous improvement
* Acting as the organisation’s subject-matter expert on early careers pathways and education routes
* Building and managing relationships with training providers, universities, colleges, and external partners
* Ensuring programmes are compliant, inclusive, and deliver a high-quality experience
* Working with leaders and managers to embed early careers talent effectively into teams
* Supporting line managers with onboarding, development, performance, and progression of early careers populations
* Using data and insight to evaluate programme effectiveness and make evidence-based improvements
You’re likely to be a strong fit if you have
* At least 2 years’ experience in an Early Careers, Early Talent, or Programme Lead role within a large or complex organisation
* Hands-on experience designing and delivering early careers programmes (apprenticeships, graduate schemes, placements, internships)
* Practical knowledge of apprenticeship frameworks, provider management, and early careers compliance
* Confidence influencing senior stakeholders and working across multiple business areas
* The ability to operate in a fast-changing environment and bring structure where it’s needed
* A genuine commitment to developing people at the start of their careers
This role is unlikely to be right for you if
* Your background is predominantly agency or in-house recruitment
* Your early careers experience is limited to hiring coordination only
* You are looking for a role focused mainly on attraction, sourcing, and filling roles
Ready to lead, not just support?
If you’re excited by the opportunity to build and run high-quality early careers programmes that have a lasting impact, we’d love to hear from you.
Apply now and help shape the future workforce.
Additional Information
Join the team at Sizewell C. Our vision is to Lead The Way On Nuclear.
The Sizewell C team is one of the most exciting and largest new megaprojects in the UK, whilst being at the forefront of the UK’s climate change agenda and energy policy. We have begun constructing a 3.2-gigawatt nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast in the East of England replicating, wherever possible, the design used for Hinkley Point C, another nuclear power station being built in Somerset.
When built, Sizewell C will be one of the largest power stations to operate in the UK. The power station will generate low carbon electricity for at least 60 years, supplying over 6 million homes and supporting around 7% of the UK’s current electricity needs.
Our vision is to Lead The Way On Nuclear. We want Sizewell C to define what good leadership for the nuclear industry and British infrastructure looks like and deliver on it. We understand the feats of organisation, logistics, collaboration and imagination that building nuclear requires. We are building for the next generation for their home-grown energy, energy price stability and ultra-low carbon power in abundance. We also want to set the benchmark for maximising long-lasting social value as we build and demonstrate how smart collaboration can work for the benefit of communities – locally, regionally and nationally.
We are the first nuclear power station in the UK to be funded under the Regulated Asset Base funding model (RAB). Our largest shareholder is the UK Government, alongside equity partners La Caisse, Centrica, EDF and Amber Infrastructure.
Sizewell C operates within a complex and fast-moving stakeholder environment, engaging with a wide range of partners including government bodies, regulators, local communities, supply chain partners, and international collaborators. This makes Sizewell C a uniquely stimulating place to work — where navigating evolving priorities, balancing interests, and building trusted relationships is just as critical as technical excellence. For those who thrive in dynamic, multi-dimensional settings, it offers unmatched professional challenge and growth.
When joining Sizewell C, you may wonder why you are contacted by colleagues with an EDF email or see the EDF logo on portals that you access and/or documentation you receive; this is because we have partnered with EDF for the provision of a number of support services whilst we complete a successful transition out of the EDF group.
At Sizewell C we encourage and embrace diversity and how it can improve our experience and performance at work. It is a requirement that those who join us have the right to work in the UK. Whilst sponsorship may be a possibility that we can explore, we are fully committed to local recruitment where possible, and those already holding the right to work in the UK.
To be appointed to this role, you will need to meet the criteria for Security Vetting, which will, ordinarily, require you to have been a resident of the UK for at least three of the past five years.
By submitting an application to this role, you acknowledge that you have read and understood Sizewell C’s employee privacy policy and EDF's employee privacy policy. Just to let you know, EDF will be processing and sharing information about your application on behalf of Sizewell C.
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