Senior Talent Acquisition Partner, GTM & Commercial

Department: People & Culture
Location: Bristol, UK
Compensation: £65,000 - £75,000 / year

Description

We're building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.

We specialise in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology, improving decision-making for frontline teams, and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments.

Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 200 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe’s fastest-growing engineering businesses.

The Role

Rowden is growing fast. We’re winning programmes, expanding internationally, and building out the commercial teams that will define how we scale. Finding the right sales, business development and capture talent in specialist markets, across multiple geographies, is one of the most consequential things we can do right now.

We’re looking for a Senior Talent Acquisition Partner to own GTM and commercial hiring across Rowden. This is an end-to-end, specialist role: you’ll be responsible for sourcing, pipeline development, candidate assessment and end-to-end delivery across Sales, BD, Capture, Customer Success and related commercial functions, including our growing US presence.

This is a role for someone who understands that hiring great commercial talent looks different from hiring engineers: the networks are different, the motivations are different, and the ability to assess a candidate’s commercial credibility takes a different kind of judgement. You’ll be part of a small, high-performing People and Talent team, operating as a genuine partner to the business, not a CV-forwarding service.

Key areas of responsibility

• You'll own GTM and commercial hiring end-to-end. This includes (but is not limited to) the following:

  • Take full ownership of the hiring lifecycle for Sales, Business Development, Capture, Revenue Operations, and related commercial roles across Rowden, from briefing through to offer.
  • Build and manage strong shortlists through proactive outreach and headhunting as well as inbound channel management, rather than relying on applications alone.
  • Conduct structured candidate assessments that go beyond CV screening, evaluating commercial credibility, track record, cultural alignment and the specific judgement each role requires.
  • Manage multiple live roles simultaneously, prioritising effectively and keeping hiring managers and candidates well-informed at every stage.
  • Build proactive pipelines for hard-to-fill commercial roles.
  • Develop warm candidate pipelines for priority GTM and commercial disciplines before roles are formally raised, particularly for senior, specialist, or globally-scoped positions.
  • Maintain an active network of commercial talent across defence, deep tech, government, and adjacent markets, engaging candidates before they’re needed.
  • Work closely with the Sourcing Specialist to agree priorities, share market intelligence, and ensure pipelines are ready when hiring demand lands.
  • Stay close to the competitive landscape, understanding where strong commercial talent exists, who’s moving, and what it takes to attract them to Rowden.
  • Act as a genuine partner to GTM and commercial hiring managers.
    • Build trusted, productive relationships with hiring managers across Revenue Operations, Business Development, and commercial leadership, understanding their team structures, strategic direction, and what good looks like for their roles.
    • Lead structured briefing meetings that set clear expectations, define the ideal candidate profile, and agree a realistic hiring plan.
    • Provide honest, data-informed counsel on market conditions, candidate availability, and compensation, including when a brief needs to flex.
    • Coach hiring managers on interview technique, assessment frameworks, and candidate experience, ensuring every process reflects well on Rowden.
  • Lead Rowden’s US and international commercial hiring.
    • Take ownership of commercial hiring across Rowden’s growing US footprint, navigating the nuances of sourcing, assessing and closing candidates in a different market.
    • Develop fluency in US defence and technology commercial talent markets, understanding the candidate landscape, compensation norms, and how Rowden’s proposition lands with US-based hires.
    • Build relationships with US-based commercial talent proactively, ahead of formally scoped roles, to shorten lead times as Rowden’s business scales.
    • Work effectively across time zones, adapting communication and process to ensure a consistently strong experience for candidates and hiring managers regardless of location.