Titles in talent acquisition are an unreliable guide to the work. The same title means a head of function in one business and a senior recruiter in the next. This guide sets out how the work divides between the four seats construction employers ask us about most: head of TA, TA manager, TA leader and sourcing specialist.
What is in the guide
For each role, what the seat owns, how it is measured, the usual next step and a skills profile across eight areas, from people management and business partnering to search and market mapping and data and reporting. A side-by-side comparison shows how the profile shifts with seniority: leadership and commercial weight rise, while search and administration sit closer to delivery.
How long it takes to reach each seat
We read the career histories of in-house recruiters at 150 UK construction employers. The median head of TA had spent 9.6 years in recruitment when appointed, against 8.9 for TA managers, 7.9 for TA leaders and 5.2 for the recruiter and sourcing tier. Agency experience is common at every level, and promotion from within becomes more common with seniority.
Method
The panel is 817 public professional profiles, collected in September 2026, and the guide lists every employer in it. The skills scores are our assessment, drawn from the briefs we have worked on for in-house teams, and are not measured from the panel.
If you are building or reshaping a talent team, email George Dobbins (george@arcaviaconsulting.com).