Head of Early Careers & Program Management, EMEA

SMBC has an exciting opportunity for a Head of Early Careers & Program Management, EMEA. This strategic role encompasses responsibility for both the sourcing, attraction and recruitment of all Early Career hires as well managing the end-to-end life cycle of the Analyst Programs. This role leads the regional team of Early Career recruiters, program managers while also being responsible for developing the attraction and engagement strategy and maintaining university relationships so as to build SMBC’s brand in the region and globally as the Employer of Choice. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to support ongoing Global Early Careers change management and lead regional project deliverables.

This role will report to the Global Head of Early Careers & Program Management and matrix locally into a regional line.

Strategic Leadership & Governance

• Lead the development and implementation of the regional Early Careers strategy aligned to the Global Early Careers and Program Management framework.
• Set strategic direction for attraction, assessment, development and program management across EMEA, ensuring global consistency while tailoring to regional needs.
• Act as the senior Early Careers advisor to EMEA business leaders, providing market intelligence, future talent insights, and strategic recommendations.

Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, coach and develop the regional Early Careers team (Recruiters and Program Managers), ensuring clarity of responsibilities, high performance and continuous professional development.
• Drive a culture of innovation, collaboration and continuous improvement within the Early Careers team.

Attraction & Recruitment

• Define regional attraction and sourcing strategies, including university partnerships, diversity outreach, branding, early identification programs and assessment practices.
• Oversee execution by regional Recruiters; ensure alignment to global brand, marketing guidelines and diversity goals.

Program Management

• Provide strategic oversight of Analyst and Internship Programs, ensuring they deliver consistent, high‑quality development experiences aligned with global design principles.
• Partner with Learning & Development and the Global Head to enhance program design, development pathways and assessment methodology.
• Monitor program effectiveness, ROI, retention metrics and business feedback to refine strategy and gain continued business sponsorship.

Stakeholder Partnership & Influence

• Establish and maintain strong partnerships with senior business leaders, HR Partners and global Early Career leaders to embed Early Careers into workforce planning and talent strategy.
• Present regional updates, program data, recruitment insights and strategic recommendations to global leadership and business sponsors.

Global Collaboration & Project Leadership.

• Collaborate with Regional Heads to ensure global consistency of Global Program Management, including employer branding, assessment, program framework and internship conversion.
• Lead project delivery of global initiatives as required (example: global recruitment framework / university relations strategic framework / global programs framework) etc.
• Lead POC for a global business (example S&T, IB, Infrastructure etc)

Key requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree with ideally 10+ years of experience in leading and developing Early Career programs.

• Proven experience in early careers recruitment, including interns and graduates, across undergraduate and MBA levels.

• Strong people management and stakeholder management skills including the ability

operate effectively within a matrix structure across all levels, internally and externally.

• Creative thinker with experience designing and implementing attraction and

assessment strategies aligned with business goals.

• A regional leader and a change agent with an agile approach who has an ability to

operate across regional lines, drive consensus and influence outcomes.

• Results oriented professional who drives outcomes to successful conclusion in a timely manner.

• Able to build trust, be credible and ‘hold their own’ at different levels, within and

outside the organization.

• Consultative style along with the determination and patience to achieve results.

• Constructively critical with the desire to drive continuous improvement.

• Excellent project management skills

• Coaching and facilitation skills

• Strong understanding of diversity and inclusion principles and ability to integrate them

into recruitment strategies.

• Willingness to travel as required and a solid understanding of the current recruitment