Kay Shah
Senior Talent Acquisition Partner | GTM, Tech & Commercial Hiring | Fintech, Payments & High-Growth Tech
Salary / Daily rate
Pinner, UK
Freelance, open to permanent contract
Can come onsite
Skills
About me
Intro
Hands-on, individual contributor Talent Acquisition partner with deep in-house experience across fast-growth technology, financial services, and professional services. I specialise in go-to-market and commercial hiring — Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, RevOps, and Partnerships — alongside Tech, Product, and Operations, from IC level through to VP and Director. At Xe I transformed a function with 90% agency dependency into one where direct hiring accounts for 98% of all hires. Along the way: 🔹 Agency spend cut by 67% — from $450k to $150k 🔹 Time-to-hire reduced from 70+ days to 45 days 🔹 260+ hires delivered in a single year as a solo practitioner Open to Senior TA roles in London and the Home Counties.
Work experience
Xe.com
Feb 2020 - May 2026
6 years 4 months
Bracknell, UK
Global Talent Partner
Dec 2021 - May 2026
4 years 6 months
Bracknell, UK
Hands-on TA partner owning full-cycle recruitment across all functions and levels, EMEA, APAC, and AMER. Strong GTM specialism — hiring across Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, RevOps, and Partnerships at IC through to VP and Director level. - 260+ hires delivered in a single year - Direct hiring at 98% — agency use reduced from 90% dependency to the exception - Time-to-hire cut from 70+ days to 45 days - 30% increase in direct applications following EVP and careers site relaunch - Jobvite ATS implemented end-to-end as super user — migrated from Workable (previous super user) - Recruitment analytics suite built from scratch — C-suite visibility on cost, source, and hiring performance - Reduced time-to-hire in Mexico and Malaysia from 90 to 60 days by introducing structured sourcing and hiring manager frameworks - AI and automation embedded across CV screening, scheduling, and candidate engagement
Senior Internal Recruitment
Feb 2020 - Dec 2021
1 year 11 months
Bracknell, UK
Joined as the sole in-house recruiter with a clear mandate to build direct sourcing capability and transform talent acquisition. - Reduced agency spend by 67% — from $450k to $150k - Delivered 150+ hires across the UK and US, including Atlanta, Austin, Denver, and Irvine CA - Built recruitment reporting dashboards and KPI frameworks from scratch - Partnered with C-suite and VP stakeholders on hiring strategy and talent pipelining - Established the direct sourcing foundations that would scale to 98% direct hiring in the next role
Principal Recruiter
JDC Group
Nov 2018 - Jul 2019
9 months
Atlanta, GA, USA
Talent Acquisition Lead
Bullhorn
Apr 2018 - Aug 2018
5 months
Atlanta, GA, USA
Managed end-to-end recruitment for Professional Services, Finance, and Marketing; partnered with senior stakeholders to define needs and sourced candidates via LinkedIn Recruiter.
Senior Resource Manager
SkyBridge Global
Sep 2017 - May 2018
9 months
Atlanta, GA, USA
On-Site Recruitment Consultant & Interview Coach
Alexander Mann Solutions (Santander & Barclays)
Nov 2016 - Jul 2017
9 months
London, UK
Santander: Partnered with internal stakeholders to drive internal mobility; 49% of all roles filled with internal candidates through proactive talent matching. Barclays: Delivered structured interview coaching for AVP and VP-level colleagues; managed large-scale redeployment programme matching at-risk talent to internal opportunities.
Recruitment Business Partner / Account Manager
Vodafone Group via Allegis Global Solutions
Nov 2013 - Mar 2016
2 years 5 months
Operated as embedded TA partner for Vodafone Group, managing contract recruitment across Technical Architecture, Project Management, Business Analysis, Finance, HR, and Marketing. Increased direct fill ratio from 25% to 85% as a solo recruiter, reducing agency spend by 50% and generating 40% new business into the account. Led a large-scale Technology and Business Change programme across circa 100 vacancies; delivered regular MI on cost-per-hire, time-to-hire, and source effectiveness.
Resourcing Consultant
Cognizant Program Management Consulting
Mar 2012 - Oct 2013
1 year 8 months
Paddington NSW 2021, Australia
Resourcing Consultant
PIPC (UK) Limited
May 2011 - Oct 2013
2 years 6 months
London, UK
Global project, program and portfolio management specialist, founded in 1992 and acquired by Cognizant in May 2010.
Recruiter
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Feb 2011 - May 2011
4 months
Interim Recruiter
International SOS
Dec 2010 - Jan 2011
2 months
Recruitment Manager
Place Group
Feb 2008 - Aug 2010
2 years 7 months
Senior National Recruiter
KPMG
Aug 2007 - Oct 2007
3 months
Managing Consultant
FSS
Mar 2007 - Aug 2007
6 months
Managed the recruitment process of successfully placing contract and temporary staff within the Banking sector. Developed and mentored 2 Consultants, to ensure they manage and develop relationships with candidates and clients successfully. Clifford Chance
Resourcing Advisor
Clifford Chance
Dec 2006 - Mar 2007
4 months
Providing a strategic recruitment advice to the Business Services group, which includes IT, Finance and Marketing Building sustainable relationships with Senior Managers and Partner within the business to ensure a consistant and smooth process is adhered to Analysing the cost of recruitment and implementing a cost saving exercise to ensure recruitment expenditure is reduced by 15% Revising and implementing a competency based interview to ensure a fair recruitment process is adhered to.
Resourcing Adviser
BDO Stoy Hayward LLP
Dec 2004 - Aug 2006
1 year 9 months
Education
Nottingham Trent University
BA (Hons), Social Science
1996 - 2000
4 years
Reed Business School
Nottingham Trent University
Bachelor of Arts, SOCIAL SCIENCES