Talent and Capability Specialist


Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Salary:	£35,663 - £35,663
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	Southampton
Job type:	Permanent
Posting date:	12 Aug 2026
Closing date:	26 Aug 2026

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Summary

Are you passionate about using workforce and skills insight to help organisations prepare for the future?

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is looking for a Talent and Capability Specialist to help us build a clearer, evidence-based understanding of the skills, capability and talent pipelines needed to deliver our future business priorities.

This is an opportunity to shape capability frameworks, develop practical workforce insight and provide executive-level reporting that supports informed workforce planning, talent and succession decisions across the organisation.

Working closely with HR colleagues, business leaders and People Strategy stakeholders, you will help identify future capability risks, strengthen succession resilience and support delivery of the MCA People Strategy.

The role focuses on future skills, capability frameworks, evaluation and assurance rather than the delivery of learning and development programmes.

If you enjoy turning complex information into clear recommendations and practical tools that influence strategic decision-making, we'd love to hear from.

The role sits within Human Resources in the Corporate Services Group. Human Resources is responsible for delivering the MCA People Strategy and a wide range of people services including culture and capability, talent management, employee relations, reward and resourcing.

As part of the Talent, Capability & Inclusion team, you will work across HR and MCA business areas to help the organisation understand future skills requirements, identify emerging capability risks and strengthen talent and succession approaches.

You will collaborate with HR Business Partners, Learning & Development colleagues, People Strategy Group members and senior leaders, providing insight, frameworks and practical tools that support evidence-based workforce decisions.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday
Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at: MCA Homepage | Civil Service Careers

As a Talent and Capability Specialist you will report to the Talent, Capability & Inclusion Lead and support delivery of the MCA People Strategy by providing future-focused skills, capability and workforce insight. Your work will help the organisation anticipate capability risks, strengthen succession resilience and make informed workforce decisions.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

Building and maintaining an evidence-based understanding of future skills and capability requirements, informed by workforce data, organisational priorities and external trends.

Analysing workforce, capability and talent insight to identify emerging risks, gaps and opportunities that may affect organisational resilience and future workforce capability.

Producing clear, executive-ready insight and reporting for the HR Leadership Team, the People Strategy Group and other senior governance forums.

Working collaboratively with HR Business Partners, Learning & Development colleagues and business leaders to embed future-skills thinking into workforce planning and people decisions.

Supporting leaders to understand capability risks and make evidence-based workforce decisions, while measuring the impact of talent and capability initiatives against organisational outcomes.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

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