Synopsis
The Senior Manager,UAE National Attraction & Engagement plays a pivotal role in shaping how Etihad attracts, inspires, and nurtures the next generation of UAE National talent. This role leads the strategic direction and operational execution of the airline's UAE National attraction and engagement agenda, ensuring Etihad is recognised as a premier employer of choice for Nationals across early careers, mid-career professionals, and experienced leadership talent.
With a blend of market intelligence, innovative sourcing strategies, and deep partnership building, this leader ensures our national talent pipelines remain robust, future-ready, and fully aligned to organisational priorities and the UAE's broader nationalisation objectives.
Accountabilities
Strategic Leadership & Planning
- Set and steer a bold, forward-looking UAE National attraction and engagement strategy across the Etihad Group.
- Partner closely with the Head of Emiratisation and senior business stakeholders to translate nationalisation commitments into actionable recruitment pathways and sustainable talent pipelines.
- Utilise talent intelligence, market benchmarking, and data analytics to identify hiring trends, predict risks, and drive proactive interventions.
- Champion innovation by embedding advanced sourcing, AI-enabled attraction tools, CRM-led engagement, and precision-targeted digital outreach.
Attraction, Engagement & Candidate Experience
- Build and maintain proactive talent pipelines for specialist, professional, and leadership UAE National hiring segments.
- Act as a strategic advisor to Talent Acquisition Partners on role feasibility, market competitiveness, and sourcing strategies for National-designated positions.
- Design and deliver targeted campaigns, events, and engagement programmes that amplify Etihad's EVP and showcase compelling career pathways for UAE Nationals.
- Ensure an exceptional candidate experience across every touchpointstreamlined, consistent, and reflective of Etihad's high standards of service and hospitality.
Stakeholder & Partnership Management
- Serve as Etihad's senior representative with government bodies, universities, educational institutions, and national employment partners.
- Influence leaders across the business to adopt structured, scalable, and data-backed national talent recruitment practices.
- Strengthen collaboration between Corporate, Volume, Executive, and Employer Brand recruitment teams to ensure alignment, consistency, and knowledge-sharing.
- Build partnerships that enhance Etihad's presence within the UAE National talent ecosystem and enable diversified, long-term pipelines.
Performance & Reporting
- Define, track, and continuously refine critical KPIsincluding sourcing funnel effectiveness, conversion ratios, time-to-hire, and UAE National placement performance.
- Deliver insight-rich dashboards, performance reviews, and strategic recommendations to senior leadership.
- Ensure robust governance, compliance, and consistency across all attraction, engagement, and employer representation activities.
- Drive operational excellence by identifying opportunities to optimise recruitment processes and engagement frameworks.
Education & Experience
- 8+ years of progressive experience in Talent Acquisition, with proven leadership of UAE National hiring strategies.
- Bachelor's degree or higher.
- Demonstrated success designing sourcing frameworks, leveraging CRM platforms, and delivering high-impact engagement strategies within complex, fast-paced organisations.
- Strong analytical capabilities with the ability to interpret data, spot trends, and guide decision-making through evidence-based insights.
- Familiarity with AI-driven sourcing tools, modern assessment platforms, and digital candidate marketing technologies.
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and influencing capabilities.
- Deep knowledge of the UAE labour market, government entities, and national talent development initiatives.
- Highly organised with strong programme and project management skills.
- Confident representing Etihad at senior-level engagements, public forums, and large-scale events.
- Understanding of Employer Branding strategy and recruitment marketing execution.
About Etihad Airways
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, was formed in 2003 and quickly went on to become one of the world's leading airlines. From its home in Abu Dhabi, Etihad flies to passenger and cargo destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. Together with Etihad's codeshare partners, Etihad's network offers access to hundreds of international destinations. In recent years, Etihad has received numerous awards for its superior service and products, cargo offering, loyalty programme and more. All this ties into Etihad's ambitious Journey 2030 strategy. The airline plans to double its fleet size and triple the number of customers over the next six years as it sets out to be the airline everyone wants to fly!
To learn more, visit etihad.com
Recruitment Fraud Alert
Beware of fraudulent job offers from individuals or organizations claiming to represent the Etihad group. We will never ask for personal information, bank details, or payment during the recruitment process. Interviews are conducted face-to-face or via video/telephone before any formal offer. If you are asked for money, please treat it as fraudulent.
