UK

United Kingdom · Learning and development · Director/VP (16-20 years)

Director, Talent & Organisational Development

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

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  • Experience bandDirector/VP (16-20 years)
  • Direct reports5-8 reports
  • Reports toChief People Officer (CPO)
  • UK framework levelUsually a director, accountable for a division and its numbers

Also advertised as Head of Learning & Development · VP, People Development · Director of People Capability · Global Head of Learning

Built on 43,079 real UK job descriptions we analysed · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Two short quizzes about you

1From this job to a course

The qualifications matched to this job

OTHM Level 7 Diploma in Data Science OTHM Qualifications · Level 7 · covers 2 of 10 standards
NQual Level 5 Certificate in Leadership and Management NQual · Level 5 · covers 1 of 10 standards
NCC Education Level 5 Extended Diploma in Computing with Data Science NCC Education Limited · Level 5 · covers 1 of 10 standards
Level 6 Award in Data-led Decision Making Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 6 · covers 1 of 10 standards
NCFE CACHE Level 5 Diploma in Advanced Playwork (Wales) NCFE · Level 5 · covers 1 of 10 standards

Matched from the standards this job is measured against: a suggestion, not an official ruling.

The units you would start with

Data Science Foundations OTHM Level 7 Diploma in Data Science
Principles of leadership and management NQual Level 5 Certificate in Leadership and Management
Introduction to Data Science and Big Data NCC Education Level 5 Extended Diploma in Computing with Data Science
Data-led Decision Making Level 6 Award in Data-led Decision Making
Apply the Concepts of Data Science to Computer Engineering NOCN Level 5 Diploma in Computer Engineering (Information Technology and Data Science)
Provide learning opportunities for colleagues NCFE CACHE Level 5 Diploma in Advanced Playwork (Wales)

The future skills this job leans on

AI Fluency working with AI as a thinking partner
Data Fluency turning numbers into a decision
AI Governance Fluency using AI responsibly
Change Fluency taking people through change
Systems Fluency seeing the whole picture
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Your Plan Illustration

Built for Director, Talent & Organisational Development

6 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Data Science Foundations OTHM Qualifications · covers 2 of 10 standards Level 7
  2. Principles of leadership and management NQual · covers 1 of 10 standards Level 5
  3. Introduction to Data Science and Big Data NCC Education Limited · covers 1 of 10 standards Level 5
  4. Data-led Decision Making Institute of Sales Professionals · covers 1 of 10 standards Level 6
  5. Apply the Concepts of Data Science to Computer Engineering NOCN · covers 1 of 10 standards Level 5
  6. Provide learning opportunities for colleagues NCFE · covers 1 of 10 standards Level 5
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

2AI and this work

Will AI change your work as a Director, Talent & Organisational Development?

Nobody can say exactly how. Here is what this job is being asked for next, and where to start.

The new skills this role is being asked for

  • AI-Driven Talent Strategy & Ethics
  • Ecosystem Leadership & Partner Management
Why each one is rising

The future skills this job leans on

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

What happens when you start

Next, a free account. We build your Director, Talent & Organisational Development plan as you set up, starting with a Future Fluency module on using AI in your job. No card.

Your first Future Fluency module is free. After that, your AI tutor is £70 a month.

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3What this role really is

This job shapes how an organisation learns, grows and performs. It means building a talent strategy and making sure people have the right skills for where the organisation is headed.

4What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

LMS/LXP (e.g., Cornerstone OnDemand, Workday Learning, Degreed) Strategic

Leads vendor selection/RFP process, defines the platform ecosystem strategy, and governs data flow between systems. You're thinking about the future roadmap and how these platforms support our overall talent strategy.

Data & Analytics Platforms (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Advanced Excel) Strategic

Defines the L&D measurement strategy, commissions predictive analytics projects (e.g., identifying flight risks based on learning patterns), and interprets complex dashboards for executive consumption. You're using data to tell a strategic story.

HRIS (e.g., Workday HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM) Strategic Partner

Works with the HRIS team to ensure data structures support talent and learning analytics needs enterprise-wide. You're influencing system design to get the data you need for strategic decision-making.

Collaboration & Project Management Tools (e.g., Miro, Asana, Confluence, MS Teams) Administrator / Strategic

Establishes the workflows and best practices for how the L&D team uses these tools to manage its portfolio and communicate with the wider organisation. You're optimising how your team works.

5What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing in Where you are nowThe step above
Strategic Programme Investment Escalate all budget requests to Manager for approval. Propose programme budgets up to £20K to Manager for approval. Approve programme budgets up to £50K, consult Director for larger. Recommend strategic direction.
Organisational Design & Structure No involvement. Provide input on team structure within your immediate project. Recommend team structure changes within your workstream, consult Director.
Vendor Selection & Contracts No involvement. Research potential vendors for specific tools, present findings to Manager. Recommend vendors for specific L&D tools (e.g., content authoring), approve contracts up to £10K.

6How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.

Internal Mobility Rate
The percentage of critical leadership and specialist roles filled by internal candidates.
Target · Increase from 40% to 60% over 3 years

If we had 100 open leadership roles this year, and 60 of them were filled by people already working here, that's 60%. We want to see that number climb, showing our development programmes are working.

Leadership Bench Strength
The percentage of critical roles with at least two 'ready now' or 'ready in 12 months' successors identified.
Target · Improve 'ready now' successors by 25% for top 50 critical roles within 18 months

If our top 50 roles currently have 10 'ready now' successors, you'd aim for 12-13 by next year. This shows we're actively developing our future leaders.

Employee Engagement (Career Growth)
The score on our annual employee survey related to opportunities for career growth and development.
Target · Achieve a statistically significant increase of 0.5 points on a 5-point scale within 2 years

If last year's average score for 'I see opportunities for growth here' was 3.8, we'd be looking for 4.3 or higher. Happy, growing employees stick around.

Talent Programme ROI
The measurable return on investment for key talent development programmes, often linked to business outcomes like reduced attrition or increased productivity.
Target · Demonstrate positive ROI for 75% of programmes with budgets over £50K

A leadership development programme costing £100K that reduces manager attrition by 5% (saving £200K in recruitment costs) shows a clear positive return. You'll need to prove this.

Strategic Partnership & Influence
How effectively you partner with the CPO and executive team to shape the overall people strategy and influence business decisions.
  • You're proactively invited to executive strategy sessions, not just L&D meetings. Your insights are sought on major organisational changes, not just training requests. You're seen as a trusted advisor, not just a service provider. The CPO regularly references your input in board reports.
Organisational Design & Effectiveness
Your contribution to designing effective organisational structures and processes that support capability building and performance.
  • You're leading discussions on new team structures or competency frameworks. You're helping business unit leaders diagnose and solve complex performance issues beyond simple training. Your recommendations are adopted and demonstrably improve team output.
Team Leadership & Development
The effectiveness of your leadership in building, mentoring, and developing your own L&D team.
  • Your direct reports are highly engaged and have clear development plans. They're achieving their goals and taking on more complex work. You're seen as a supportive, challenging, and inspiring leader. Your team's attrition is lower than the company average.
Innovation & Future-Proofing
Your ability to bring new, effective learning approaches and technologies into the organisation, keeping us competitive.
  • You're piloting new learning technologies or methodologies that show real promise. You're regularly sharing insights on market trends in L&D with the executive team. Your team is experimenting with AI-powered tools or new content formats. We're not just doing 'what we've always done'.

7Would you like it

Both sides. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Shaping Organisational Future

You'll spend time thinking about future skill needs, looking at market trends, and designing long-term talent strategies. This isn't just about fixing today's problems, but building tomorrow's capabilities.

Leading a multi-year project to build a new leadership competency framework that will guide all hiring and development for the next decade.

Driving Strategic Impact

You'll be focused on how L&D can directly contribute to major business goals, like entering new markets or launching new products. You'll be measuring success in terms of business outcomes, not just learning metrics.

Designing a talent strategy that helps a new business unit scale from 50 to 500 people in 18 months, ensuring they have the right leadership and technical skills.

Building High-Performing Teams

You'll be coaching and developing your own team, empowering them to take ownership and grow their careers. You'll also be designing programmes that help other teams across the organisation become more effective.

Mentoring a new L&D Manager to successfully launch a company-wide coaching programme, and seeing them grow into a confident leader.

What frustrates people
  • Having to constantly justify L&D spend against functions with more direct P&L impact.
  • Dealing with executive 'flavour of the month' requests that don't align with the long-term strategy.
  • The struggle to get clean, reliable data to prove Level 3 and 4 impact, even with advanced tools.
  • Navigating complex, often unspoken, political dynamics between different business units.
  • Seeing promising pilot programmes fail to scale due to lack of sustained executive sponsorship.
What this role does not give you
  • A quiet, purely analytical role where you're just building models without presenting them.
  • A role where you can avoid difficult conversations with senior leaders or challenge their assumptions.
  • A guarantee that every programme you design will be fully funded and adopted company-wide.
  • A predictable, unchanging set of priorities; expect strategic shifts and pivots.

8Who you work with

You'll be directly shaping the talent pipeline and leadership capabilities across the entire organisation. This means you're influencing everything from how quickly we can scale up a new department to how well our senior leaders navigate complex market changes. Your work directly impacts our ability to execute on strategic initiatives, retain top performers, and build a strong, resilient company culture. Frankly, you're building the future workforce.

Inside the business
  • Chief People Officer (CPO)
  • CEO and Executive Leadership Team
  • Heads of Business Units (e.g., Sales, Product, Engineering)
  • Finance Director (for budget and ROI discussions)
  • HR Business Partner leadership
Outside the business
  • Key learning technology vendors
  • External executive coaching providers
  • Industry bodies and thought leaders
  • Talent acquisition partners

9What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • Proven track record of leading a significant L&D function or a large, complex talent development programme for at least 5 years.
  • Demonstrated ability to influence C-suite executives and build strategic partnerships at the highest levels of an organisation.
  • Extensive experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating enterprise-wide talent strategies with measurable business impact.
  • Strong experience managing significant budgets (£1M+) and justifying investments to senior financial stakeholders.
  • Experience leading and developing a team of L&D professionals, including managers and senior specialists.

10What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Advanced Data Governance & Analytics Architecture

As L&D becomes more data-driven, ensuring the integrity, privacy, and accessibility of talent data is paramount. You'll need to understand the architecture of our data systems to make strategic decisions about what we measure, how we store it, and how we extract insights ethically. This is about trust and compliance.

Data Lake/Warehouse Concepts · API Integrations & Data Connectors · Data Privacy by Design · Predictive Analytics Models

  • This quarter: Schedule a deep-dive with our HRIS and Data Engineering teams to understand our current talent data architecture.
  • Next 6 months: Lead a project to define and document our L&D data governance policies, ensuring GDPR compliance.
  • Next 12 months: Partner with IT to explore new tools or approaches for integrating disparate talent data sources for richer insights.
  • Ongoing: Stay updated on data privacy regulations and best practices in talent analytics.

Quick win: Work with your team to review and optimise current data extraction and reporting processes, identifying bottlenecks or inconsistencies that could impact strategic decisions.

11Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly attending executive L&D conferences (e.g., ATD International Conference, Learning Technologies UK) to stay abreast of industry trends and network with peers.
  • Engaging in continuous learning through executive education programmes or online courses focused on strategy, organisational psychology, or emerging technologies (like AI in HR).
  • Participating in peer-to-peer executive forums or roundtables to share insights and best practices with other Directors/VPs.
  • Mentoring junior L&D professionals, which is a great way to solidify your own expertise and give back to the profession.

12The rising capability

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

AI-Driven Talent Strategy & Ethics

AI is rapidly transforming how we identify, develop, and deploy talent. From personalised learning paths to AI-powered coaching and predictive analytics, you need to understand how to ethically and effectively integrate AI into our talent strategy. Competitors are already doing this, and those who don't will be left behind.

  • Ethical AI in HR
  • Personalised Learning at Scale
  • AI for Skills Intelligence
  • Prompt Engineering for Strategic Insights

Ecosystem Leadership & Partner Management

No single L&D team can do it all. The future of talent development is about building a robust ecosystem of internal and external partners – from specialist vendors to academic institutions and industry consortia. You'll need to be an expert at identifying, selecting, and managing these complex relationships to deliver integrated solutions.

  • Strategic Vendor Management
  • Partnership Governance
  • Integrated Talent Ecosystems
  • Co-creation with External Experts

13What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Performance Consulting (Expert)
  • Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Evaluation (Expert)
  • Competency Modelling & Career Pathing (Expert)
  • Organisational Development Theory & Practice (Expert)
  • Agile Learning Design (e.g., SAM) (Advanced)

14The pathway

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    Head of L&D / Senior L&D Manager (Large Organisation)

    5-7 years in this role before Director

    Skills to master

    • Managing a diverse L&D team, owning a significant functional budget, demonstrating Level 3 & 4 impact, influencing senior business unit leaders, developing a functional L&D strategy.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully led a major, multi-year talent programme from conception to evaluation across a large business unit.
    • Consistently achieved measurable business impact from learning interventions, not just completion rates.
    • Built and retained a high-performing L&D team.
    • Proactively advised business unit leadership on talent strategy, not just fulfilled requests.
  2. 2

    Consulting (Senior Manager / Principal in Talent/HR Advisory)

    3-5 years in consulting after 10+ years in-house

    Skills to master

    • Client relationship management at executive level, diagnosing complex organisational problems, developing strategic recommendations, managing large-scale change programmes, strong presentation and influencing skills.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully led multiple complex talent transformation projects for diverse clients.
    • Consistently exceeded client expectations and achieved high client satisfaction scores.
    • Developed and sold new business opportunities in the talent space.
    • Managed project teams and mentored junior consultants effectively.
  3. 3

    HR Business Partner (Senior Director / VP Level)

    5-8 years in senior HRBP roles

    Skills to master

    • Deep understanding of business unit strategy, employee relations, compensation, performance management, and organisational design. Ability to integrate talent development into broader HR strategy.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Acted as a trusted strategic advisor to a C-suite executive or a major business unit leader.
    • Successfully led significant HR initiatives (e.g., large-scale restructuring, M&A integration).
    • Demonstrated strong commercial acumen and ability to link HR strategy to business outcomes.
    • Managed complex employee relations issues and driven cultural change.

15Where this role leads

The long view: This work can lead to a Chief Learning Officer role, overseeing all learning and development, or a Chief People Officer role, leading the whole HR function.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Director, Talent & Organisational Development is actually changing.

Where it leads

Roles this leads to

The record names a next step, but the catalogue has no page for it yet:

  • Chief Learning Officer (CLO) / VP, People & Talent
  • Chief People Officer (CPO) / Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Data Science Foundations, worked against Director, Talent & Organisational Development.

Data Science Foundations Level 7

Applied to your work in Director, Talent & Organisational Development

1. To enable the learner to define the scope and landscape of Data Science and differentiate the roles of Data Scientists from other IT professionals. 2. To enable the learner to evaluate key topics within Data Science, including data administration, governance, and big data sources. 3. To enable the learner to describe the architecture and core elements of Apache Hadoop. 4. To enable the learner to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of utilising Artificial Intelligence techniques in a business context. 5. To enable the learner to critically analyse the impact of Big Data on digital transformation within organisations and its effects on users. 6. To enable the learner to review strategies for ensuring data compliance and explain the responsibilities and challenges faced by data specialists.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time.

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See Your Progress Grow Illustration
Director, Talent & Organisational Development
  • Performance Consulting (Expert)
  • Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Evaluation (Expert)
  • Competency Modelling & Career Pathing (Expert)
  • Organisational Development Theory & Practice (Expert)
  • Agile Learning Design (e.g., SAM) (Advanced)
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

16The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Director, Talent & Organisational Development is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. Chief Learning Officer (CLO) / VP, People & Talent

    3-5 years as Director

    From L6 to L7

    • Developing and overseeing enterprise-level workforce planning and analytics.
    • Leading global talent initiatives across diverse cultures and regulatory environments.
    • Managing relationships with C-suite peers and the Board of Directors.
    • Driving cultural transformation at an enterprise scale.

  2. Chief People Officer (CPO) / Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)

    5-8 years as Director

    From L6 to L7

    • Leading and developing a diverse HR leadership team (Heads of TA, HRBP, Comp & Ben).
    • Navigating complex labour laws and international HR regulations.
    • Driving M&A integration across all HR domains.
    • Representing the company's people strategy to investors and the public.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be real, you're already juggling a million things. Imagine having a strategic assistant that handles the grunt work, leaving you free to focus on what truly matters: shaping our future talent. AI isn't just for junior roles; it's a game-changer for executive leaders like you.

As Director, your time is gold. AI can dramatically cut down the hours you spend on research, report drafting, and even initial strategic modelling. It's about augmenting your brainpower, not replacing it. Think of it as having a team of ultra-fast, tireless researchers and first-draft writers at your fingertips, letting you focus on the nuanced decisions and executive influence.

Strategic Scenario Planning

Feed AI market trends, internal data, and business objectives. It'll generate multiple scenarios for future skill demands and talent gaps, complete with potential risks and opportunities. This means you spend less time on basic modelling and more time refining the most promising strategies for executive review.

Executive Report Generation

Instead of spending hours wrestling with data and drafting board reports, use AI to create comprehensive first drafts. Give it your key metrics, programme updates, and strategic narrative points, and it'll produce a structured, articulate report that just needs your executive polish and insights. Saves you from the blank page syndrome.

Organisational Design & Policy Drafting

When you're thinking about restructuring a team or drafting a new talent policy, AI can quickly generate initial frameworks, policy clauses, and even potential impacts based on best practices. This gives you a solid starting point, letting you focus on the human element and customisation for our specific culture.

ROI & Impact Analysis

Connect AI to your HRIS and LMS data. It can help identify correlations between learning interventions and business outcomes, generating initial hypotheses and even drafting summaries of programme effectiveness. This strengthens your case for future investments and helps you prove L&D's value without drowning in spreadsheets.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Director, Talent & Organisational Development?

Common routes in include Head of L&D / Senior L&D Manager (Large Organisation) (5-7 years in this role before Director), Consulting (Senior Manager / Principal in Talent/HR Advisory) (3-5 years in consulting after 10+ years in-house) and HR Business Partner (Senior Director / VP Level) (5-8 years in senior HRBP roles). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Director, Talent & Organisational Development progress to?

This role can lead on to Chief Learning Officer (CLO) / VP, People & Talent (3-5 years as Director) and Chief People Officer (CPO) / Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) (5-8 years as Director), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a Director, Talent & Organisational Development?

Increasingly, AI-Driven Talent Strategy & Ethics and Ecosystem Leadership & Partner Management. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

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17Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 7

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

 More jobs in learning and development

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.
If you leave this industry

The strategic talent development skills built in this role transfer to other fast-paced sectors, including FinTech and larger organisations going through digital transformation. Linking talent to business outcomes is valued across industries.

This role profile is © 2026 Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Start my plan, free What happens next: a free account, then we build your plan as you set up. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.