UK

United Kingdom · Learning and Development · Principal/Manager (12-16 years)

Manager, Learning & Performance

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, a real day, 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.

  • Experience bandPrincipal/Manager (12-16 years)
  • Direct reports3-8 reports
  • Reports toDirector of Learning & Performance
  • UK framework levelUsually a manager, or the deepest specialist in a team

Also advertised as Head of Learning & Development · Senior L&D Manager · Learning & Talent Manager

Built on an analysis of 43,079 real UK job descriptions · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Start with a free Future Fluency check, tuned to Manager, Learning & Performance

Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this role rather than a generic one. About five minutes, and no card.

Start the check, free

1What this role really is

As our Manager, Learning & Performance, you're not just running programmes; you're building a team and shaping how our people grow. You'll lead a small but mighty group of L&D professionals, making sure they've got the tools and guidance to deliver top-notch learning experiences. This role is about setting the strategic direction for a key part of our learning function, owning a budget, and actually seeing your team's work make a real difference to the business. It's a proper leadership gig, where you'll be accountable for some big outcomes and help define our organisational capability.

2What you'd actually use

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

Cornerstone OnDemand / Degreed / Docebo (LMS/LXP)Strategic

You'll lead vendor selection (RFP process) for new learning platforms, define enterprise governance for our existing systems, and architect the overall learning data ecosystem. You'll also be involved in negotiating contracts with these providers.

Articulate 360 (Rise & Storyline) / Camtasia (Content Authoring)Architect

You'll set content development standards and templates for your entire team and functional area. You'll evaluate new authoring technologies (e.g., VR/AR tools) and decide how they fit into our overall learning strategy.

Lattice / 15Five / Workday HCM (Talent & Performance Module)Strategic

You'll design the entire performance management philosophy and process for your functional area, ensuring it links effectively to learning. You'll also connect performance data to succession planning and compensation reviews within Workday.

Miro / Asana / MS Teams (Collaboration)Strategic

You'll implement collaboration tool best practices across your team and functional area to improve workflow efficiency and ensure seamless stakeholder communication. This is about optimising how your team works together.

Power BI / Tableau (Analytics)Strategic

You'll define the key metrics for your L&D functional area, overseeing your team's data collection and analysis. You'll present data-driven narratives to executive leadership to justify budget, strategy, and programme impact.

Anaplan / Workday Adaptive Planning (Financial Planning)Strategic

You'll own the L&D budget for your functional area (typically £500K-£2M), model different investment scenarios, and confidently defend financial plans to the CFO and executive team. You're accountable for the numbers.

3What 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 inWhere you are nowThe step above
Programme Design & MethodologyFollows established templates; seeks guidance on variations.Independently designs standard modules; proposes adaptations for specific needs.Leads end-to-end design of complex programmes; makes technical decisions within project scope.
Budget Allocation & SpendTracks personal expenses; reports discrepancies.Manages project-specific budgets up to £5K; flags overspends to manager.Manages workstream budgets up to £50K; recommends but does not approve larger spend.
Team Hiring & PerformanceNot applicable.Provides informal feedback to peers; participates in interview panels.Mentors 0-2 junior colleagues; provides input on performance reviews.
Vendor SelectionNot applicable.Researches potential vendors; compiles comparison data.Recommends preferred vendors based on defined criteria; negotiates basic terms.

4How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, honestly: the hard targets, how often each one is actually looked at, and the quiet human signals that never make it onto a dashboard.

Organisational Capability Improvement
Increasing the readiness of our internal talent for future leadership and critical roles.
Target · Improve 'leadership bench strength' (as measured in succession planning) by 10% year-over-year.

If our succession plan identifies 50% of critical roles with a 'ready now' or 'ready in 1-2 years' successor this year, we'd expect that to be 55% next year, directly linked to your team's development programmes.

L&D Budget Management & ROI
Effectively managing your allocated budget and demonstrating a clear return on investment for major learning initiatives.
Target · Manage the L&D budget to within 2% of the annual plan, demonstrating a positive ROI on at least two major initiatives (e.g., a leadership programme, a sales enablement initiative).

Successfully delivering a leadership programme within its £150K budget, then showing it led to a 5% reduction in manager turnover, saving the company £300K in recruitment costs.

Team Performance & Development
Ensuring your direct reports are meeting their project deadlines, delivering quality work, and growing in their careers.
Target · Achieve 90% on-time completion for team projects and see at least 75% of your direct reports achieve their personal development goals annually.

Your team launches three major learning programmes this quarter, all on schedule, and two of your specialists complete their instructional design certification, directly supported by you.

Programme Adoption & Engagement
Ensuring that the learning programmes your team designs are actually used and valued by the target audience.
Target · Achieve 80% participation from target audiences in key optional development programmes and maintain an average Level 2 (learning transfer) score of 4.0/5.0.

Your new 'Leading Hybrid Teams' programme sees 85% of eligible managers enrol, and follow-up surveys show they're applying at least 80% of the new strategies learned in their day-to-day work.

Strategic Influence & Partnership
Being seen as a trusted advisor and strategic partner by senior leaders across the business, not just an 'order taker'.
  • You're proactively consulted on talent strategy decisions, invited to leadership planning meetings, and your opinions are sought on key organisational development initiatives. Senior VPs come to you with business problems, not just training requests, because they trust you to diagnose the real issue.
Team Leadership & Culture
Fostering a high-performing, engaged, and supportive environment within your team.
  • Your direct reports consistently rate you highly in engagement surveys, actively seek your guidance, and show clear signs of professional growth. You've got a reputation for developing talent, and people want to work on your team. You're building a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
Innovation & Future Readiness
Driving new approaches and technologies within the L&D function to keep us ahead of the curve.
  • You're regularly bringing forward well-researched proposals for new learning technologies or methodologies (e.g., AI tools, immersive learning). Your team is experimenting with new ways to deliver learning, and you're actively preparing the function for future skill demands. You're seen as someone who looks around corners, not just at what's directly in front of us.

5Would you like it

The honest version. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Building and Developing a High-Performing Team

You'll spend a good chunk of your week in 1:1s, coaching sessions, and team meetings, guiding your specialists and consultants. You'll get a real kick out of seeing them tackle complex projects, grow their skills, and deliver fantastic results. It's about empowering others.

One of your junior team members delivers a brilliant presentation to a VP, and you know your coaching helped them get there. That's a win.

Driving Strategic Organisational Impact

You're not just delivering training; you're helping to solve big business problems. You'll be involved in discussions about future skills, talent gaps, and how to build a stronger leadership pipeline. Seeing your team's work directly contribute to the company's long-term success is a major driver.

Your team's new leadership programme reduces manager turnover by 15%, directly impacting the company's bottom line and culture. That's tangible impact.

Solving Complex Organisational Challenges

You'll be faced with ambiguous problems – 'our sales team isn't hitting targets' or 'our engineers need to upskill in X.' Your role is to diagnose the root cause, design a strategic solution (which might not even be 'training'), and then lead your team to implement it. It's about being a problem-solver at an organisational level.

A new product launch is struggling due to poor internal communication. You design a multi-faceted performance support system and a targeted learning path, not just a 'communication course', and see product adoption improve.

What frustrates people
  • Constantly justifying L&D's existence and budget to senior leadership.
  • Dealing with the 'order taker' dilemma, where stakeholders just want training, not a diagnosis.
  • The time scarcity paradox: leaders champion development but don't give their teams time to learn.
  • Navigating internal politics to get buy-in for strategic initiatives.
  • The compliance burden: spending significant time on mandatory, low-impact training.
What this role does not give you
  • A quiet, predictable, 'head-down' work environment.
  • Unlimited budget or resources for every learning initiative.
  • A direct, linear path to seeing every single piece of your team's work make it to production.
  • Freedom from internal politics or the need to influence upwards and sideways.
  • A role where you only focus on individual instructional design; you're leading a team and a function.

6Who you work with

This role directly shapes our organisational capability and talent pipeline. You'll be responsible for ensuring our employees have the skills they need today and for what's coming tomorrow. Your team's work will directly impact employee engagement, retention, and ultimately, our ability to hit business targets. You're building the engine that drives our people's growth, which frankly, is pretty crucial for any company wanting to stay competitive.

Inside the business
  • Director of Learning & Performance and other L&D Managers
  • Heads of Department (e.g., Head of Sales, Head of Product)
  • HR Business Partners and Talent Acquisition Leads
  • Finance leadership (especially for budget reviews)
  • Senior VPs and Executive Peers
Outside the business
  • Learning technology vendors (LMS, LXP, content authoring)
  • External training providers and consultants
  • Industry bodies and professional networks

7What you need before you start

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

  • Proven experience (roughly 8-12 years) in a Lead Learning & Performance Partner (L4) or Senior L&D Consultant (L3) role, demonstrating ownership of major programmes or workstreams.
  • Demonstrable experience leading and developing a small team or mentoring multiple junior colleagues, with a clear passion for people development.
  • A track record of designing and implementing complex, impactful learning programmes that have delivered measurable business results, not just 'happy sheets'.
  • Experience managing a significant budget (e.g., £50K+) and making data-driven decisions about resource allocation.
  • Strong ability to influence and build credibility with senior stakeholders, translating L&D initiatives into business language and outcomes.

8What to practise next

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

Learning Experience Platform (LXP) Optimisation & Integration

LXPs are becoming the central hub for personalised, 'learning in the flow of work' experiences. Simply having one isn't enough; we need to master its full capabilities and integrate it seamlessly with other systems (HRIS, CRM) to deliver truly impactful, data-driven learning.

API integrations for data exchange between LXP, HR · Personalisation algorithms and content recommendat · User experience (UX) design principles for learnin · Content curation strategies for diverse learning n · Measuring engagement and impact within an LXP ecos

  • This week: Schedule a deep-dive demo with our current LXP vendor to understand its advanced features.
  • This month: Identify one key integration opportunity between our LXP and another business system (e.g., Salesforce for sales training).
  • Month 2: Develop a strategy for improving user adoption and engagement with our LXP, leveraging its personalisation features.
  • Month 3: Research emerging LXP platforms and their unique capabilities, assessing potential future fit.

Quick win: Work with your team to audit our current LXP content for relevance and discoverability. Ensure key learning paths are clearly signposted.

Immersive Learning Technologies (VR/AR)

Virtual and Augmented Reality are moving beyond novelty to offer highly effective, safe, and scalable training for complex skills (e.g., technical operations, soft skills practice). As costs decrease, these will become a standard part of the L&D toolkit, and we need to know when and how to apply them.

Use cases for VR/AR in corporate learning (e.g., s · Hardware and software requirements for immersive l · Instructional design principles for 3D environment · Cost-benefit analysis of immersive learning vs. tr · Measuring learning transfer and engagement in VR/A

  • This week: Watch some YouTube videos on corporate VR/AR training examples.
  • This month: Research a few leading VR/AR learning providers and their offerings.
  • Month 2: Identify one potential use case within our organisation where immersive learning could offer a significant advantage (e.g., complex machinery training, difficult conversations practice).
  • Month 3: Develop a preliminary business case for a pilot immersive learning project, considering costs and potential ROI.

Quick win: Experiment with simple AR apps on your phone to get a feel for the technology. Discuss with your team where they see value.

9Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Actively participate in industry forums and professional networks (e.g., CIPD, ATD) to stay current with L&D trends and best practices.
  • Attend leadership development programmes or executive coaching to further hone your management and strategic influence skills.
  • Regularly read books, articles, and research on organisational psychology, adult learning, and the future of work.
  • Seek out opportunities to mentor others, both within and outside your team, to strengthen your coaching and leadership capabilities.
  • Contribute to internal thought leadership, perhaps by presenting on L&D strategy or writing articles for our internal comms.

10How the AI economy is changing work like this

Before we ask anything of you, here's what we can already say about AI and work of this kind:

The new skill this role is being asked for: Ethical AI & Data Governance in L&D

Essential for future readiness in this role.

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

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.

Ethical AI & Data Governance in L&D

Essential for future readiness in this role.

  • Algorithmic bias detection and mitigation in learn
  • Data anonymisation and pseudonymisation techniques
  • Explainable AI (XAI) for personalised learning pat
  • Consent frameworks for AI-driven coaching and feed
  • Regulatory landscape for AI in HR and L&D (e.g., E

Data Storytelling for Executive Influence

Essential for future readiness in this role.

  • Identifying the 'so what?' from data points for di
  • Structuring narratives around problem-solution-imp
  • Using visualisations to enhance, not just display,
  • Anticipating executive questions and building them
  • Connecting learning metrics directly to business K

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Performance Consulting (HPI)
  • Instructional Design Models (ADDIE, SAM)
  • Learning Measurement & Evaluation (Kirkpatrick, Phillips ROI)
  • Competency Modeling & Career Pathing
  • Adult Learning Theory (Andragogy)
  • Change Management (Prosci ADKAR)

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

    Lead Learning & Performance Partner (L4)

    3-5 years in previous role

    Skills to master

    • Mastering strategic business partnering, architecting complex learning solutions, and demonstrating early leadership by mentoring others and leading significant programmes.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Consistently delivering major programmes on time and within budget, with clear business impact.
    • Being the go-to person for a specific business unit's learning needs, seen as a trusted advisor.
    • Successfully mentoring 2-3 junior team members and helping them grow.
    • Proactively identifying and solving complex L&D challenges, not just executing requests.
  2. 2

    Senior L&D Consultant (L3)

    5-8 years in previous role

    Skills to master

    • Deep expertise in instructional design, performance consulting, and project management. Proving you can lead end-to-end projects and influence stakeholders effectively.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully leading multiple complex L&D projects from needs analysis to evaluation.
    • Consistently receiving positive feedback from stakeholders on your ability to diagnose problems and deliver solutions.
    • Taking initiative to improve L&D processes or introduce new methodologies.
    • Demonstrating strong analytical skills in measuring learning impact.
  3. 3

    HR Business Partner (Senior Level)

    4-6 years in previous role

    Skills to master

    • A deep understanding of business operations, talent management, and HR strategy. You'd need to shift your focus to leading learning initiatives and developing specific L&D expertise.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully partnering with business leaders on talent strategy and organisational effectiveness.
    • Leading significant HR projects with a learning or development component.
    • Demonstrating a passion for learning and a clear understanding of its strategic value.
    • Proving your ability to influence and drive change across different business units.

11Where this role leads

The long view:Your journey at Zavmo isn't just a job; it's a career. We're committed to providing the opportunities, support, and development you need to reach your full potential, whether that's leading larger teams, specialising in a niche, or moving into broader executive leadership. We're excited to see where you take us.

Pay & demand

Pay and demand for this role will appear here, each figure traced to a named authoritative source (e.g. the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, under the Open Government Licence). We don’t show numbers we can’t attribute.

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 Manager, Learning & Performance is actually changing. In about two minutes, the free confidence check asks where you stand on each of the ten. That's the whole check, and it's what makes the plan yours rather than generic.

Where it leads

Roles this leads to

Also named as a next step, with no page in the catalogue yet:

  • Head of Talent Management

12The team that's yours

No two people are taught the same way. This is one-to-one, not one-to-many.

Zavmo is a hyper-personalised AI learning platform. Twelve virtual tutors, each with a different way of teaching, and one orchestration agent that picks the right one for the moment. So every single lesson is shaped around you, your role, and the way you learn. Not a course everyone sits through. A conversation built for you, and no one else.

…and nine more, matched to you after your first chat. Meet all twelve

Start free and meet yours

13What it feels like

A conversation, not a course

Because your tutor knows your role, your projects and your last session, learning sounds like this. And it's different for every single person:

Provide learning opportunities for colleaguesLevel 5

Applied to your work in Manager, Learning & Performance

This unit aims to equip learners with the skills to encourage learning and development in colleagues. Learners will be able to help colleagues identify learning needs, plan and implement learning opportunities, and review and update their development plans.

How the thinking builds
  1. Remember
  2. Understand
  3. Apply
  4. Analyse
  5. Evaluate
  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.

One to one, not one to many

No two people run this the same way

A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.

  1. Your actual work Every lesson is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
  2. What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
  3. The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
  4. How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
  5. Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.

See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.

DemonstrateIllustration

Evidenced on your work in Manager, Learning & Performance

You do not finish by watching something. You finish by showing it on the work you already do, against the measures this job is judged on.

  • Organisational Capability ImprovementIncreasing the readiness of our internal talent for future leadership and critical roles.If our succession plan identifies 50% of critical roles with a 'ready now' or 'ready in 1-2 years' successor this year, we'd expect that to be 55% next year, directly linked to your team's development programmes.Improve 'leadership bench strength' (as measured in succession planning) by 10% year-over-year.
  • L&D Budget Management & ROIEffectively managing your allocated budget and demonstrating a clear return on investment for major learning initiatives.Successfully delivering a leadership programme within its £150K budget, then showing it led to a 5% reduction in manager turnover, saving the company £300K in recruitment costs.Manage the L&D budget to within 2% of the annual plan, demonstrating a positive ROI on at least two major initiatives (e.g., a leadership programme, a sales enablement initiative).
  • Team Performance & DevelopmentEnsuring your direct reports are meeting their project deadlines, delivering quality work, and growing in their careers.Your team launches three major learning programmes this quarter, all on schedule, and two of your specialists complete their instructional design certification, directly supported by you.Achieve 90% on-time completion for team projects and see at least 75% of your direct reports achieve their personal development goals annually.
  • Programme Adoption & EngagementEnsuring that the learning programmes your team designs are actually used and valued by the target audience.Your new 'Leading Hybrid Teams' programme sees 85% of eligible managers enrol, and follow-up surveys show they're applying at least 80% of the new strategies learned in their day-to-day work.Achieve 80% participation from target audiences in key optional development programmes and maintain an average Level 2 (learning transfer) score of 4.0/5.0.
These are this job's own measures, with its own targets. Nothing is marked evidenced, because nobody has started this yet. Yours would fill in from the work you bring.

Your passport

This isn't a certificate you file away. It's a passport to the life you're designing.

Every credit you earn and every fluency you build adds up: evidence where it counts, carried with you. Zavmo keeps the map: where you are, where you're heading, and the next step, at your pace, around your life. From Manager, Learning & Performance to Director of Learning & Performance (L6), and whatever you decide comes after.

Level 5 · in progressAI Fluency→ Director of Learning & Performance (L6)→ your design
Where this takes you

Your journey at Zavmo isn't just a job; it's a career. We're committed to providing the opportunities, support, and development you need to reach your full potential, whether that's leading larger teams, specialising in a niche, or moving into broader executive leadership. We're excited to see where you take us.

See Your Progress GrowIllustration
Manager, Learning & Performance
  • Performance Consulting (HPI)
  • Instructional Design Models (ADDIE, SAM)
  • Learning Measurement & Evaluation (Kirkpatrick, Phillips ROI)
  • Competency Modeling & Career Pathing
  • Adult Learning Theory (Andragogy)
  • Change Management (Prosci ADKAR)
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.

14The 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

Manager, Learning & Performance is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. Director of Learning & Performance (L6)

    3-5 years in current role

    From managing a functional area to shaping the multi-year strategy for the entire L&D function. You'll move from owning a budget of £500K-£2M to £2M-£10M+.

    • L&D Technology Roadmap Ownership: Defining the multi-year strategy for all learning technologies and platforms.
    • External Partner Ecosystem Management: Building and managing strategic relationships with key external partners and industry bodies.
    • Talent Ecosystem Integration: Ensuring seamless integration of learning with succession planning, talent acquisition, and performance management at an enterprise level.

  2. Head of Talent Management

    4-6 years in current role

    Expanding your scope beyond just learning and performance to encompass the entire talent lifecycle, including talent acquisition, succession planning, and organisational development.

    • Advanced Succession Planning: Designing and implementing robust succession plans for critical roles.
    • Employee Value Proposition (EVP) Development: Shaping the company's offering to attract and retain talent.
    • Talent Analytics & Insights: Using advanced analytics to drive strategic talent decisions across the organisation.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be real: L&D teams are often stretched thin. Imagine if your team could reclaim a significant chunk of time every week, shifting from repetitive tasks to genuinely strategic work. That's exactly what AI tools are making possible right now.

As a Manager, Learning & Performance, you're not just using AI yourself; you're empowering your team to use it smartly. The goal here is to boost collective productivity, free up your specialists for more complex design and consulting, and ultimately deliver more impactful learning faster. We're talking about a real step-change in how L&D operates.

Automated Content Creation & Curation

Your team can use AI tools (like a custom GPT or platforms like Sana) to scan internal documents and quickly generate first drafts of e-learning scripts, job aids, and FAQs. This isn't about replacing instructional designers, but giving them a massive head start. AI can also curate and tag existing content to build personalised learning playlists for different roles, saving hours of manual searching and organisation.

Predictive Skill Gap Analysis

Imagine moving beyond reactive training requests. AI can analyse performance reviews (from systems like Lattice), project data (from Jira), and external market trends to predict future skill gaps across the organisation. This means your team can proactively develop talent for tomorrow's needs, rather than scrambling to catch up. You'll be leading a function that anticipates, not just reacts.

Intelligent Coaching & Practice Simulations

Deploy AI-powered simulation tools (like Second Nature) to allow your managers and team leaders to practice difficult conversations – think performance feedback, disciplinary discussions, or even sales pitches – in a safe, low-stakes environment. The AI provides instant, objective feedback on tone, word choice, and clarity, drastically reducing the need for your senior facilitators to do 1:1 role-play coaching, freeing them for higher-value work.

Personalised Learning Path Generation

An AI engine that integrates with our HRIS (Workday) and LXP (Degreed) can analyse an individual's role, tenure, performance data, and stated career goals to automatically generate and recommend a unique, dynamic learning path. This drastically reduces the manual work for your L&D partners and managers in creating development plans, ensuring every employee gets a tailored journey without your team having to build it from scratch.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Manager, Learning & Performance?

Common routes in include Lead Learning & Performance Partner (L4) (3-5 years in previous role), Senior L&D Consultant (L3) (5-8 years in previous role) and HR Business Partner (Senior Level) (4-6 years in previous role). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Manager, Learning & Performance progress to?

This role can lead on to Director of Learning & Performance (L6) (3-5 years in current role) and Head of Talent Management (4-6 years in current role), depending on the skills you build.

What level is a Manager, Learning & Performance in the UK?

This role aligns to RQF Level 5 on the UK framework, a guide to the depth of qualification it maps to, not a hard entry bar.

What new skills matter most for a Manager, Learning & Performance?

Increasingly, Ethical AI & Data Governance in L&D and Data Storytelling for Executive Influence. These are the areas where the higher-paid, future-proof work is heading.

The honest bit

You’ve started things before

Most of them were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.

There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.

And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.

What it costs

Less than one coaching session. Every month.

A single career-coaching hour costs more than a month of this, and it ends when the hour does. Zavmo doesn't. It's £70 a month, about £2.30 a day, for a companion that knows a Manager, Learning & Performance, works on the job you actually do, and keeps going at your pace rather than a timetable's.

  • Searching and planning stay free. You only pay when you start learning.
  • Your credits are yours. Regulated, and they don't vanish when a subscription ends.
  • Cancel any time and billing stops. No notice period, no minimum term.

Your path, personalised

You have the map. Walking it is the part we do together.

This route runs to 12 national skill standards. That is a real journey.

Zavmo shapes a learning experience as unique as you are. It fits how you learn, your pace and the work you already do. Every step stays benchmarked to recognised national standards. That’s the plan for becoming a Manager, Learning & Performance: personal to you, and it still counts. The first steps are free.

Independent research finds well-designed intelligent tutoring performs nearly as well as one-to-one human tutoring: VanLehn (2011), Educational Psychologist.

A private tutor in the UK averages £35–40 an hour . Zavmo is £70/month.

A real plan on learn.zavmo.ai: Ofqual-regulated units, credits, and a three-month run at your own pace.
Start free No commitment. See your first steps free.

15Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 5

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

Other roles in Learning and Development

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.

If you leave this industry

The skills you'll develop in this role—strategic thinking, people leadership, performance consulting, and data-driven decision-making—are highly transferable. You could easily move into similar leadership roles in L&D or broader HR functions within other technology companies, financial services, consulting firms, or even scale-ups looking to build out their talent capabilities.

Not sure this is the right direction?

Work out what you actually want from work first, then come back and see which roles fit it. Takes about ten minutes.

This role profile is © 2026Growth 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. Build my plan, free Here's the first ten minutes: a 2-minute confidence check → your personalised roadmap → meet the tutors matched to you. No card, cancel any time. 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.