Learning & Development Lead

Key responsibilities

• Strategy and vision for talent development in an AI-enabled world: Develop a forward-looking talent development strategy that anticipates how AI, generative models, automation, and advanced analytics will reshape roles, skills, and career paths. 
• Advocate for a “human + AI” approach — roles and development must complement technology, not simply replace people. 
• Monitor emerging trends and research (e.g. from HBR, academic sources) to continuously refine development philosophy and guardrails. 
• Learning and development programmes: Design, implement, and maintain learning programs (technical, behavioural, cultural, leadership) aligned with the business strategy. 
• Build pathways for reskilling / upskilling  so that the OakNorth team can continue to develop with the pace of change. 
• Curate external partnerships (edtech, universities, online platforms) or internal content to support continuous learning. 
• Career and role design: Create career frameworks, progression criteria,, competency models and the required talent development tooling and support to facilitate talent pipelines across the organisation  in partnership with Business leads and People Partners. 
• Help managers and leaders understand new ways of designing roles and supporting talent to embrace new ways of working. Create hybrid role design templates (roles that blend human judgment + AI assistance).
• Coaching, mentoring and leadership development: Establish high-potential programmes, mentorship frameworks, and coaching support to cultivate future leaders who understand both business and tech.
• Train managers on how to lead teams in an AI-augmented environment (e.g. how to delegate to AI vs humans, how to measure outcomes).
• Measurement and compliance: Define KPIs / success metrics for talent development efforts (e.g. internal mobility, learning uptake, performance, retention, reskilling rates). 
• Work closely with the Legal and Compliance team to establish, continuously improve and monitor required training. Consider opportunities to make mandatory training more engaging and effective.  

Requirements/experience

• Must have/essential: 8+ years in Talent Development / L&D / OD, preferably in technology, fintech, or scaling digital businesses. 
• Deep understanding of emerging tech (AI, ML, automation) and how they interact with human workflows. 
• Experience designing upskilling / reskilling / transition programs especially for roles affected by automation. 
• Strong background in curriculum design, adult learning principles, blended modalities (in-person, digital, modular). 
• Excellent stakeholder management — ability to partner across engineering, product, business, HR, and senior leadership. 
• Change management experience (rolling out new ways of working, influencing behaviour). 
• Strong analytical mindset — comfortable using data to monitor, iterate, and improve programs. 
• Commitment to ethical, human-centric design of tech + talent interaction. 
• Preferred/nice to have: Experience in a high-growth tech / scale-up / fintech environment. 
• Familiarity with AI/ML/DS teams & processes (data pipelines, model training, MLOps). 
• Experience launching mentorship, leadership cohorts, internal academies, learning platforms. 
• Exposure to ethical AI, fairness, algorithmic bias, governance frameworks. 
• Experience with competency / role frameworks bridging business + tech domains. 
• Competencies and personal attributes: Visionary — can think ahead to what skills will matter in 2–5 years and design accordingly. 
• Empathetic & human-centric — sees people first, and designs tech augmentation so that humans remain central. 
• Influential & collaborative — brings stakeholders on the journey, builds trust, and can navigate ambiguity. 
• Adaptive & agile — comfortable iterating rapidly, experimenting, learning from failures. 
• High integrity & ethical awareness — especially when designing roles, performance frameworks, or automation interactions. 
• Strong communication skills (written, verbal) and able to simplify complex ideas. 

Benefits and perks

• Equity. We want people to have a stake in the business so that all our interests are aligned.
• 25 days holiday
• Personalized benefits – opt-in to what matters to you
• Subsidised Private Medical Insurance with Bupa
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Wellbeing and social events
• Support causes that matter to you – Volunteering time off
• Salary sacrifice schemes (Cycle to work, nursery, gym, electric car scheme)