Head of , Talent and Succession

Are you ready tochart your own career path? With our refreshed strategy, we’re building on our rich heritage and transforming our business to be more scalable and efficient, unlocking the capabilities needed for future success.

This includes significantly investing in technology, streamlining the way we work and creating an environment where colleagues feel engaged, empowered and accountable; where they can show up, speak up and perform - because we believe in the difference our work makes.

At a glance:

Location: Cirencester Office

Workplace Type: Hybrid

Employment Type: Permanent

Seniority: Mid-Senior Level

We're seeking an exceptional Head of Talent & Organisational Performance to lead St. James's Place's enterprise approach to organisational capability, talent, succession and performance. Reporting to the Director of Organisational Development and operating as a member of the Organisational Development Leadership Team, this role is at the heart of SJP’s preparation for future growth.

This is a highly visible enterprise leadership role with regular exposure to Executive Committee members and Board governance forums. You will bring insight and experience to shape the strategy and supporting frameworks and governance to inform some of SJP’s most important decisions about leadership continuity, workforce readiness, organisational capability and succession risk.

This role is broader than traditional talent management. Success depends on your ability to connect organisational strategy, workforce capability, talent development, succession governance and performance enablement to strengthen organisational effectiveness and long‑term business performance. Supported by a small specialist team, and working closely with colleagues across the People function, you will deliver outcomes and drive change through your expertise, relationships and enterprise leadership and engagement in governance.

• Define and evolve SJP's approach to organisational capability.
• Identify future capability requirements needed to deliver strategic priorities.
• Assess capability strengths, gaps and emerging organisational risks, translating insight into action.
• Oversee career frameworks and talent pathways that strengthen internal mobility and organisational resilience.
• Shape and implement SJP's enterprise talent strategy and philosophy.
• Establish governance frameworks that support consistent, evidence-based talent decisions.
• Build approaches that identify, develop and retain critical talent and leadership capability.
• Apply external research, behavioural science and emerging technologies to enhance talent outcomes.

• Own the enterprise succession planning framework across executive, leadership and critical specialist populations.
• Provide oversight of successor readiness, leadership pipeline strength and succession risk.
• Establish robust governance, assurance and reporting mechanisms for succession activities.
• Support GEC and Board discussions through high-quality insight and recommendations.

• Shape SJP's enterprise approach to performance enablement and organisational effectiveness.
• Ensure alignment between business priorities, capability development and performance practices.
• Use insight and evidence to strengthen accountability and sustainable high performance.
• Identify opportunities to improve the organisational conditions that enable people and teams to succeed.
• Shape SJP’s workforce, talent and capability insight and how we use it across the organisation.
• Leverage people analytics, behavioural science and market insights to inform strategic decisions
• Translate…