Group Director, People and Organisational Development

Group Director, People and Organisational Development

Location:

Manchester office (Hybrid)

Salary: £TBD plus bonus and performance incentive

Contract Type:
Permanent, full‑time

Cognition Learning Group is a leading provider of education, training, consultancy, and digital learning solutions. With offices around the world, we proudly deliver knowledge to communities in more than 30 countries. We offer a wide range of services designed to improve learning outcomes, create opportunities, and change lives for the better.

The Group Director, People & Organisational Development (POD) provides strategic leadership for the organisation’s global People agenda. This role shapes the culture, capability, and organisational effectiveness needed to deliver long‑term success across multiple regions. Operating as a trusted advisor to the Board and Leadership Team, the post‑holder drives a cohesive global People strategy while ensuring local relevance, compliance, and cultural sensitivity for our teams based in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and the Pacific Islands.

What you’ll be doing in a nutshell:

• Leading the development and delivery of the Group’s people, organisational development and culture agenda, ensuring alignment with the Group’s strategy, growth priorities and operating model.
• Providing executive leadership and expert advice to the CEO, Executive, GSLT and Board on workforce strategy, organisational effectiveness, talent, capability and change.
• Building and embedding robust people systems, policies and practices that enable high performance, leadership capability, effective change and long‑term organisational sustainability across the Group.

Qualifications

• Degree level qualification in Human Resources, Organisational Development, Business, Psychology or a related discipline.
• Post graduate qualification (or equivalent professional experience) in HR (MCIPD), OD, Leadership, or Learning & Development.
• Formal training or accreditation desirable, including human resource management, organisational change, leadership development or executive coaching.

Knowledge

• Deep understanding of people strategy, organisational development and workforce planning in complex organisations.
• Strong working knowledge of employment legislation, employee relations and health & safety governance, including operating across multiple jurisdictions, particularly the UK.
• Strong knowledge of TUPE and equivalent workforce transfer frameworks, including their application in complex, multi‑jurisdiction operating environments.
• Knowledge of organisational design, performance management, talent management and succession planning.
• Understanding of corporate governance, Board and committee operations, including remuneration and risk oversight.
• Sound understanding of change management and organisational transformation in growth or scaling environments.
• Knowledge of operating in international, donor funded or regulated environments.
• Understanding of culture, values and leadership behaviour as drivers of organisational performance.
• Familiarity with people analytics and workforce insight to inform executive decision making.

Experience

• Proven experience in a senior, enterprise‑level People, HR or OD leadership role within a complex organisation.
• Demonstrated experience developing and delivering Group‑wide people and organisational strategies aligned to business objectives.
• Experience advising CEO, Executive and Board on people, capability, culture and organisational risk.
• Proven experience leading organisational change, workforce redesign or transformation initiatives.
• Experience overseeing employee relations, performance management and sensitive people matters, including acting as an escalation point.
• Experience operating across multiple jurisdictions or geographically dispersed organisations.
• Experience supporting or servicing Board committees, including Remuneration or Health & Safety.
• Experience chairing or contributing to governance or assurance committees.
• Experience in organisations undergoing growth, diversification or international expansion.

Skills

• Executive leadership and judgement, with the ability to operate credibly at CEO and Board…