Senior Leadership Development Partner

At Places for People, we hire People, not numbers! Experience and track record are important, but we’re more interested in hiring someone that embodies our People Promises. That’s someone that does the right thing, is enthusiastic and motivated to grow, believes in Community spirit, is respectful and enjoys their work. As the UK's leading Social Enterprise, we’re dedicated to creating inclusive and thriving Communities for both our Customers and Employees.

We are recruiting an experienced and impact-driven Senior Leadership Development Partner to join our fast-paced, operational Talent & Development team. This is a senior specialist role, responsible for designing and delivering high impact leadership, future skills and top talent programmes across our organisation. We are looking for a seasoned professional with a strong, proven background in senior leadership development, talent management and apprenticeship levy utilisation. You will need to thrive in an environment that values pace, accountability, precision and measurable impact.

In this role, you will lead flagship leadership development initiatives, including the ongoing delivery of Flight Path (high performance) and three step-up / high potential pathways aligned to our EDI and succession ambitions. You will partner closely with senior leaders to diagnose capability needs, deliver coaching, assessments and insights-based development, and embed a culture of high performance. You will also play a critical role in future skills and AI capability development shaping AI personas, curriculum pathways and integrating future workforce skills into leadership expectations. This is a national role, with regular travel required to support delivery across the organisation. You must be able to travel weekly to Derby to deliver learning at PfPThrive, our apprenticeship training academy, as well as attend other national locations as required. Candidates unable to meet this travel requirement will not be shortlisted.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and deliver leadership development programmes to senior leaders.
• Create and deliver top talent and aspiring leader pathways (Executive ready, Leadership ready, People Manager ready).
• Partner with senior leaders to diagnose capability gaps and design evidence-based learning solutions.
• Deliver coaching, mentoring, 360 feedback and psychometric or behavioural assessments.
• Lead the design and rollout of AI related leadership skills, including persona development, learning pathways and adoption planning.
• Produce high quality written papers, reports and ROI evaluations.
• Build strong senior level relationships and influence decision making across the organisation.
• Contribute to wider T&D strategic projects and operational delivery within a high performing, fast paced team.

Essential Criteria

• Extensive experience designing and delivering senior leader and high-potential development programmes.
• Strong background in talent management, leadership development and succession pipelines.
• Proven experience managing and optimising apprenticeship levy spend.
• Skilled in coaching, assessments and behavioural/psychometric tools (e.g., Insights, 360 feedback).
• Experience developing future skills and AI capability pathways.

More About You

You bring extensive senior leadership development expertise, with a strong track record in designing and delivering director-level programmes and large-scale talent pipelines. You’re confident managing apprenticeship levy spend, experienced with Insights Discovery and other behavioural tools, and highly capable in producing clear, high-quality reports, business cases and executive papers. You operate effectively in high-performance, fast-paced environments and can influence, challenge and partner with senior leaders with confidence. CIPD Level 7, ILM Level 7 coaching, psychometric accreditation or digital/AI learning qualifications would further strengthen your profile.

What’s next?

If you meet the criteria and are ready to make the next step in your career then click apply. You will be redirected to our careers site where you can discover more about the role, read a full job description and apply directly to us. As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we offer a guaranteed interview to candidates who are disabled, neurodiverse, or have served in the Armed Forces, provided they meet the essential criteria for the role. If you would like to be considered under this scheme, please indicate this in your application. We are dedicated to creating a supportive and accessible recruitment process for all.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application or interview experience, please let us know. We’re happy to work with you to ensure you have the opportunity to perform at your best. If you are a Places for People customer and you’re looking for support with your application, please contact our skills and employment team. If you are a recruitment agency please note we operate a PSL and do not take cold calls.

Safeguarding

At Places for People, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. We are committed to creating safe communities for our customers and colleagues by protecting children, young people, and adults at risk from harm, abuse, and neglect. We follow robust safeguarding policies and procedures, ensuring all employees, volunteers, and contractors uphold the highest standards of safeguarding and accountability. Our recruitment process includes pre-employment checks, including Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks where applicable, to promote a safe and secure working environment. By joining Places for People, you are expected to contribute to our safeguarding culture, following our policies and reporting concerns to protect those in our communities.