Senior Manager – Talent Enablement (Technology & Portfolio) | UK&I
Contract: Permanent / Full‑time
Level: 4 – Associate Director
Location: Regions (outside London)
Hybrid working: Some office presence required, plus some travel (circa 1/month)
The opportunity
This is a unique opportunity to sit at the intersection of Talent Operational Excellence, Technology and Innovation — shaping how we deliver Talent services at scale.
This is a high‑impact Senior Manager role within UK&I Talent Enablement, reporting to the HR Enablement Leader, responsible for shaping our Talent technology agenda, driving portfolio clarity, and enabling change to land well across the organisation.
You’ll act as a trusted advisor to senior Talent leaders and stakeholders, combining strategic thinking with hands‑on delivery. You’ll bring structure, pace and constructive challenge — optimising processes, turning ideas into clear priorities, and driving measurable impact. You’ll also push thinking on what services and processes we truly need, and whether they add real value.
A key focus is on Talent technology and Talent Operational Excellence: understanding how systems and data connect, where automation and AI can unlock value, and what “good” looks like in a modern, digital Talent function.
What You’ll Do
Own the Talent technology pipeline
- Work with Talent Functional Leads and the Enablement Leader to shape and oversee the Talent technology roadmap across UK&I, with strong alignment to global priorities
- Manage the Talent tech demand and intake portfolio, working with Talent teams across UK&I; and Global to assess demand, shape early business cases, triage requests, and prioritise the pipeline in line with agreed principles, capacity and strategy
- Bring visibility to risks, dependencies and trade‑offs to support confident decision‑making
Drive portfolio clarity and governance
- Establish simple, effective governance that enables pace without losing control
- Ensure Talent projects and operational activity are delivered within the required governance and control framework, overseeing adherence to key requirements such as Independence/BRIDGE and privacy impact assessment inputs/sign-offs
- Deliver clear, leadership‑ready reporting on progress, investment, risks and performance
- Act as a connector across Talent teams, ensuring consistency, alignment, visibility and shared understanding across priorities and delivery
Enable successful delivery of change
- Support design, readiness, testing, adoption of technology with minimal operational disruption
- You may be involved to be the Change/Project support on one or two projects at a point in time
Lead digital enablement and innovation
- Partner across Technology and Talent to bring innovation into practical use
- Identify and unlock opportunities for automation, AI and smarter ways of working
Embed operational excellence
- Continuously improve how Talent Enablement operates — driving simplicity, consistency and insight
- Use data and MI to inform decisions, track performance and continuously improve outcomes
- Support financial and commercial oversight across the portfolio
- May be involved in Enablement led projects that drive operational excellence across Talent, including on operational processes
What We’re Looking For
- Strong experience in programme or portfolio management within complex, matrixed stakeholder environments
- Experience shaping / supporting technology or transformation portfolios, ideally within HR, Talent or corporate functions
- Confident using data and Microsoft tools to tell clear, compelling stories, translating insight into action and influencing decisions
- A natural operator and advisor — able to shape direction, influence decision making and drive outcomes
- Good understanding of how enterprise systems and data interact, and the ability to connect and improve processes, platforms and outcomes
- Good knowledge & interest in automation, AI or digital enablement, with the ability to identify and help translate opportunities into delivery
- Comfortable managing competing priorities, dependencies and trade‑offs, bringing transparency and structure to decisions
