Performance and Talent Strategy Manager

We are seeking a Performance and Talent Strategy Manager (Fixed Term, August 2026 to September 2027) to shape how British Airways builds a high‑performing, future‑ready workforce, retaining talent and ensuring we have colleagues with the right skills, in the right place at the right time to deliver on our organisational priorities. As Performance and Talent Strategy Manager, you will play a central role in defining how we identify, develop and retain talent across the business. You’ll operate at the intersection of business strategy, workforce planning and people strategy—ensuring we are set up not just for today, but for the future.

You’ll lead the design and evolve key components of our talent system—ranging from performance management and succession planning, skills, career pathways and internal mobility—ensuring they are practical, scalable and drive real impact. Working closely with our People teams, you’ll turn insight into action—bringing clarity to complex talent challenges and helping shape decisions.

About You

You’re a commercially minded people professional who thrives when creating and implementing high‑impact strategies. You understand that high‑performing organisations don’t happen by chance—they’re built through thoughtful, well‑executed approaches to performance and talent—and you’re motivated by shaping those systems end‑to‑end. You bring the ability to step back and think strategically, while also translating that thinking into practical, implementable solutions. You’re comfortable operating in ambiguity, using data, insight and judgement to identify what really matters and where to focus effort for maximum impact. You’re confident, engaging and influencing at senior levels, able to build credibility quickly and challenge constructively. You know how to navigate a complex stakeholder environment—bringing people with you, aligning different perspectives and ensuring delivery happens through the business, not around it. Collaboration is central to how you operate. You enjoy working across functions and disciplines, pulling together expertise from different areas to create joined‑up, sustainable solutions. You’re equally comfortable leading from the front or working with others to drive scale. You care deeply about fairness and inclusion, ensuring that performance and talent processes are transparent, equitable and support a diverse pipeline of future leaders. Above all, you bring curiosity and a drive to improve—constantly looking at how things could be better, simpler or more impactful, and having the courage to make change happen.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the ongoing development and delivery of a business‑aligned performance and talent strategy, ensuring we can identify, grow and retain critical talent across the organisation.
• Define and embed a skills‑based approach to talent, ensuring alignment between future capability needs, workforce planning and how we build, deploy and develop skills across the organisation.
• Own and continuously evolve the end‑to‑end performance management cycle, ensuring it drives meaningful outcomes and is delivered consistently and fairly across the business.
• Design and embed robust succession planning for critical roles, strengthening leadership pipelines and long‑term organisational resilience.
• Shape and implement approaches to talent mobility and career pathways, enabling colleagues to grow and move across the organisation.
• Partner closely with Strategic HR Business Partners and Strategic Workforce Planning to align talent strategy with future business needs and workforce plans.
• Provide clear, joined‑up insight on talent across the organisation, enabling targeted interventions such as talent development, working in close collaboration with our Global Learning Academy.
• Act as a strategic thought partner to stakeholders, challenging thinking and helping to solve complex performance, talent and skills challenges.
• Lead a portfolio of performance and talent initiatives, ensuring they deliver tangible business impact and are scalable.
• Use data, experimentation and insight to continuously improve our approach—moving from opinion‑led decisions to evidence‑based solutions.
• Work across the People function and wider organisation to ensure a joined‑up, seamless talent and performance lifecycle.

What You’ll Bring

• Experience operating in a strategic HR, People or Organisational Effectiveness role within a large complex global organisation.
• A strong track record of designing and delivering performance and/or talent strategies, frameworks or programmes at scale.
• The ability to translate business priorities into clear, outcome‑focused talent solutions that drive measurable impact.
• Experience aligning talent strategy with workforce planning, or working closely with planning/strategy functions.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with credibility at senior levels.
• Confidence using data and insight to inform decisions, measure impact and continuously improve approaches.
• Experience embedding inclusive and fair practices within performance and talent processes.
• A commercial mindset, with a focus on prioritising activity that delivers the greatest business value.
• CIPD qualification or equivalent experience.

What We Offer

We believe that all the people who work with us should feel valued for the part they play. It’s one of the reasons our rewards go far beyond a competitive salary. From the day you join us, you’ll get access to brilliant staff travel benefits, including unlimited basic and premium standby tickets on British Airways flights, and up to 30 discounted ‘Hotline’ airfares per year for yourself, friends, and family. At British Airways you’ll have the chance to take on new challenges and move forward in a way that feels right for you. We encourage all those who work for us to consider opportunities right across our business to help you develop and progress. We never stand still, and we don’t expect our people to either.

Inclusion & Diversity

At British Airways we all have a part to play in creating an inclusive place to work. Diverse representation among our people is really important to us and we recognise that all our colleagues are uniquely different and bring their own originality, creativity and identity to work. Inclusion and diversity is a key driver of innovation and we’re committed to creating a culture where everyone feels that they can be themselves. We’re looking for people from all backgrounds and cultures to join us and be a part of our journey to become a Better BA as we continue to connect Britain with the world and the world with Britain.