Head of Talent & Culture - UK&I

Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you. As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits.

To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive because we expect pace and agility, insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact.

What will this role achieve? The Head of Talent & Culture leads the UK&I Talent, Culture and Organisation Effectiveness agenda, ensuring the organisation has the leadership capability, succession strength and culture required to deliver current priorities and future growth. The role acts as the regional owner of talent, learning, performance and inclusion, setting direction, standards and governance, while enabling HRBPs and leaders to deliver impact within the business.

Direct reports & team scope: Leads a specialist UK&I team and partners closely with HRBPs and functional leaders. Direct reports include:

• Head of Learning
• Talent & Engagement Co-ordinator
• Sustainability Manager (IDE/Wellbeing/Happy People)
• Talent Acquisition Manager
• Talent Manager

What will this role achieve?

• Shape and deliver an integrated UK&I Talent, Culture and Organisation Effectiveness agenda that enables delivery of regional strategic priorities across all business areas.
• Build and execute a 3–5 year talent roadmap, balancing short-term delivery with long-term capability, leadership and workforce needs.
• Create the conditions for a high-performing, engaging organisation, with clear accountabilities, effective decision-making, strong leadership capability and a compelling employee experience that supports future growth.
• Embed a clear, intentional culture aligned to pladis values, leadership expectations and ways of working, ensuring culture is reinforced through talent, reward, performance and leadership practices.

What will be your key deliverables?

• Lead the development and execution of the UK&I Talent, Organisation Effectiveness, Learning and Inclusion strategy, ensuring alignment with regional priorities and business plans.
• Create and own the region’s integrated talent, learning and organisation effectiveness roadmap and calendar, fully aligned to the global strategy.
• Partner with HRBPs to identify priority people risks and opportunities, agree clear actions following key cycles (e.g. engagement, talent, performance), and track progress through an agreed governance rhythm.
• Responsible for Talent Management, Resourcing, Performance Management, Inclusion and Learning, ensuring these levers work together coherently to elevate our EVP internally and externally.
• Ensure consistent people, talent and organisation design practices are used across the region by working collaboratively with the HRLT and HRBPs.
• Collaborate on the development of new global and regional Talent programmes, ensuring they are grounded in the realities of the UK&I operating model, workforce profile and growth ambitions.
• Drive best practice and continuous improvement across all specialist areas, ensuring we are modernising our organisation design, talent and capability approaches to support strategic aims.
• Drive the implementation of our IDE agenda through all Talent, L&D and Organisation Design practices, embedding inclusion into structures, decision-making and career pathways.
• Accountable for shaping and delivering the Early Careers strategy, covering apprentices, graduates and internship programmes, ensuring these pipelines are aligned to future organisation design, capability and workforce needs.
• Partner with HRLT to define, reinforce and role-model cultural expectations, ensuring alignment between leadership behaviour, organisation design and colleague experience.

What success looks like:

• Strong succession coverage, talent pipelines and bench strength for critical and leadership roles, aligned to future operating model needs and resilient to planned and unplanned change.
• Improved leadership capability, engagement and employee experience outcomes year on year.
• UK&I Leadership Team confidence in talent readiness, succession depth and organisational resilience, reflected in decision-making quality, pace and risk mitigation.
• A modern, integrated talent, learning and resourcing ecosystem that supports productivity, performance and growth.
• Robust, well-governed talent review and succession processes, with clear links between leadership capability, critical roles, organisation design and future workforce needs.

The role has regional accountability for the following, delivered through specialist teams and in close partnership with HRBPs:

• Resourcing & Workforce Planning: Own the regional resourcing strategy, workforce planning and future capability needs, including leadership of the Talent Acquisition team, market insight, role design challenge and EVP activation.
• Performance Management: Design and embed a high-quality performance management culture aligned to the Global Talent Philosophy, reinforcing accountability, role clarity and effective decision-making.
• Talent & Organisation Insight: Use integrated people and organisation data to inform UK&I LT decisions on organisation design, succession, capability and workforce planning, bringing external insight and best practice where relevant.
• Learning & Development: Set and lead the regional L&D strategy to build leadership, functional and future-focused capabilities, supported by a modern, digital learning environment and a strong culture of continuous learning and adaptability.

What do you need for this role?

• Strong influencing capability with senior leaders and HR partners, with the ability to shape thinking and build alignment.
• Proven expertise across the talent lifecycle including behavioural frameworks, learning and development, career architecture, workforce planning and recruitment.
• Ability to balance operational delivery with long term organisation and capability strategy, ensuring annual employee cycles run effectively while building for the future.
• Strong understanding of core HR and organisation levers, performance, reward, development, structure and role clarity, and how they interact to drive engagement and outcomes.
• Track record of delivering in complex, fast paced environments, leading organisation and talent change across diverse workforce groups.
• Strong programme and portfolio management skills, managing interconnected talent and learning initiatives.
• Ability to set and measure performance outcomes using clear standards, metrics and targets to drive excellence in Talent.
• Commercial, data driven mindset, using insight and judgement to propose pragmatic talent solutions.
• Relevant technical background, ideally including experience with psychometrics, coaching frameworks, organisation design, budget ownership and leadership across multiple teams.

Diversity and inclusion is central to everything we do and is reflected across our business. Pladis brings together brands and people from around the globe – and this diversity is our great strength. We’re an equal opportunities employer and believe in fostering an inclusive environment where we celebrate diversity of thinking and respect everyone’s distinctive qualities and perspectives.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform key job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Pladis is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings will be filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law.

We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List. If you are a recruitment agency and wish to submit candidates to be considered for this vacancy, you must have agreed to, and signed, our terms of business. We will not accept CVs from any other sources other than those currently on our PSL. We will not pay a fee for any candidate that has not been represented by a provider on our PSL.