Skills and Capability Lead in Worthing

Location: Durrington/hybrid

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37 hours

About The Role

We’re looking for a dynamic and forward‑thinking Skills & Capability Lead to shape the future of learning, capability, and performance across our organisation. This is a senior leadership role that sits at the heart of our transformation agenda—driving a culture of continuous improvement, capability excellence, and high performance. Reporting to the Head of Talent, Capability & Leadership, you will set the strategic direction for business skills development, lead a high‑performing team, and ensure that the organisation’s workforce has the right skills, behaviours and expertise to deliver on our current and future priorities. This is a role for someone who thrives in complexity, is energised by building something exceptional, and can influence at every level of a fast‑moving organisation.

What You Will Be Responsible For

• Designing and delivering the organisation’s multi‑year capability and learning strategy, aligned to business priorities, workforce planning and future‑skills needs.
• Leading and developing a team of learning specialists to deliver strategic, high‑impact learning solutions.
• Establishing learning governance, frameworks and enterprise standards that ensure consistency, quality and measurable value across all learning activity.
• Owning and managing the business skills training budget, including forecasting, vendor/msp management, and prioritising investment to ensure cost‑effective delivery.
• Leading organisation-wide learning programmes, including induction, mandatory training, behavioural and business skills development, and enterprise capability uplift.
• Designing high‑quality training solutions, both internally developed and through external providers, ensuring content is engaging, modern and aligned to our skills strategy.
• Driving continuous improvement and innovation, including digital learning, data‑driven decision making and future learning technologies.
• Building strong relationships with senior leaders and stakeholders, ensuring capability needs are understood, prioritised and embedded.
• Assuring quality and compliance across all training provision, ensuring learning meets internal standards, regulatory requirements and business expectations.

Additional Requirements Specific To The Role

• Oversight of MSP/learning provider performance and commercial management.
• Development of enterprise‑wide skills frameworks and capability pathways.
• Occasional travel for team leadership, supplier meetings or programme delivery.

Essential What you’ll bring to the role

• Proven experience leading, designing and delivering enterprise‑wide learning and development programmes.
• Strong leadership capability with experience managing teams and/or centres of expertise.
• Experience creating or leading learning governance frameworks and policy development.
• Budget ownership experience, including vendor management and commercial oversight.
• Strong instructional design and programme development skills.
• Experience working with learning management systems and digital learning platforms.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive organisation-wide adoption of new practices.
• Excellent analytical skills, with the ability to use data to evaluate impact and shape decisions.
• CIPD qualification or equivalent experience.

Desirable

• Coaching qualification or experience.
• Experience working with MSPs or large external training providers.
• Knowledge of psychometrics or talent assessment tools.
• Experience in workforce planning, capability mapping or organisational development.

Our Commitment to Diversity

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or any other protected characteristic. If you need reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.

Additional Information

In line with Southern Water’s security requirements, successful candidates will be required to provide evidence of their identity, eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record check (DBS) and verification of their employment and/or education history for the past three years. Appointment to this role is subject to the successful completion of all pre‑employment checks, including security vetting. Please note that if a candidate does not meet the required security standards or fails to pass the vetting process, Southern Water reserves the right to withdraw the offer of employment. Some positions may also require higher levels of security vetting, which may involve providing additional documentation.