Global Head of Talent

Tes is a global Edtech leader, on a mission to empower schools and educators to deliver impactful, inspiring learning experiences worldwide. We understand the unique challenges faced by schools, and our ecosystem is specifically designed to address these needs head-on.

Role overview

Working with the Chief People Officer you will shape and deliver a global talent strategy spanning attraction, development, succession, performance and workforce capability, helping the business attract, develop and retain exceptional talent to drive organisational success through its people. You will partner closely with senior leaders across the organisation, combining strategic talent management expertise with practical operational delivery. As well as shaping talent and capability priorities, you will design, facilitate and evaluate talent development initiatives that build capability, strengthen performance and support organisational growth. Leading a small global team across the UK and Australia, you will create clear priorities, drive excellence in delivery and ensure talent initiatives deliver measurable business impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Supported by the Chief People Officer and partnering with the wider executive team, shape, lead and deliver an integrated global talent strategy that supports business growth, workforce plans and future capability needs.
• Establish and embed talent practices and frameworks that enable attraction, development, performance and succession across the organisation.
• Work closely with senior leaders and HR partners to identify critical capability requirements, assess current and future skills gaps, and develop succession plans, career pathways, high-potential programmes and capability frameworks to build sustainable talent pipelines for key roles.
• Drive a culture of ownership of continuous learning and development by identifying learning needs and designing, sourcing, facilitating and evaluating practical learning, leadership and capability programmes that build confidence, performance and commercial impact.
• Strengthen inclusive talent acquisition, including employer brand, sourcing, assessment, candidate experience, ATS optimisation and agency partnerships.
• Lead, coach and develop the global talent team (acquisition and development), creating an environment where people are clear on priorities, supported to perform and encouraged to grow.
• Manage talent budgets, suppliers and partnerships to ensure activity is focused, aligned to business value and resources are allocated effectively and efficiently to support talent management strategies.
• Use insight, metrics and evaluation to monitor progress, improve decision-making, demonstrate the impact of talent, hiring and development activity, and drive continuous improvement.
• Manage and optimise HR technology solutions to support talent management strategies and streamline talent management processes.

What will you need to succeed?

• Senior experience in talent management, HR or a related field combined with recent relevant leadership experience, ideally in a growing or evolving global SaaS / tech organisation.
• Strong understanding of talent management best practice, including talent acquisition, development, succession, performance and workforce capability planning.
• Proven ability to translate business strategy into practical talent and capability plans that support organisational growth.
• The ability to think strategically while staying close to operational delivery, including programme design, facilitation and evaluation.
• Demonstrable experience of partnering with executives, senior leaders and hiring managers, with the credibility to challenge, influence and bring others with you.
• A proven ability to lead a high performing team by setting clear objectives, coaching, supporting individual growth and creating an environment where people are empowered to perform, develop and succeed.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced, changing environment and manage multiple priorities effectively.
• Experience improving recruitment effectiveness, employer brand, candidate experience and quality of hire.
• Practical understanding of inclusive hiring, assessment, succession planning and capability frameworks.
• Strong analytical skills, using data and insight to drive decision-making, continuous improvement and measurable business outcomes.
• Experience managing and optimising talent technology, including ATS, LMS, talent platforms and people analytics tools, to improve process efficiency, insight and user experience.
• Experience managing talent budgets, suppliers, agencies and external partners to deliver value and business impact.
• Proven ability to lead global or distributed teams and deliver consistent talent practices across multiple locations and stakeholder groups.
• Experience leading organisational change and embedding new talent practices, frameworks and ways of working.
• Strong commercial acumen, with the ability to demonstrate ROI and the impact of talent initiatives.
• CIPD qualified or equivalent experience.

Values and ways of working

• We work together: You’re committed to building a trusting and open culture. You welcome feedback from everyone, with an open and willing mindset. You nurture the development of others, supporting testing and learning from mistakes positively.
• We include everyone: You naturally collaborate and ensure that inclusivity allows us to take full advantage of cognitive diversity. You’re naturally empathetic with others and are able to create development and growth with honesty, supporting those in and outside of your team.
• We take ownership: You battle complacency in all its forms and take ownership to move things forward. You can be agile and progress in small steps, but you don’t leave it to others to correct your mistakes or pick up after you.
• We never stand still: You are agile, with a mentality of ‘how can we’ rather than ‘why can’t we’. It isn’t about breaking rules, but about being tenacious and innovative. You look to create greatness, even if achieved slowly by many incremental improvements.
• We do it for them: You are passionate about creating an environment where everyone else around you can be motivated, enthused, and empowered to do their best work. With everyone motivated to do their best, teachers, students, and parents all gain the ultimate value and support.