Director, Talent Organizational Design

White & Case is an elite global law firm serving leading companies, financial institutions and governments worldwide. Our long history as an international firm means we are perfectly placed to help our clients resolve their most complex legal challenges wherever they may be. With lawyers operating from more than 40 locations, working around the world, we have invested heavily in building a high-quality full-service practice competing at the top of the market.

The Director – Talent & Organizational Design will play a critical role in shaping how White & Case aligns its talent and organizational structure to deliver on strategic priorities while fostering an environment where employees can grow, thrive, and feel connected to the Firm. This role combines a proactive, skills-based approach to workforce and organizational design with a thoughtful focus on employee experience, ensuring we have the right people, with the right capabilities, in the right roles at the right time.

The Director will partner with Firm leadership and the People team to identify the skills and organizational capabilities required for the Firm’s future, design workforce and organizational models that enable optimal work allocation and mobility of talent, and create a career experience that attracts, retains, and develops high-performing professionals.

Highly focused, you should display the organizational skills and composure needed to thrive in a demanding, fast-paced practice, working to tight deadlines and managing multiple workstreams and communication channels. Given the fluidity of the deal-making process, you should also be mentally agile—adept at thinking on your feet, and quickly adapting to changing circumstances.

This role will lead a newly established Talent & Organizational Design team, working across the People function (partnering closely with People Advisory, Centres of Expertise, and HR Operations) and with senior business and legal leadership to deliver an integrated talent and organizational strategy that supports high performance, adaptability, and a differentiated employee and client experience.

• Organizational Design & Workforce Planning: Lead capability assessments to identify skill gaps, capability risks, and future talent needs across the Firm. Design workforce and organizational models that optimize work allocation, role clarity, mobility, and engagement. Partner with business and legal leaders to align workforce plans with client demand and strategic priorities. Build and embed dynamic workforce planning processes to anticipate talent needs and support proactive decision-making. Leverage workforce analytics to deliver insights on productivity, health, bench strength, and future needs. Ensure data quality within HR systems for effective reporting and analytics. Partner with HRIS, Analytics, and Technology teams to embed a firmwide skills taxonomy and integrate workforce planning processes into platforms such as Workday.
• Performance and Potential: Shape the Firm’s frameworks and processes for assessing performance and potential, aligning with Firm values, fostering high performance, and leveraging technology to enable and scale effectively. Partner with leadership to identify and develop high-potential talent, ensuring readiness for promotion to Partner, Counsel, Local Partner senior business services roles. Design and support the Firm’s approach to meaningful career conversations for both business services and legal, ensuring these discussions align with both individual aspirations and the Firm’s long-term talent needs. Provide data-driven insights into performance and potential across talent pools, identifying skills gaps, succession risks, and recommending targeted interventions such as stretch opportunities, upskilling, or strategic hiring. Foster a culture of transparent, data-informed talent decisions and enable meaningful career conversations aligned to both individual goals and Firm strategy. Develop guidance and tools to support candid, constructive performance conversations improvement.
• Career Growth and Mobility: Collaborate with the People Advisory, Work Allocation and Development teams to build pathways for internal mobility and career growth, aligned to the Firm’s skills-based approach. Establish framework for deploying talent based on skills, potential, and business-critical needs, increasing agility and mobility across practices, geographies, and functions. Drive the implementation and adoption of a technology-enabled internal talent marketplace, empowering employees to explore career paths, build new skills, and access stretch opportunities aligned with their aspirations and the Firm’s needs. Embed the skills framework into recruiting, career development, succession planning, and performance management processes to support transparent career progression and development of future leaders.
• Workforce Insight and Planning Analytics: Develop and deliver workforce analytics to provide leadership with insights on organizational health, workforce productivity, bench strength, and skills gaps. Promote the consistent and effective use of data to assess organizational health and plan for future growth. Maintain the integrity and usability of workforce data in systems of record.
• Change Leadership: Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on organizational change initiatives, providing design solutions, planning, and execution support. Champion a cultural shift toward a skills-based, agile, and tech-enabled talent approach. Lead the cultural and behavioral change required to adopt a skills-based, technology-enabled approach to career development, workforce planning, and mobility, fostering understanding and enthusiasm across all levels of the Firm.

• Minimum of 8–10 years in talent strategy, organizational design, workforce planning, employee experience, or a related field, ideally in a professional services or global corporate environment.
• Proven track record of designing and implementing organizational and workforce strategies that deliver measurable business and employee outcomes.
• Expertise in skills-based talent models, organizational diagnostics, workforce planning, and design principles.
• Familiarity with HRIS and talent platforms and experience embedding talent strategies into technology systems.
• Deep understanding of employee experience concepts and how they intersect with organizational performance.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with experience partnering with senior business leaders to influence and drive change.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to use data to inform strategic decisions.
• Exceptional communication, facilitation, and presentation skills, with the ability to engage and align diverse audiences.
• Strategic thinker with business acumen and a pragmatic, outcomes-focused approach.
• Proven leadership skills with the ability to inspire, coach, and develop a high-performing team.
• Exceptional organizational and project management skills with the ability to manage multiple complex priorities simultaneously.

This role will be based in our London office. This role reports to the Chief People Officer.

When you join us, you’ll be working directly with partners, business leaders and many other inspiring colleagues across our global network of offices. We live by our values—to be pioneering, united and human—and we believe that you’ll experience them from your first day. We will give you the support and development opportunities that will help you achieve your potential. We believe that consistent high performance merits reward and support. Our compensation package reflects your caliber as a finance professional, and our benefits are designed to support your changing needs and priorities across different life stages.

White & Case is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and is committed to creating a fair workplace. It is our Firm’s policy to recruit, employ, train, compensate and promote without regard to race, color, religion, creed, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, military or veteran status, disability, genetic information, or any other category protected by applicable law.