Head of Talent Development

Hello, we’re Starling.

Banking was broken – so we decided to fix it. The vision? Fast technology, fair service and honest values. All at the tap of a phone, all the time. We built Britain’s first digital bank. One hard-won banking licence later, we set about giving people a new way to spend, save and manage their money (and take better care of the planet, too). We’re changing banking for good. Back then, we were obsessed with unravelling the knotty world of finance and solving people’s problems rather than selling them stuff. We still are.

Since then, we’ve grown. A lot. Over four million accounts (and four account types!). A team of thousands. Headquartered in London with offices in Cardiff, Dublin, Manchester and Southampton. Seven years voted Which? Recommended Provider and Britain's Best Banking Brand. Still zero branches. Our culture is open, inclusive and focused on solving real customer problems, with an emphasis on doing the right thing, even when it’s not always the easy thing. From our approach to working together and sustainability to how we build our products, our decisions need to make the world – and Starling – a better place to be. Everyone at Starling is essential to our mission, which is really quite simple: to solve our customer’s problems – and build the best bank in the world!

And now we're providing Starling to other banks, via a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) proposition through our subsidiary Engine, using the proprietary technology platform that it uses to power our own bank.

The Head of Talent Developmen t is a pivotal strategic and operational role responsible for delivering leadership development and enterprise development across Starling. 

As we scale, the talent development function is transitioning and we want to grow leaders and colleagues at all levels. We are embarking on a culture change to enable sustainable people growth and business performance. Leaders are expected to develop both the mindset and skillset to drive this, and all colleagues are expected to own their career growth, supported by the leaders. 

You will be responsible for the full talent development function. You will be directly involved with designing and delivering leadership development initiatives to enable the culture change, and you will oversee the work by the Enterprise talent development team to ensure a ‘golden thread’ of consistency through-out our talent development initiatives. You will own the overall strategy and delivery and will enable the transformation through technology including AI, and a mix of internal & external people. 

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Program Design

• Strategy Alignment: Design and implement a Senior Leadership Development ‘programme’ that will drive the Senior Leaders’ behaviours to deliver Starling’s mission. This programme content will be delivered in a truly blended way including utilisation of AI, ad the content is likely to include:

1. A culture to shift to leaders driving performance and development, supported by People Partners, internal and external talent professionals.
2. Clarity on key leadership activities: Provide direction, coach, give feedback, support development of team members, manage underperformance
3. Lead during change and rapid scaling
4. Emotional Intelligence skills and enterprise role-modelling behaviours

• The ‘Golden Thread’ Integration: Ensure that the relevant senior leadership development modules are cascaded to all People leaders and managers at Starling. with Starling’s leadership and management development programmes and the team
• Bespoke Team Diagnostics: Design and deploy diagnostic tools to assess the health, alignment, and performance of senior leadership teams.
• Intervention Architecture: Create and facilitate high-impact team effectiveness sessions (off-sites, workshops, sessions) that improves alignment, address specific friction points, improve trust, and accelerate team maturity.
• Establish a Leadership Capability Measure: Based on the key leadership behaviours, research leadership measure and implement a simple and effective measure for the senior leadership population at Starling with the view to scale across all leadership roles.

Team Leadership and Stakeholder Engagement

• All aspects of team leadership for direct reports and wider team (total team of 10)
• Stakeholder Partnerships: Collaborate closely with the People Partner function and Programme Management and Comms to identify emerging leadership needs, tailor solutions accordingly, and deliver effective initiatives
• Vendor Management: Manage relationships with external leadership development education providers and consultants, ensuring high-quality, cost-effective delivery

Impact and Measurement

• Evaluation: Establish and track clear metrics (e.g., performance, retention, engagement, leadership index) to evaluate and overall effectiveness of all talent development initiatives. 

Requirements

• Significant experience in leadership development/organisational development with a deep understanding of the unique pressures and preferences of C-suite and senior leaders.
• Ability to balance creating high impact strategic programmes with a ‘hands-on’ delivery approach.
• Experience in designing, delivering, and evaluating large-scale, high-impact leadership programmes.
• Proven influencing and co-creating skills: Skillful in partnering with and leading others regardless of reporting lines.
• Proven experience in delivering large change programmes
• Low-ego approach
• Qualified Coach
• Experience using AI coaching tools
• Experience in Organisational Effectiveness/Team effectiveness
• Experience from scaling organisations

Benefits

• 25 days holiday (plus take your public holiday allowance whenever works best for you)
• An extra day’s holiday for your birthday
• Annual leave is increased with length of service, and you can choose to buy or sell up to five extra days off
• 16 hours paid volunteering time a year
• Salary sacrifice, company enhanced pension scheme
• Life insurance at 4x your salary
• Private Medical Insurance with VitalityHealth including mental health support and cancer care. Partner benefits include discounts with Waitrose, Mr&Mrs Smith and Peloton
• Generous family-friendly policies
• Perkbox membership giving access to retail discounts, a wellness platform for physical and mental health, and weekly free and boosted perks
• Access to initiatives like Cycle to Work and Salary Sacrificed Gym partnerships

About Us

You may be put off applying for a role because you don't tick every box. Forget that! While we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we're always open to discussion. So, if you're excited about working with us, but aren’t sure if you're 100% there yet, get in touch anyway.

We’re on a mission to radically reshape banking – and that starts with our brilliant team. Whatever came before, we’re proud to bring together people of all backgrounds and experiences who love working together to solve problems.

Starling Bank is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster diversity & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment at Starling Bank are considered without regard to race, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

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