About the job

Job Description

We’re looking for a Head of People Capability & Skills Development to join our Integrated Talent Journey. If you’re looking for a new challenge with an organisation committed to putting customers first, aiming high and working together, you’ll thrive here.

Job Type: Permanent

Location: This is a hybrid role and could be based in any of our UK offices: Edinburgh, London, Teford or Birmingham with time spent working in the office and at home.

Flexible working: All roles are open to part-time, job-share and other types of flexibility. We will discuss what is important to you and balancing this with business requirements during the recruitment process. You can read more about flexible working here.

Closing Date: 11/05/2026

Salary and benefits: £120,000 - £140,000 DOE plus an indicative bonus range of 30-60%, private medical cover, 38 days annual leave, excellent pension, 12x salary life assurance, career breaks, income protection, 3x volunteering days and much more.

Who are we?

We’re Standard Life, a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement savings and income. We champion the belief that everyone’s journey to and through retirement can be better, and for more than 200 years, we’ve been helping our customers plan and prepare for their financial futures.

Life today is increasingly complicated, uncertain and unpredictable. People move through different careers, face unexpected moments and navigate important choices. We offer our colleagues flexibility, trust and benefits that work for whatever life brings. In return we expect curiosity, connection, accountability and high standards. We make room for what matters - so you can bring your best, every day.

The role

We’re looking for a senior leader to shape and deliver our enterprise approach to skills, capability, leadership and learning — building workforce solutions that drive performance and enable business strategy

This role is accountable for capability development and the end‑to‑end learning journey, including the effective use of AI and data across platforms, content, skills frameworks, and partners (including a managed service learning provider). You’ll use data and insight to prioritise investment, demonstrate ROI, and improve outcomes.

Working within the integrated Talent Journey team and with senior leaders across the organisation, you’ll influence how we build capability, upskill talent, and lead workforce transformation. You’ll also lead and develop a high‑performing team, balancing enterprise transformation with a strong delivery pace. If you’re a commercial, data‑led learning leader with experience delivering enterprise capability strategies, developing senior leaders, and managing complex supplier ecosystems, we’d love to hear from you.

What are we looking for?

Experience delivering enterprise workforce solutions, using strategic workforce planning and insight to drive workforce transformation
Proven experience in skills development and capability building at scale through leadership and learning interventions
Strong budget management and commercial decision‑making capability
Proven experience managing third‑party and managed service providers
A credible learning practitioner with strong AI‑ and data‑driven capability, using insight to prioritise investment and demonstrate impact

We Want To Hire The Whole Version Of You. We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you.

If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best.

We’re reviewing applications as they come in, so apply early to avoid missing out.

Find Out More About Working At Standard Life

Guide for Candidates: standardlifeplc.pagetiger.com/guideforcandidates
Find or get answers from our colleagues: www.standardlifeplc.com/careers/talk-to-us

Standard Life plc

Latest Jobs

Head of People Capability & Skills Development