Learning & Development Lead

At OakNorth, we're on a mission to empower the UK's most ambitious businesses. Since 2015, we've lent over $18 billion across the UK and US, helped create more than 58,000 new homes and 36,000 new jobs, and supported hundreds of thousands of personal savers — all while fuelling the UK economy.

OakNorth is on an exciting growth journey – we are expanding geographically, building digital propositions to support our customers, and exploring new business lines to scale our growth. Talent is at the centre of our growth agenda, and we are searching for a Talent Development Lead to proactively drive our Talent strategy.

As OakNorth scales, this critical role will lead the development of our in-house talent to ensure we have an active and ready pipeline of individuals who can be deployed on a number of exciting scale-up areas. This role will also design and lead Talent programmes and learning strategies so we are supporting the OakNorth team across many paths and opportunities. In partnership with the Business Leads and People Partners, they will co-develop career and progression frameworks across our teams and geographies.

It's critical that this role takes a tech-led and scalable approach to Talent Development, with savviness to AI and relevant digital Learning & Development tools. You will ensure that human potential is augmented by technology. You will embed a culture of continuous learning, upskiling, and thoughtful human + AI collaboration. You also will curate a suite of self-service and company-supported learning opportunities and in person/virtual experiences that support talent development and learning. You'll initially be part of a small team operating leanly with scope to grow with the appropriate strategies and plans in place. Key responsibilities

• Strategy and vision for talent development in an AI-enabled world: Develop a forward-looking talent development strategy that anticipates how AI, generative models, automation, and advanced analytics will reshape roles, skills, and career paths.
• Advocate for a "human + AI" approach — roles and development must complement technology, not simply replace people.
• Monitor emerging trends and research (e.g. from HBR, academic sources) to continuously refine development philosophy and guardrails.
• Learning and development programmes: Design, implement, and maintain learning programs (technical, behavioural, cultural, leadership) aligned with the business strategy.
• Build pathways for reskilling / upskilling so that the OakNorth team can continue to develop with the pace of change.
• Curate external partnerships (edtech, universities, online platforms) or internal content to support continuous learning.
• Career and role design: Create career frameworks, progression criteria,, competency models and the required talent development tooling and support to facilitate talent pipelines across the organisation in partnership with Business leads and People Partners.
• Help managers and leaders understand new ways of designing roles and supporting talent to embrace new ways of working. Create hybrid role design templates (roles that blend human judgment + AI assistance).
• Coaching, mentoring and leadership development: Establish high-potential programmes, mentorship frameworks, and coaching support to cultivate future leaders who understand both business and tech.
• Train managers on how to lead teams in an AI-augmented environment (e.g. how to delegate to AI vs humans, how to measure outcomes).
• Measurement and compliance: Define KPIs / success metrics for talent development efforts (e.g. internal mobility, learning uptake, performance, retention, reskilling rates).
• Work closely with the Legal and Compliance team to establish, continuously improve and monitor required training. Consider opportunities to make mandatory training more engaging and effective.

Requirements/experience

• Must have/essential: 8+ years in Talent Development / L&D / OD, preferably in technology, fintech, or scaling digital businesses.
• Deep understanding of emerging tech (AI, ML, automation) and how they interact with human workflows.
• Experience designing upskilling / reskilling / transition programs especially for roles affected by automation.
• Strong background in curriculum design, adult learning principles, blended modalities (in-person, digital, modular).
• Excellent stakeholder management — ability to partner across engineering, product, business, HR, and senior leadership.
• Change management experience (rolling out new ways of working, influencing behaviour).
• Strong analytical mindset — comfortable using data to monitor, iterate, and improve programs.
• Commitment to ethical, human-centric design of tech + talent interaction.
• Preferred/nice to have: Experience in a high-growth tech / scale-up / fintech environment.
• Familiarity with AI/ML/DS teams & processes (data pipelines, model training, MLOps).
• Experience launching mentorship, leadership cohorts, internal academies, learning platforms.
• Exposure to ethical AI, fairness, algorithmic bias, governance frameworks.
• Experience with competency / role frameworks bridging business + tech domains.
• Competencies and personal attributes: Visionary — can think ahead to what skills will matter in 2–5 years and design accordingly.
• Empathetic & human-centric — sees people first, and designs tech augmentation so that humans remain central.
• Influential & collaborative — brings stakeholders on the journey, builds trust, and can navigate ambiguity.
• Adaptive & agile — comfortable iterating rapidly, experimenting, learning from failures.
• High integrity & ethical awareness — especially when designing roles, performance frameworks, or automation interactions.
• Strong communication skills (written, verbal) and able to simplify complex ideas.

Benefits and perks

• Equity. We want people to have a stake in the business so that all our interests are aligned.
• 25 days holiday
• Personalized benefits – opt-in to what matters to you
• Subsidised Private Medical Insurance with Bupa
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Wellbeing and social events
• Support causes that matter to you – Volunteering time off
• Salary sacrifice schemes (Cycle to work, nursery, gym, electric car scheme)

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.