Head of Progression and Mobility

Informa Group Plc.; England; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global publishing company is seeking a Head of Progression to enhance career development and mobility. The role involves designing strategies that empower employees, working closely with various departments to ensure effective communication and progression pathways. Ideal candidates will have strong strategic thinking, project management skills, and the ability to drive change while focusing on colleague experience and organizational culture.

Benefits

Competitive salary bonus

25 days annual leave

4 volunteering days annually

Day off for your birthday

Pension contributions

Medical insurance for self and dependants

Life cover and personal accident cover

Training and development

Tools for remote working

Qualifications

• Experience leading strategic, multi-stranded change programmes, especially in career development.
• Strong ability to translate complex HR concepts into accessible guidance.
• Ability to manage strategic projects with clear deliverables.

Responsibilities

• Lead key deliverables within a People Team strategic priority around progression.
• Work with leaders to communicate a clear approach to progression.
• Track data relating to key aspects of progression.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Data-driven decision making

Influencing skills

Project management

Excellent communication skills

Education

Experience in HR or career development frameworks

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Head of Progression who will work closely with the Director of Organizational Culture and partner other leaders to define and activate a progression value proposition for T&F. This role heads a strategic project to drive engagement and talent goals through a re-energised approach to progression and mobility at T&F.

The Head of Progression will lead People Team project leads to define, activate and expand routes to creating career growth opportunities through promotion and experiential learning. The role works with Business Partners, L&D, Reward and Recruitment partners to use data and insight to support vertical and lateral progression, ensuring colleagues have multiple opportunities to grow their careers, skills and impact within the organization.

The role manages agreed activities and initiatives that provide continued sustainable impact to colleague mobility at T&F, fostering a culture where development and progression is embedded in the organisational DNA.

Key Responsibilities

Partner with the Director of Organisational Culture and other leaders to design, activate and communicate a clear approach to progression at T&F, building and sharing key information to empower and enable colleagues in their future career choices.

Lead key deliverables within a People Team strategic priority around progression, applying a product mindset to colleague promotion and related experiential learning.

Progression Definitions and Foundations

• Provide clarity around a progression proposition working with leaders to communicate a clear set of commitments, processes and opportunities that colleagues can understand and actively engage with.
• Review the T&F career architecture as a go‑to progression framework to underpin career interventions, updating to keep pace with organisational change and enabling colleagues to better navigate potential opportunities.
• Work with L&D to establish core competencies that support our big ambition designed to bring basic alignment across skills and behaviours to different business areas.
• Use data and insight to identify impactful opportunities in progression.

Progression Processes Design and Activation

• Work with the People team and business leaders to develop and articulate simple, transparent processes relating to delivering progression and promotion commitments.
• Support the Head of Reward to prepare for a consistent cyclical review process.
• Work with leaders and the People Team to identify and design distinct promotion / progression pathways for key roles, including assessment processes in partnership with the TA team.
• Partner with the L&D team to build a structured career experience programme, such as the Innovation Challenge, mentoring or buddying, community committee leadership, or taking on additional responsibilities linked to architecture and talent/succession paths. Work with L&D to extend a badging system around such activities, helping colleagues build experiences to learn new skills and demonstrate their potential.

Communicate, Partner and Measure

• Work with the Director of Organisational Culture and the Director of Executive and Internal Communications to develop a clear approach to transparent communication and organisational storytelling in relation to progression and opportunity.
• Bring life to opportunities available to colleagues to progress their careers and gain relevant experience through transparent and creative communication & engagement.
• Work with the Pulse Business Leads to track Pulse feedback and related actions, with particular focus on Career Progression.
• Align with the TA team and PLOD team to ensure progression and mobility dovetails with recruitment and development strategies and frameworks.
• Track data relating to key aspects of progression to understand gaps, opportunities and change over time, assessing the impact of interventions and ongoing issues.
• Partner with relevant Informa Colleague Experience teams as needed to drive consistency, efficiency and alignment.

What We’re Looking For

This role requires experience balancing strategic thinking with practical implementation using data to drive decisions while maintaining a strong focus on colleague experience and organisational culture.

Strategic Leadership

• Experience leading strategic, multi‑stranded change programmes, particularly in career development or talent mobility, ideally in a global setting.
• Experience working with senior leadership to define and activate organisational talent strategies.
• Track record of using data and insights to drive HR decision‑making and demonstrate ROI.

Technical HR Knowledge

• Experience in career development frameworks, talent management, succession planning or internal mobility programmes, ideally in a global setting.
• Knowledge of HR data analytics and metrics related to talent retention and progression.
• Understanding of role evaluation methodologies and career architecture design.
• Understanding and vision relating to aligning formal and experiential development with career development.

Collaboration and Influence

• Demonstrated ability to lead cross‑functional teams or taskforce to successful change implementation.
• Experience working with multiple stakeholders across different business areas.
• Strong influencing skills to gain buy‑in from senior leaders and colleagues.
• Ability to align initiatives with broader organisational strategies.
• Resilient and able to work with ambiguity.

Communication

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience in creating compelling internal communications around career development.
• Ability to translate complex HR concepts into accessible guidance for colleagues.
• Skills in organisational storytelling to showcase successful career paths.

Project Management

• Experience managing strategic projects / programmes with clear deliverables.
• Ability to transition strategic initiatives into sustainable BAU activities.
• Skills in measuring project outcomes and demonstrating impact.

This role offers an exceptional opportunity to shape the future of career development at Taylor & Francis while making a lasting impact on colleague experience and organisational culture.

Additional Information

Closing Date: 12th January 2026

You must have the right to work and live in the UK.

The role is open either on a permanent or secondment basis and part‑time options will be considered.

Location: The successful candidate will be able to utilise our balanced working model. Candidates should live within a commutable distance of our Milton Park office to ensure a minimum of 3 days per week in‑person time.

We believe that great things happen when people connect face‑to‑face. That’s why we work in‑person with each other or with customers and partners three days a week or more. When you’re not spending time together in one of our offices or other workplaces like at conferences you get the flexibility and support to work from home or remotely.

What We Offer in Return

• A competitive salary bonus
• 25 days annual leave
• 4 volunteering days annually
• Day off for your birthday
• Pension contributions
• Medical insurance for self and dependants; life cover and personal accident cover for self
• Seasonal social and charitable events
• Training and development
• Tools and equipment for remote working

Training and Professional Development

We’re passionate about ensuring you have all the tools and resources at your fingertips to reach your short and long‑term career goals. We support you by working together on your own bespoke Taylor & Francis Development Plan, ensuring you have the resources, tools and coaching that will get you where you want to be.

Interview Process

Once you have submitted your application we may get in touch for an initial screening conversation or ask you to complete a short video interview to enable us to better understand your skills, experience and motivation. Following this you will be invited to attend a competency‑based interview either virtually or in‑person. Typically we then finish the interview process with a final 2nd stage interview before extending an offer to the successful applicant.

Being Yourself at Taylor & Francis

If you’re excited about working with Taylor & Francis to foster human progress through knowledge we invite you to apply even if your existing skills and experience don’t fit every item listed above. At Taylor & Francis we are at our best and most successful when colleagues can be themselves and make a contribution regardless of their identity or background. As a colleague you will have the opportunity to further innovate and develop in areas that you are passionate about. Our goal is to empower you with the resources, incentives and flexibility you need to enjoy success at work and to live a healthy balanced life.

Taylor & Francis is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe in and value diversity of people and thought, fostering a supportive and inclusive environment where all colleagues can learn and succeed as their true selves. Taylor & Francis recruits, develops and retains colleagues without regard to any protected personal characteristics or other non‑merit‑based factor.

We genuinely care about our colleagues promoting work‑life balance, wellbeing and flexible working. We believe that the skills and experience you bring to Taylor & Francis are invaluable. To find out more about our business and the great career opportunities please go to our Careers Site – better yet check out our LinkedIn Life Page highlighting our accomplishments, employees and company culture. It’s also a good way of meeting our recruitment team who will be happy to advise you on your journey here at T&F.