Talent Assessment & Skills Manager

Primark; Reading; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare

Pension

Bonus

27 days leave

Tax Saver Tickets

Fitness centre

Cafeteria subsidy

Job summary

Primark is seeking a senior talent assessment professional to design and deliver high-potential assessment programmes across leadership levels. You’ll shape robust methods, partner with vendors, and implement innovative platforms to streamline processes.

You’ll bring expertise in occupational psychology and global skills frameworks, collaborating with Technology and HR teams to embed data into career paths and workforce planning.

Qualifications

• Significant expertise in occupational psychology and leadership assessment.
• Experience developing global skills frameworks and using data for mobility.
• Proven ability to implement innovative assessment solutions in large organisations.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development and delivery of senior talent assessment projects.
• Select and validate psychometric tools; ensure reliability and fairness.
• Collaborate with vendors and internal teams to embed assessments in development programs.
• Provide data-driven insights to inform talent decisions and workforce planning.
• Maintain compliance with legal and regulatory requirements in assessment.

Skills

Occupational psychology

Senior leadership assessment

Skills framework

Education

Degree in psychology, occupational psychology, HR, or related field

Tools

HR technology platforms

Talent marketplaces

AI-enabled tools

Job description

Because you can see how we can be better. Innovate, your way.

Talent at Primark

What’s a career at Primark all about? The positive impact you’re making, the experiences you’re having and the people you’re with. You’re our inspiration. Embrace what sets you apart, own your career and develop in ways you never expected. Leave your mark. And do it your way.

What You’ll Get:

• Lifestyle at Primark: Healthcare, pension, and potential bonus.
• 27 days of leave, plus bank holidays and if you want, you can buy 5 more.
• Because Primark is all about tailoring to you, we offer Tax Saver Tickets, fitness centre, and a subsidised cafeteria.

What You’ll Do:

In your role, you’ll collaborate with different people across a range of skillsets. Here’s a flavour of your day-to-day:

Talent Assessment

• Lead the design, development, and delivery of key assessment projects – including implementing robust methods to identify high-potential colleagues at senior leadership levels, including quality feedback.
• Lead the selection, implementation, and ongoing validation of psychometric and skills-based assessment tools, ensuring high standards of reliability, validity, fairness, and inclusivity.
• Partner closely with key external vendors, evaluating their offerings and shaping impactful assessment solutions for use in selection and as part of development programmes.
• Implement innovative platforms and tools to streamline senior talent assessment processes.
• Work closely with stakeholders to understand business needs, tailor assessments to specific business requirements, create buy-in and collaboration to deliver results together
• Provide analysis of group data trends to inform talent decisions; partnering with the Leadership & Change team on development initiatives grounded in insights.
• Maintain compliance with legal, ethical and regulatory requirements related to talent assessment and management.

Skills

• Define, build, and maintain a robust skills ontology/framework, including skill definitions, proficiency levels, and links to roles and learning.
• Establish and maintain skills governance, including clear principles, decision rights, and update cycles for skills data.
• Partner closely with key external vendors, evaluating their offerings and shaping their use as part of our broader skills strategy.
• Provide the latest thinking on skills-based organisations as well as insights into labour market trends and emerging skills.
• Partner with internal teams, including Technology, to embed skills data into job architecture, colleague profiles, learning pathways, and career frameworks.
• Provide guidance and leverage skills data to support workforce planning, internal mobility and personalised development.
• Build internal buy-in and capability through guidance, training, and clear business cases for skills-based talent decisions and colleague experiences.

Develop and embed a robust skills framework by defining and maintaining skills ontology, governance, and data integration across systems, while enabling workforce planning, internal mobility, personalised development, and building organisational capability through training and advocacy.

What You’ll Bring:

• Significant expertise in occupational psychology, senior leadership assessment, and skills focused roles.
• Degree in psychology, occupational psychology, HR, or a related field.
• Expertise in developing and deploying global skills frameworks/ontologies, and utilising skills data for learning, careers, mobility and workforce planning.
• Track record of landing innovative assessment solutions into complex, matrixed organisations.
• Proven ability to manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously with sound judgment skills.
• Experience working with HR technology platforms, talent marketplaces, or skills intelligence tools; comfortable working with AI-enabled tools and platforms, with a critical understanding of strengths, limitations, and governance requirements.
• Highly adaptable, curious, and comfortable operating in evolving and ambiguous environments.
• Amazing people partner who can influence and collaborate effectively across multiple levels of leadership.
• Passion for coaching and developing people.

Ready? Good - because we can’t wait to see what you can offer. You’ll be joining a team of innovative and experienced people where you’ll truly belong, collaborating on projects that will shape the future of our industry. Apply to be part of our future and we’ll support you in developing yours.

About Primark

At Primark, people matter. They’re the beating heart of our business and the reason we’ve grown from our first store in Dublin in 1969 to a £9bn+ turnover business a over 80,000 colleagues and over 440 stores in 17 countries today. Our values run through everything we do. In essence, we’re Caring and always strive to put people first. We’re also Dynamic, bravely pushing the boundaries to stay ahead. And finally, we succeed Together.