Talent Development & Career Pathways Manager

United Infrastructure Ltd; Manchester; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

United Infrastructure Ltd is seeking an experienced Talent Development/Organisational Development professional to build career pathways, succession plans and skills frameworks across the organisation. You'll work with our People Business Partners and in-house training provider to ensure development activity is well-directed, aligned to business needs and clearly connected to progression.

This role focuses on shaping how people grow, turning concepts into practical tools and measurable actions

Qualifications

• Experience in talent development, organisational development or L&D.
• Proven ability to design career frameworks, skills frameworks or succession plans.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing skills.
• Analytical mindset with ability to work with data.
• Excellent communication and collaboration across functions.

Responsibilities

• Design clear career pathways across key job families.
• Develop and implement succession plans for critical roles.
• Create and maintain skills and capability frameworks.
• Partner with Learning & Development to align programmes with needs.
• Collaborate with People Partners and leaders to improve processes.

Skills

Talent development

Organisational development

L&D

Career frameworks

Succession planning

Stakeholder management

Data analysis

Communication skills

Collaboration

Job description

The Opportunity

United Infrastructure is a growing organisation with a broad and diverse workforce, operating across multiple pillars and disciplines. As we continue to evolve, we have a real opportunity to strengthen how our people develop, progress and build their careers with us.

We are looking for an experienced Talent Development / Organisational Development professional to help build and embed clear career pathways, succession planning and skills frameworks across the organisation.

This is a role for someone who enjoys designing frameworks, joining the dots and making development practical and impactful. You’ll work closely with our People Business Partners and in-house training provider to ensure development activity is well-directed, aligned to business needs and clearly connected to progression.

What You'll Be Doing

Career Pathways & Progression

• Design clear and accessible career pathways across key job families.
• Define progression criteria and development expectations at each level.
• Support managers and employees in understanding how roles, skills and progression fit together.
• Create practical tools and guidance to help embed career pathways across the organisation.

Succession Planning

• Coordinate and maintain data-driven succession planning for critical roles.
• Work with leaders to identify talent, development needs and future capability gaps.
• Ensure succession planning translates into meaningful development actions.
• Help build a stronger internal pipeline for key roles across the business.

Skills & Capability Frameworks

• Develop skills frameworks outlining the technical and behavioural capabilities required at different levels.
• Ensure frameworks are practical, easy to use and aligned to job architecture.
• Use skills data to identify development priorities and inform workforce planning.
• Continually review and evolve frameworks as the organisation grows.

Learning & Development

• Partner with our in-house training provider to align learning programmes with career pathways and skills frameworks.
• Translate business and capability needs into clear development requirements.
• Help ensure learning activity supports genuine career progression.
• Evaluate learning effectiveness through feedback, uptake and impact — not simply attendance.

Collaboration & Continuous Improvement

• Work closely with People Business Partners, HR, Talent and business leaders.
• Build strong relationships across a diverse range of functions and disciplines.
• Support a consistent, fair and transparent approach to career development.
• Continuously improve our talent and development processes as the organisation evolves.

About You

You'll likely have experience in talent development, organisational development, L&D, people development or organisational capability, with practical experience designing or maintaining career, skills or capability frameworks.

We're looking for someone who can take concepts and turn them into simple, practical frameworks that managers and employees will actually use.

You'll ideally have:

• Experience in talent development, L&D, organisational development or organisational capability.
• Practical experience designing or maintaining career frameworks, skills frameworks or succession plans.
• An understanding of how learning, progression, skills and workforce planning fit together.
• Experience working with senior stakeholders and influencing without relying on formal authority.
• Strong analytical and organisational skills, with the ability to work with people data.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to make complex concepts simple and accessible.
• A collaborative, pragmatic and commercially minded approach.
• The confidence to challenge existing thinking and continuously improve how things are done.

Why Join United Infrastructure?

This is an opportunity to join a growing organisation at an important stage of its development and play a key role in shaping how our people build careers within the business.

You won't simply be maintaining an existing L&D programme. You'll have the opportunity to design the frameworks, influence the approach and build something that has a lasting impact across United Infrastructure.

If you're passionate about helping people understand where they can go, what they need to get there and how the organisation can develop the capability it needs for the future, we'd love to hear from you.