Head Of Talent Development

Canonical; Cape Town; Remote; ZAR 400 000 - 500 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading open-source software company is seeking a Head of Talent Development in Cape Town. The role involves defining talent development programs, embedding leadership development, and managing a team of specialists. Candidates should have a strong academic record and experience driving change within remote tech environments. This position offers an annual compensation review and a personal learning budget. Join a global team focused on pioneering innovation in software development.

Benefits

Personal learning budget

Annual bonus

Wellness platform

Opportunity to travel

Qualifications

• Experience in a remote tech company at management level.
• Strong insight into high-performing team practices.
• Ability to execute strategy and drive change.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement a talent development program.
• Develop management and leadership development programs.
• Design core training programs.
• Create leadership performance metrics.
• Manage a team of Talent Development specialists.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Data-driven decision making

Team management

Analytical thinking

Education

Exceptional academic track record

Job description

Head of Talent Development – Canonical

Canonical, a leading provider of open‑source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets, is seeking a Head of Talent Development in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.

Our platform, Ubuntu, is very widely used in breakthrough enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT.

Our customers include the world's leading public cloud and silicon providers, and industry leaders in many sectors.

The company is a pioneer of global distributed collaboration, with

• colleagues in 75 + countries and very few office‑based roles

Teams meet two to four times yearly in person, in interesting locations around the world, to align on strategy and execution.

We are building a Talent Development function that is future‑focused and driven to define the future of the workplace, within a global, growing open source software company, pioneers in remote‑first collaboration and employment.

We are now 1,+ colleagues across 75+ countries.

We would like to create a new team to focus on Talent Development – to deepen our insights and effectiveness as a remote‑first and globally distributed organisation.

We know that being effective remotely requires discipline and good habits, and we would like to invest in the research needed to understand that, the training and policymaking which enables it, and the selection mechanisms that ensure consistency of behaviours.

We’d like to understand what really makes a distributed, remote‑first workplace work.

We think we’re pretty good at this, remote‑first for almost 20 years, but we know there is a lot still to understand, and the frontier of possibility continues to move outward.

We’d like to invest in research, analytics and tooling which raises the bar even further for remote collaboration, organisation and leadership.

Most importantly though, we’d like to invest in training and multi‑directional communications to ensure that our leadership team is consistent in setting and maintaining expectations, driving desired team practice and behaviors, as well as expected management practices are effectively embedded across the company.

This role is the fourth remaining Lead role in our People function, which is a cross‑disciplinary group of organisational psychologists, engineers, statistics / analytics experts, talent science and employee relations specialists.

We are recruiting globally, and believe we are bringing in outstanding new colleagues in a way that is fearlessly global.

We are setting up the Talent Development team to lead the leaders to a position of consistent clarity on who we are, how we roll, and how that changes over time.

Location

Remote in the EMEA region.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement an inspiring and comprehensive talent development program
• Develop, drive and embed effective programs of management and leadership development within our remote organisation
• Design and deliver core training programs, partnering with specialist vendors where appropriate
• Create and implement leadership performance indicators and metrics
• Own our leadership skills matrix for performance management, talent assessment, succession planning, mentorship, virtual learning and career development
• Set up a global learning framework for training and career fulfillment
• Build and manage a new team of Talent Development specialists
• Take a data‑focused lens to understand trends to strategise and define career development frameworks
• Own and enhance the impact of the learning budget

Qualifications

• An exceptional academic track record from high school and beyond
• Possess insight and experience on what makes people successful in a globally remote tech company at the management level
• Demonstrated experience with strong insight and perspective on the key conditions and practices that create high‑performing teams
• Ability to create, lead and execute strategy, and drive change across a company
• Strong business acumen with the ability to balance strategy with execution
• Analytical and problem‑solving skills, for data‑driven decision making with particular experience in measurement of the impact of development programmes
• Experience in people management and being accountable for a budget
• Willingness to travel up to four times a year for internal events

Benefits

• We consider geographical location, experience, and performance in shaping compensation worldwide
• Annual compensation review and annual bonus or commission, with compensation revisited annually (and more often for graduates and associates)
• Personal learning and development budget of USD 2 k per year
• Distributed work environment with twice‑yearly team sprints in person
• Annual holiday leave, maternity and paternity leave
• Employee Assistance Program & Wellness Platform
• Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues
• Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long‑haul company events

About Canonical

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the publisher of Ubuntu, one of the most important open‑source projects and the platform for AI, IoT, and the cloud, we are changing the world of software.

We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company. We expect excellence; in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do. Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home since our inception.

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer. We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.

Seniority level: Executive. Employment type: Full‑time. Job function: Human Resources. Industries: Software Development.