Talent and Performance Lead

Contract type: Permanent

Location: Hatfield (Hybrid working – 3 days in the office)

Working hours per week: 40 hours

Level: Lead

Application closing date: Wednesday 27th August

About Us

Our mission is to deliver joy in every shop, through unbeatable choice, unrivalled service and reassuringly good value.

We’re Ocado Retail, a market-leading, joint venture between Ocado Group and M&S and the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket ocado.com. Not only is Ocado.com the only place to shop a full range of M&S food online, it’s also the home to the widest online supermarket range in the UK and champion of small, independent brands. We’re also the brains behind Zoom by Ocado, our same-day grocery delivery service.

About The Team And The Role

We are looking for a dynamic and strategic Talent & Performance Lead to join our People team. Your mission is to cultivate high-performing teams through building world class retail and ecommerce skills, developing our leaders and nurturing our high potential people.

This is a critical role that will shape the capabilities of our people and leaders, directly impacting our ability to innovate and scale. You will be dedicated to promoting a culture of ongoing learning, accessibility, inclusion, and leadership excellence, ensuring our talent practices are fit for a creative, technology-driven environment.

What you will do:

You will be responsible for driving our talent and performance agenda through three core pillars:

• Specialist Skill Building & Capability Frameworks:
  
  

Partner with business leaders to conduct learning needs analyses, identifying the critical technical and functional skills required for future success.

Design and implement innovative and blended learning solutions (digital learning, workshops, on-the-job frameworks) to close key skill gaps.

Establish clear metrics and employ data and analytics to continuously evaluate the efficacy of all development initiatives.

• Leadership Development:
  
  

Own and evolve our leadership development framework, ensuring it equips leaders at all levels—from emerging leaders to Director —with the skills to lead effectively.

Manage the end-to-end facilitation and programme delivery of our leadership development programmes

Integrate coaching and mentoring into our leadership culture, acting as a trusted coach for leaders and teams.

Ensure all leadership initiatives are aligned with Ocado's values and drive the desired behaviours for a high-performance culture.

• Talent Acceleration & Performance Culture:
  
  

Design and lead targeted interventions to accelerate the development of our high-potential and high-performing talent, ensuring a robust leadership pipeline.

Create bespoke development journeys for identified talent, utilising a blend of stretch assignments, mentoring, specialised coaching, and exposure to critical business challenges.

Evolve our objective setting and performance frameworks to not only drive accountability but to foster a culture of continuous growth, coaching, and forward-looking development conversations.

Measure the impact and ROI of talent interventions, tracking the career progression and performance uplift of program participants to continuously refine our approach.

Who you are:

We are looking for someone with a unique blend of strategic thinking, creativity, and a relentless drive for execution. You will have:

• Deep Talent & Performance Expertise: A thorough knowledge of performance and talent management, with proven experience in a similar role. You have a track record in L&D, Organisational Development, or Talent Management.
• Strategic & Data-Driven: You use data and analytics to influence decisions and connect talent initiatives directly to business outcomes.
• Expertise in Leadership Development: You have demonstrable experience in leadership and executive development, with a passion for building strong leaders.
• Exceptional Programme Management: You are highly organised, adept at managing multiple complex projects simultaneously, and can deliver high-quality work at pace.
• A Start-up Mentality: You are proactive, hands-on, and resourceful. You thrive in a dynamic environment, are comfortable with ambiguity, and have a bias for action and experimentation.
• Future-Focused Curiosity: You have a genuine passion for emerging trends, particularly the application of AI in learning, performance, and skill development.
• Inclusive by Design: You have a dedication to promoting a culture of accessibility and inclusion, ensuring all programmes and frameworks are equitable and accessible for all.
  
  

What’s In It For You

By joining Ocado Retail you’ll have the chance to experience life at the world’s largest online retailer, work with an amazing bunch of people who challenge what’s possible each day, and grow your skills and career in online retail.

If that’s not enough to tempt you, you’ll also get access to loads of great benefits to sweeten the deal. Here’s a taste of what we offer:

Health & Wellbeing: Private medical insurance with the option to add your family, Digital GP appointments, market-leading family policies, mental health support, discounted gym memberships, dental insurance, and more.

Spend & Save: Annual bonus scheme split between personal and business objectives, recognition with reward platform, up to 7% matched pension contributions, 15% Ocado discount, 20% M&S discount, free breakfast every day in the office, electric vehicle leasing scheme and free shuttle bus from Hatfield station to the office.

Never miss the moments that matter: Blended/Hybrid working, 26 days holiday plus 8 flexible bank holidays, options to buy an extra holiday, 2 weeks work from anywhere, and lifestyle break opportunities.

Our Hiring Process

Lucky for us, we get loads of great applications and we really appreciate that so many people put the time and effort in to apply. To recognise that, we treat all applications respectfully and fairly. So, if yours stands out, you’ll follow our standard hiring process – one of our Talent Partners will talk you through this in an initial call.

Everyone’s welcome

We’re an equal opportunities employer. That means that we make sure all potential colleagues are treated fairly and equally. If you require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know on the application form.