Group Leadership Development Lead

Location: London

Who are we?

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

We are looking for a Leadership Development Lead to set and deliver Howden's global leadership development strategy: building the capabilities, behaviours and succession pipelines leaders need at every level to deliver our 2030 vision, strengthen performance today, and protect Howden's people-first culture as we scale.

What will you be doing?

1. Leadership Development Strategy

• Set the global leadership development strategy, aligned to business priorities, growth plans, culture and future capability needs.
• Define leadership expectations and capability frameworks so leaders understand what great leadership looks like at each level, from first-time people leaders through to enterprise leadership.
• Ground the strategy in the H Behaviours and connect it explicitly to Howden's wider Learning & Skills Strategy so leadership development is one part of a joined-up capability pathway, not a standalone programme agenda.

2. Flagship Leadership Programmes & the Wider Learning Ecosystem

• Design and deliver leadership development programmes for emerging, mid-level, senior and executive leaders across regions and business units, including the core/flagship programmes (eg: H Leaders).
• Build the wider 'in-the-moment' ecosystem – nudges, toolkits, peer pods, communities of practice and development bursts – so that learning becomes habit in the flow of work, not just a classroom event.
• Create scalable global learning experiences while allowing for regional and cultural adaptation.

3. Coaching, Team effectiveness, leadership capability for key Howden initiatives

• Develop and implement a coaching strategy in order to further develop and amplify leadership capability and growth; cost-effectively and at scale.
• Develop and implement a Howden approach to team effectiveness in order to align work in this area, eventually building internal capability to support team effectiveness interventions.
• Provide support as needed to other key initiatives from a leadership capability perspective, eg: building feedback capability to support performance enablement.

4. Succession & Talent Pipelines

• Build succession and talent pipelines by identifying critical roles, high-potential talent and readiness gaps, in partnership with the Talent & Succession Lead.
• Coach and advise senior leaders on leadership capability, team effectiveness, succession planning and development priorities.
• Partner with TA, Talent and Succession lead to implement executive assessment to support talent recruitment, onboarding, assessment and development.

5. Future-Ready & AI-Fluent Leadership

• Embed inclusive and future-ready leadership behaviours, including leading through complexity, change, digital transformation, AI and diverse global teams.
• Thread AI fluency through every level of the leadership pathway as a leadership capability, not a technology add-on, so leaders know when AI should augment judgement and when human judgement must lead.

6. Stakeholder Partnership & Delivery

• Partner with senior stakeholders to understand business needs, ensuring leadership development is relevant, practical and commercially focused.
• Manage external partners and internal faculty, including coaches, facilitators, business leaders and learning providers.

7. Governance, Budget & Quality

• Oversee budgets, resources, governance and programme quality so leadership investments deliver value.
• Own the leadership architecture, core models and quality standards centrally, while enabling divisions to own local delivery, adoption and contextualisation – recognising that some leaders sit within Howden's senior manager function and that learning reflects relevant non-financial misconduct requirements.

8. Insights, Measurement & Continuous Improvement

• Measure impact and effectiveness through leadership outcomes, participant feedback, behavioural change, business metrics and talent movement, using the four-level Learning & Skills evaluation framework (engagement, capability build, application, outcomes).
• Stay current on leadership trends and research, bringing innovative thinking and evidence-based practice into the organisation.

What we are looking for.

• Extensive experience designing and delivering leadership development at scale in a global, matrixed organisation, ideally spanning people leadership through to executive/enterprise leadership.
• A strong track record building capability frameworks and flagship leadership programmes, and translating them into practical, in-the-flow-of-work learning rather than one-off classroom events.
• Experience building succession and talent pipelines and working in close partnership with talent and succession specialists.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and coaching skills, with credibility advising senior and executive leaders.
• Able to combine strong attention to detail with a strategic, high-level view; working at pace, staying agile and remaining resilient through rapid organisational change.
• Experience managing, motivating and developing a small team.
• Experience selecting and managing external partners and internal faculty (coaches, facilitators, learning providers) and the budgets that go with them.
• Understanding of learning evaluation frameworks and talent analytics, with the discipline to measure behaviour change and business outcomes, not just attendance.
• Familiarity with Workday or a similar HRIS/learning platform, and a practical view of where technology (including AI) supports, rather than replaces, leadership judgement.
• A genuine commitment to inclusive leadership and psychological safety as core leadership capabilities, not bolt-on training.
• Change leadership expertise, including communication planning and adoption strategies, to land new models and programmes across divisions with different starting points.

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

• We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond

Reasonable adjustments

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.

Permanent