Overview
Leadership Development Manager – London, Greater London
Everyone is welcome at M&S. No exceptions. It’s your background, abilities and differences that make you, uniquely you. And when you’re part of M&S, that individuality has the potential to make waves.
All the details
Summary
M&S is changing – fast. We’re blending the best of our iconic heritage with a bold vision for the future. Built on trust, quality, and doing the right thing, we’re transforming how we serve our customers, support our colleagues, and shape a sustainable future.
As we continue to modernise, we know that exceptional leadership will shape what comes next. That’s where you come in.
We’re looking for a strategic and relationship-driven Leadership Development Manager to lead the design, delivery, and evolution of our flagship leadership and high-potential talent programmes. This is a critical role in building a strong pipeline of future-ready leaders across our business, reporting directly into the Head of Learning & Leadership Development.
To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.
What you’ll do
Your key accountabilities will include
- Design, Deliver & Evolve Programmes: Lead the creation and continuous improvement of high-potential and leadership development programmes, including vendor selection, delivery, evaluation, and alignment with business priorities.
- Strategic Partnering & Succession Planning: Act as a trusted advisor to the Head of Learning & Leadership Development, aligning leadership development with talent strategy and succession planning to future-proof the organisation.
- Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration: Build strong relationships with senior leaders, HR teams, and external partners to co-create impactful development solutions and ensure programme alignment across the business.
- Innovation & Supplier Management: Integrate the latest thinking in leadership, learning science, and experiential development into programmes, while managing internal and external faculty to ensure high-quality, forward-thinking delivery.
- Measure Impact & Accelerate Readiness: Use data and feedback to evaluate programme effectiveness, drive continuous improvement, and accelerate the readiness of future leaders through targeted development.
Who you are
Your skills and experience will include:
- Leadership Development Expertise: Proven experience in designing and delivering impactful leadership and high-potential programmes within complex, fast-paced organisations, with a strategic mindset and strong execution skills.
- Insight & Innovation: Deep understanding of leadership trends, learning science, and the future of work, with the ability to integrate cutting-edge thinking into development solutions.
- Influence & Collaboration: Strong relationship-building skills with the ability to inspire and influence stakeholders at all levels, both internally and externally.
- Tools & Techniques: Skilled in leadership assessments, coaching frameworks, and development tools, with advanced IT proficiency (Excel, Forms, PowerPoint); coaching certifications and familiarity with tools like MBTI, Hogan, DISC are a plus.
- Commercial & Analytical Acumen: Curious, courageous, and commercially minded, with a strong analytical approach to measuring programme effectiveness and driving continuous improvement.
What’s in it for you
Being a part of M&S is exactly that – playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day. We’re an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value, service to every customer, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us.
Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special…
- After completing your probationary period, you’ll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third-party brands for you and a member of your household.
- Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
- Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on how you achieve your personal objectives and our performance as a business.
- A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
- A dedicated welcome to our teams with a tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes to develop your skills.
- Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal to maximise your financial and personal wellbeing.
- Industry-leading parental, adoption and neonatal policies, providing support and flexibility for your family.
- Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support for all colleagues including access to our 24/7 Virtual GP and PAM Assist to support you and your family.
- A charity volunteer day to support a charity or cause you’re passionate about through a dedicated day away from work.
Everyone’s welcome
We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.
We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.
If you feel you’d benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.
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