Job Summary
- We are looking for a dynamic and forward-thinking professional to lead the Early Careers Programme agenda for our bank globally. The Global Head of Early Careers Programs & Development Pathways is accountable for architecting and owning the end-to-end global Early Careers development and talent journey, spanning pre-joining through the first two years in role.
- This role is responsible for setting the strategic direction and delivery, ensuring end-to-end execution of early careers program managementaligned to workforce planning, business needs, and future skills development.
- The role designs integrated, skills-aligned pathways across all Early Careers segments including graduates, interns, apprentices, spring insights, and local programs ensuring seamless connection between hiring, development, critical experiences, and transition into the broader workforce, in partnership with business, people capability and talent team.
- This is a global leadership role to ensure EC programmes reflect the latest in adult development, DEI principles, and digital-first experiences. Monitor market trends and bring innovative ideas to the table, to continuous reshape the programme and development, skill development experience to ensure it meets business needs by building toolkits, playbooks, and resources to support local implementation where needed.
- The objective is to build future-ready, job-ready talent pipelines aligned to enterprise skills frameworks, workforce strategy, and long-term business capability needs, delivering measurable return on investment for the organisation. The role combines strategic ownership, programmatic delivery, and deep stakeholder engagement across business leaders, HR Business Partners, development academies and Careers & Capability teams globally.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy
- Define and drive the Early Careers (EC) Programme strategy and execution plan ensuring alignment with the bank's skills agenda, broader workforce strategy and enterprise talent goals.
- Own and govern the full global Early Careers program experience from pre-joining through post-program transition, ensuring all elements form a connected and coherent development & talent journey rather than isolated programs. This includes linking skills-based assessment and hiring to development pathways, designing structured development journeys across the first two years, embedding critical experiences and exposure opportunities and enabling seamless transition into permanent roles and broader workforce pathways with a strong focus on readiness, productivity, and long-term talent outcomes.
- Strategically define and own global Early Careers development pathway frameworks aligned to future skills, role readiness, and business capability needs including design integrated development journeys across cohorts (Year 02), translate enterprise skills frameworks into structured development pathways, ensure global consistency with appropriate market localization, govern quality, outcomes, and continuous evolution of pathway. Delivery is executed in partnership with People Capability and development academies, while this role retains ownership of design, outcomes, and strategic alignment.
- Act as the global program architect working in close partnership with Business leaders across segments and geographies to define capability needs and real-world development experiences, People Capability teams for development execution and infrastructure, Talent Management teams to align pathways with enterprise progression, succession, and workforce planning and Campus Engagement leads to connect skills built on campus with skills developed through Early Careers journeys to deliver an integrated, skills-driven early talent ecosystem.
- Ensure Early Careers programs function as a strategic feeder into the broader workforce and future leadership pipelines by Aligning journeys to enterprise skills priorities and future workforce needs, enabling strong role transitions at program completion & candidate experience, Tracking readiness, performance, progression, and retention outcomes, demonstrating measurable return on investment across global cohorts.
- Hands-on delivery & oversight of EC Programmes, not limited to the Graduate Programme, the Internship Programme, Apprenticeship, Spring Programme etc with onboarding and induction
- Stay ahead of market trends and elevate the EC programme proposition through innovation and best practices. Develop new programmes to meet the needs of the business.
- Develop hiring manager / business support and training
- Embed and optimize the new RPO model to enhance productivity and effectiveness, ensuring alignment with global and regional goals, with a focus on creating streamlined ways of working that maximize ROI.
- Collaborate with global early careers team and global HR teams to align on consistent frameworks, value propositions, and governance models
Business
- Responsible for continual engagement with relevant senior stakeholders and building a deep, strategic collaboration with business leaders, Talent and People Capability functions, Lateral Recruitment, development academies, Diversity and Inclusion teams, and country HR teams to align early careers strategies
- Build a deep understanding of business priorities and align the early careers program to meet long-term business needs, focusing on creating a structured, programmatic approach that supports workforce evolution and organizational strategy.
- Actively engage with business leaders to understand early careers requirements and integrate feeder roles into the talent strategy, ensuring programmes stay relevant to the talent development agenda
- Represent in global early careers forums, sharing insights and shaping strategy.
- Part of global EC leadership team.
Processes
- Design, deliver and govern high-impact developmental experiences embedded consistently within Early Careers journeys, including mentoring and coaching frameworks, leadership exposure and business networking, Global programs and cross-location opportunities, Integration with internal and external development academies ensuring experiential development accelerates growth, engagement, and enterprise readiness.
- Define and track success metrics, including reduced attrition, increased performance, high engagement, and accelerated career progression, ensuring alignment with business objectives.
- Oversee structured programmatic journeys, including induction, assignments, development programs, and performance tracking, in partnership with People Capability, Talent team and business.
- Accountable for EC programme content at events and training output
People & Talent
Act As The Primary Interface Across Key Stakeholder Groups
- EC team and People Capability
- HR Business Partners across all business functions
- Business stakeholders and academies
- Bring expertise on how early careers talent can drive long-term workforce transformation and capability building.
- Fostering an inclusive and high-performing culture that reflects the bank's values and vision for early careers talent. Set appropriate tone and expectations from the team and work in collaboration with risk and control partners.
Risk Management
- Ensure effective first line identification, management, monitoring and reporting of risks is undertaken in line with the Enterprise Risk Management Framework (ERMF) in a way that is consistent with the authority and responsibilities of the role
- Effective management of operational risks and compliance with all applicable internal policies, external laws and regulation
Governance
- Awareness and understanding of the regulatory framework, in which the group operates, and the regulatory requirements and expectations relevant to the role
- Assess the effectiveness of the team's governance, oversight and controls and, if necessary, propose/implement changes in these areas
- Use data and reporting to track success measures and impact of early careers programmes ensuring appropriate oversight of strategic and operational effectiveness metrics that are used to ensure a high performing culture and vision for early careers talent.
- Engage with relevant audit report findings and ensure feedback is acted upon
- Ensure that all approved HR investments and capital / project expenditure are managed within the agreed enterprise project management standards
Regulatory & Business Conduct
- Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group's Values and Code of Conduct.
- Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and the Group Code of Conduct.
- Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.
Key stakeholders
- Early Careers programme sponsors and business leaders
- Colleagues participating in Early Careers recruitment, programmes and in talent pools
- Global and Country HRBPs
- Partners in HR Centre of Expertise
- Risk / compliance and control partners
- Third party strategic partners (such as training vendors where applicable)
Other Responsibilities
- Embed Here for good and Group's brand and values in; Perform other responsibilities assigned under Group, Country, Business or Functional policies and procedures
Skills And Experience
- Development pathway architecture and curriculum design
- Skills framework mapping and capability progression modelling
- End-to-end development journey design and integration
- Business capability translation into development outcomes
- Experiential development and applied development design
Qualifications
Training
- Proven experience in programme or curriculum design, ideally in Early Careers or Development & Development in the global market.
- Training & Development
- Familiarity with digital development tools, platforms, and content creation is a plus.
- Program management
About Standard Chartered
We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.
Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.
Together We
- Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
- Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
- Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term
What We Offer
In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.
- Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
- Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
- Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
- Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
- A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
- Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.
