Associate Director - Talent

Job Description

Aldar Education is currently seeking an outstanding Associate Director – Talent.

The Associate Director – Talent is a strategic leadership role responsible for defining, driving and continuously enhancing Aldar

Education's talent agenda across Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, Leadership Development, Succession Planning

and Talent Technology. Reporting directly to the Chief People Officer, the role acts as a trusted advisor to the HQ Leadership

Team, Principals and School Senior Leaders.

The role is accountable for ensuring Aldar Education attracts, develops and retains high-performing talent through innovative

talent strategies, data-driven decision-making, exceptional stakeholder partnership and best-in-class talent systems. The

Associate Director – Talent leads the implementation and optimization of Talent technologies, including the Applicant Tracking

System (ATS), Learning Management System (LMS) and Performance Enablement platforms, ensuring an outstanding

employee and candidate experience.

Starting with one school and 250 students in 2007, Aldar Education has grown into a highly sought after education provider, now supporting over 38,000 students in 28 schools and a growing network of almost 5000 educators, with over 100 nationalities, offering a wide range of curricula and ancillary services such as a Teacher Training Academy.

Working collaboratively, our education network’s purpose is to empower the next generation to shape our future, directly supporting the educational goals of Abu Dhabi’s government. Today, Aldar Education’s efforts are guided by the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 plan, which aims to build a sustainable knowledge-based economy through premium education.

Responsibilities

Main Duties

• Responsible for developing and executing a multi-year Talent Strategy aligned to
• Aldar Education's growth plans, organizational priorities and workforce requirements
• Develop and execute an effective leadership assessment process for talent selection of
• Executive, Senior Management, and Management positions.
• Provide regular Talent insights and recommendations to the Executive Leadership Team and stakeholders where required.
• Lead and manage a highly skilled team of talent acquisition and development professionals, providing guidance and mentorship.
• Monitoring and reporting on staff turnover rates and analyse/address with P&C team areas and potential for employee retention.
• Establish and manage succession planning processes to support the organization having a pipeline of leadership-ready talent.
  
  
  

Specific Duties

• Collaborate with the People & Culture Team and other key stakeholders on all talent
• related matters.
• Lead recruitment efforts for executive-level positions.
• Own the end-to-end recruitment strategy and governance framework for both School and
• Corporate functions.
• Benchmark talent practices against leading education and service-sector organizations to ensure continuous improvement.
• Lead the continuous enhancement and optimization of the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Careers Platform to improve efficiency, candidate experience, compliance and reporting capabilities.
• Lead the implementation and continuous enhancement of Aldar Education's flagship talent pipeline programs, including Graduate Teacher Programs, National Development
• Programs and leadership pathways.
• Drive the adoption of automation, AI-enabled recruitment tools and recruitment analytics to improve quality of hire, reduce time-to-fill and enhance recruitment effectiveness.
• Establish recruitment governance, service levels and recruitment performance metrics across HQ and Schools.
• Oversee all psychometric assessment tools, systems and processes related to talent.
• Represent People & Culture in strategic business initiatives, school integrations, acquisitions and organizational transformation projects.
• Be involved in growth initiatives and manpower planning for new schools.
• Provides support and guidance on org related decisions when required.
• Build and manage relationships with recruitment agencies, universities, and other external partners to enhance the talent pipeline for HQ and school roles.
• Oversees the recruitment progress of school-based roles and drives/guides where required.
• Drive the high-volume recruitment for new schools in line with set timelines.
• Drive company’s National agenda and emiratisation in line with government or Group targets and support creation of program to attract, develop and retain nationals.
• Review and enhance the onboarding process for all new hires including orientation and training of new hires.
• Utilize HR analytics to measure the effectiveness of talent initiatives and recruitment efforts.
• Collaborate with the executive team to align talent strategies with overall business objectives.
• Set up the HQ Talent budgets and support schools during the budget process in relation to
• Recruitment & mobilization related spend areas.
• Be data driven and evaluate the effectiveness of spend areas and talent strategies with data analysis and effectively communicating results and findings back to leadership.
• Oversee employer branding initiatives to promote the company as an employer of choice
• Lead the strategical Talent related section during any school integration process.
• Responsible for driving creation of inspiring (Non) Teaching graduate and internship programs.
• Lead the design, implementation and continuous enhancement of Aldar Education's
• Learning Management System (LMS) and learning ecosystem for Non Academics.
• Oversea process to identify skill gaps and create learning paths to address development needs.
• Lead Leadership Assessments such as 360 in line with direction from CEO/CPO and ensure its follow up through coaching sessions, development plan establishment and KPI set up.
• Be actively involved in the development and achievement of the P&C Scorecard and CEO
• People Index scorecard KPIs.
• Lead scalable talent management initiatives, from conception and design through project planning, implementation, documentation, measurement and continuous improvement.
• Manage multiple projects simultaneously, working both collaboratively and independently to balance and successfully execute on project objectives and related tasks with internal and external resources as necessary.
• Create and enhance policies and processes on all talent management and development functions, in consultation with the Chief People Officer.
• Provide excellent coaching, consultation, and facilitation skills to quickly establish and build effective communication channels.
• Create and maintain an environment of equal employment opportunity, diversity and competitive advantage in support of the company's diversity and inclusion strategic plan.
• Ensure that organization-wide talent management initiatives are focused and aligned on improving operational and program efficiencies and effectiveness.
• Any other duties as reasonably expected.
  
  
  

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in HR or related field or minimum of a HR module within a non-HR degree
• Recognized HR Qualification and/or professional subscription (eg CIPD Level 5 or equivalent SHRM level) desirable
  
  
  

Minimum Experience

• Minimum 10 years progressive HR/Talent experience with at least 5 years in a senior Talent leadership role
• Demonstrated experience leading both Talent Acquisition and Learning & Development
• functions.
• Experience implementing and optimizing HR technology platforms, including ATS, LMS and Talent Management systems.
• Experience partnering with Executive Leadership Teams and leading large-scale organizational transformation initiatives.
• Management experience within P&C including leading and coaching non-direct reports and senior colleagues through talent programs.
• Education industry experience is highly preferred otherwise experience within hospitality, healthcare or other service-intensive sectors essential.
  
  
  

Job Specific Knowledge & Skills

• Strong presentation and executive communication skills.
• Strong business acumen including Budget ownership and financial planning.
• Strong organisational and project management skills to meet multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Good Executive stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Experience in HR technology transformation and digital enablement.
• Good skills in Talent analytics and data storytelling.
• Very Good MS Office skills.
• Ability to roll up sleeves and get things done through taking calculated risks and experimenting with new solutions.
• Strong analytics and problem-solving skills
• Successful track record in helping build, implement, and sustain key talent management initiatives.
• Establish trust by maintaining a high level of credibility, integrity, confidentiality, and skilled communications with all levels of employees.
• Work in a highly collaborative and effective manner, both independently and in crossfunctional teams.
• Proficiency in HR technologies and data-driven decision-making.
• Must have outstanding organisational and analytic skills to drive implementation of initiatives and evaluate and report on results.
• Possess flexibility and has a history of delivering results in a changing and highly ambiguous work environment.
• Serve as backup to other teammates. Assist with their workload or even substitute for them as appropriate.
  
  
  

What We Offer

Aldar Education offers an attractive remuneration package including medical & life insurance, flights, and education benefits. Our employees have access to a wide network of professionals and opportunities to lead and contribute to training others as well as developing themselves.

Aldar Education is keen to hear from like-minded, forward-thinking leaders who would welcome the challenges and opportunities that we have to offer.

This job description is not all-inclusive. Aldar Education reserves the right to amend this job description at any time. We are an equal opportunity employer, committed to a diverse and inclusive work environment. We are also mindful of our national development strategy and encourage UAE Nationals to join our company.

Aldar Education is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share this commitment. Offers of appointment are subject to satisfactory references and police clearance.

---