Head of Talent Development

Head of Talent Development At Verda, we're building a fully featured European AI cloud - with everything needed to train, experiment with, and deploy AI models at scale. We are a full-stack AI infrastructure company, meaning we design, operate, and optimize the compute powering modern AI workloads across training and inference. Our infrastructure runs on 100% renewable energy, helping build a more sustainable AI ecosystem. Join Verda while it's still being built - not once it's finished. About the role We're looking for a Head of Talent Development to build the strategy and systems that help our people and leaders grow at that pace. This is a build role, not a maintain role. You'll design talent development from close to a blank page: the frameworks, programs, and rhythms that strengthen performance, leadership, career growth, and organizational effectiveness across a company heading from ~150 to multiple times that. It's equally strategic and hands-on, you'll set the direction and you'll ship the work. You'll partner directly with leaders across the business to make sure our people have the skills, support, and opportunities to do the best work of their careers, in an environment where the technology and the demands are moving faster than any playbook. Your responsibilities You'll own Verda's talent development strategy end to end: building scalable, lightweight frameworks that support growth without adding bureaucracy. In a company that values speed and ownership, your programs have to strengthen performance, not slow it down. You'll design performance management that fits how modern teams actually work: continuous feedback over annual rituals, clear goals, and honest conversations. You'll coach managers and leaders to run better performance discussions, set sharper goals, and plan talent well. You'll partner with leaders to spot capability gaps early and close them: leadership and manager development, onboarding that gets people productive fast, mentoring, and targeted learning for where the business is going, not just where it is. You'll treat development as a product, instrumented with people data, engagement signals, and business feedback and iterate on what works. As Verda scales, you will help build succession planning, talent review, and workforce development processes that strengthen our long-term talent pipeline. You'll also be a builder in how you work: using AI to design, personalize, and scale learning and development in ways that weren't possible a year ago, and helping the whole company build the capabilities to thrive in an AI-first environment. Your key competencies A track record of building and scaling talent development, L&D, or org development, ideally in fast-growing or high-performance organizations. We care more about what you've built and the judgment you've shown than a specific number of years. Genuine depth in performance management, career development, leadership development, and organizational effectiveness, enough to design from first principles, not just adapt someone else's model. Experience partnering with senior leaders and managers as a credible thought partner who can influence without authority. The ability to translate ambiguous business needs into practical, scalable solutions and to ship them quickly and improve them over time. Strong facilitation across workshops, manager training, and leadership programs. Sharp project management: multiple initiatives, competing priorities, real ownership of outcomes. A data-driven mindset. comfortable using people insights and metrics to decide what to build and what to kill. Excellent communication and stakeholder skills, with the maturity to give direct feedback and hold a high bar. Fluency with AI tools and a real curiosity about how they change learning, development, and how people work. You use them yourself and you're eager to push what's possible. Nice to have Experience in a technology, cloud, AI, or scale-up environment Experience building talent development frameworks from scratch Experience with talent reviews, succession planning, and workforce planning Familiarity with modern learning technologies and digital learning platforms Experience leveraging AI tools to enhance learning, development, or organizational effectiveness Practicalities Location: Helsinki or London Hybrid mode: 3-4 days per week in the office Employment type: Full-time and permanent What's next We're building fast and this role needs the right person behind it. There's no artificial deadline, but when we find who we're looking for, we move. If this sounds like your next move, apply now. Please submit your application through our Careers page. We don't accept applications sent by email. Department Human Resources Locations Helsinki, London Remote status Hybrid About Verda Verda (formerly DataCrunch) is a technology company building the next generation of cloud infrastructure for AI – compute that's instant, on-demand and at scale. Headquartered in Helsinki, the company operates globally across Europe, the US and Asia. Verda employs over 100 people from nearly 30 nationalities and has raised over $200M in total funding from investors including Lifeline Ventures, byFounders, J12 Ventures, Skaala, Varma and Tesi, alongside leading financial institutions.