Talent Lead at Safaricom Kenya

Job Description

Reporting to the COE Lead, Capability and Skills the Talent lead will be responsible for driving the end-to-end talent agenda: identifying, developing, and mobilizing talent to meet current and future business needs. Partner with leaders to build strong pipelines, embed inclusive talent practices, and deliver measurable impact through data, technology, and strategic talent rituals.

Responsibilities

Key accountabilities and decision ownership

•       Health and Safety

  • Uphold the company code of conduct, policies and procedures, ensuring integrity and accountability in every aspect of your work.
  • All employees have a responsibility to adhere to safety, health, and wellbeing policies, guidelines and procedures in all actions and decisions.
• Champion and uphold the company’s Code of Conduct, policies, and procedures—demonstrating integrity, accountability, and ethical leadership in all actions.
• Ensure full compliance with Health, Safety, and Wellbeing standards, embedding these principles into all learning and capability initiatives.
• Develop and execute a forward-looking talent strategy aligned to business priorities, workforce planning, and future capability needs.
• Lead the design and implementation of talent identification frameworks (e.g., potential assessments, talent reviews).
• Drive targeted development plans for high-potential talent, successors, and critical roles.
• Own the succession planning process, ensuring robust pipelines for leadership and business-critical roles.
• Monitor and report on pipeline health, readiness, and diversity.
• Leverage talent data and insights to inform decisions, track progress, and influence strategic workforce planning.
• Provide actionable dashboards and reports to senior leadership.
• Design and deliver leadership development programs that build future-ready leaders.
• Enable internal mobility by designing career pathways and facilitating cross-functional movement.
• Champion talent visibility and advocate for growth opportunities across the business.
• Lead and maintain talent rituals (e.g., talent reviews, calibration sessions, succession planning forums) to ensure consistency, accountability, and strategic alignment across the organization.
• Integrate digital tools and platforms into all talent processes and outputs to enhance efficiency, scalability, and data-driven decision-making.
• Continuously explore and adopt emerging technologies to modernize talent practices.
• Provide coaching and advisory support to leaders and managers on talent development and succession planning.
• Liaise with the Resourcing team to align on external talent mapping, ensuring visibility of external pipelines for critical roles and benchmarking against internal talent.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on talent-related matters and drive cross-functional alignment on talent priorities.
• Embed inclusive talent practices across all processes.
• Monitor and drive progress on representation, equity, and inclusive leadership behaviors.

Core competencies, knowledge, behavior and experience:

• Proven experience in talent management, succession planning, or leadership development.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and coaching skills.
• Ability to leverage technology and data to drive talent decisions.
• Strategic mindset with a passion for enabling people and organizational growth.
• Is non-hierarchical and collaborative, has transparency and trust in teams.
• Critical thinker has ability to find new solutions.
• Willingness to "roll up one's sleeves," work and study outside of one’s comfort zone and encourage the team toward such behavior.
• Creates a culture of innovation based on experimenting and data-driven decision making.
• Owns one career development and seeks feedback.
• Embraces change and believes in Agile values and principles.
• Demonstrates a passion for creating a learning organization.

Business and Customer Skills

• Driven and result-oriented “doer”.
• Skilled communicator and coach.
• Able to persuade and influence diverse stakeholders.
• Business Acumen.
• Owns customer expectations and results.

Mindset and Behaviors

• Is non-hierarchical and collaborative, has transparency and trust in teams.
• Critical thinker, has ability to find new solutions.
• Willingness to "roll up one's sleeves," work and study outside of one’s comfort zone and encourage the team toward such behavior.
• Creates a culture of innovation based on experimenting and data-driven decision making.
• Owns one career development and seeks feedback.
• Embraces change and believes in Agile values and principles.
• Catalyst — engage hearts and minds to unleash full potential of employees, customers, partners and other stakeholders.

Qualifications

Must have technical / professional qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree and Higher National Diploma in HRM.
• 5yrs relevant experience in HR management, with specialization in Talent Manaagement and Leadership Development.
• Proven experience in talent management, succession planning, or leadership development.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and coaching skills.
• Ability to leverage technology and data to drive talent decisions.
• Strategic mindset with a passion for enabling people and organizational growth.
• Experience in Coaching and building Line manager capability in performance / productivity management and development.