Indigo is a physical and digital place inspired by and filled with books, ideas, beautifully designed lifestyle products, and the creative people who help make it all happen. We believe in real books, living life fully and generously, being kind to each other and to the environment, and that stories — big and little — connect us. Indigo is our customer's happy place — for joyful moments of discovery and to connect with people who share their passion for reading, their belief in ideas, and their commitment to making the world a better and more beautiful place.
OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Our Mission is to inspire reading and enrich the lives of booklovers. As such, we believe in the power of people and their stories. We aim to attract top talent, nurture the potential of our employees, and create space for everyone to thrive. Our Guiding Principles are the few key ideas that are meant to influence everything we do, every day.
- We Will Hire, Inspire, Promote and Retain the Best
- We Will Be Customer Centric
- We Will Be Entrepreneurial
- We Will Be Committed to Caring About Each Other, Our Communities, and Our Environment
- We Will Be Committed to True and Shared Value Creation
- We Will Be Systems Thinking, Data Driven and AI enabled
MISSION
The Director, Talent Development is responsible for defining and implementing Indigo’s talent development philosophy, roadmap, and execution strategy—enabling the organization to build the capabilities, leadership strength, and performance culture required to achieve its business objectives.
This role ensures the effectiveness, scalability, and integration of all talent development processes and practices, including the learning process performance process, potential process, succession process, and career planning process, across Home Office, Retail, and Distribution Centre teams.
The Director will be a key driver of Indigo’s evolution into a high-performance, growth-oriented organization where employees are equipped to develop their capabilities, navigate their careers, and contribute meaningfully to business outcomes.
KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS
- On-time, on-budget delivery of key talent programs
- Strength of leadership pipeline and for critical roles
- Customer satisfaction score of Talent Team
- Team engagement score
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Participates as a senior HR leader in shaping Indigo’s people and capability strategy, ensuring talent development directly advances business performance, growth, and customer outcomes.
- Partners with senior leaders to identify capability gaps, critical roles, and future talent needs, translating these into targeted, enterprise-level development strategies.
- Defines and continuously evolves Indigo’s talent development philosophy, ensuring alignment with business strategy, workforce needs, and future capability requirements.
- Develops and delivers a multi-year talent development roadmap with clear annual priorities covering learning, leadership development, performance enablement, succession, and career development.
- Builds and leads a high-performing Talent Development team, setting clear standards for delivery, accountability, and impact.
- Advances Indigo’s learning ecosystem (Indigo U, LMS/LXP platforms), ensuring it is scalable, user-friendly, data-informed, and aligned to employee-driven growth and career development.
- Designs, amends and embeds key HR Talent Development processes: Learning & Development, Performance, Potential, Succession and Career Planning
- Establishes clear success measures and uses talent and learning analytics to assess effectiveness, inform decisions, and continuously improve outcomes.
- Leads adoption of talent practices, including change management and leader enablement, ensuring strong usage and behavioural impact.
- Acts as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on leadership effectiveness, succession, and organizational capability, influencing decisions that strengthen Indigo’s long-term performance.
- Maintains strong external awareness of emerging trends in talent, learning, and leadership, ensuring Indigo remains competitive and forward-looking.
- Partners with HR and business leaders to identify future-critical skills and roles, informing workforce and succession planning.
- Aligns learning and talent priorities to business strategy and future capability needs.
- Contributes to annual planning, budgeting, and prioritization across the talent development portfolio.
- Leads the design of customized learning experiences and curricula grounded in adult learning principles, with clear goals, practice, and application on the job.
- Leads change and adoption efforts when talent practices are introduced or updated.
- Shapes and lead execution of initiatives linked to the engagement strategy, including surveys and action planning, onboarding and offboarding feedback.
Reports to: Chief People Officer
Manager once Removed (MOR): CEO
KEY RELATIONSHIPS
Internal:
- HR Business Partners
- Cross functional Leaders
- IT teams supporting learning systems and analytics
External:
- Vendors & suppliers
- Leading industry experts and colleagues
- 10-15 years of progressive experience in learning, talent development, or talent management at a Tier 1 organization
- University degree in Human Resources, Education, Organizational Development, or related field
- Deep understanding of leading enterprise-wide adult learning and instructional design, with experience building customized learning curricula for frontline, corporate, and leadership audiences
- Deep experience with performance & potential management, succession planning, leadership development
- Data-driven mindset with ability to turn insights into action and drive measurable outcomes
- Demonstrates creative thinking and resilience
- Full alignment with Indigo values as reflected in the Guiding Principles statements
- A passion for Indigo’s mission
This posting is for a current opportunity within Indigo.
Indigo uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist with certain aspects of the hiring process, such as screening and assessments. These tools support our team but do not replace human judgment. We are committed to using AI responsibly, fairly, and in compliance with applicable employment and anti-discrimination laws. We regularly review these tools to help prevent bias or discrimination.
At Indigo, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility are core to our values. We integrate these principles into our training, policies, and hiring practices and continuously evolve to reflect the needs of the communities we serve. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and lived experiences, including but not limited to individuals who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour), members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and persons with disabilities. If you require an accommodation during the recruitment process, please contact Human Resources at [email protected].
