The Role
The Senior Talent Management & Learning Specialist is responsible for leading the deployment and continuous improvement of Talent Management and Learning initiatives within the Ireland manufacturing site. As the site subject matter expert for talent, learning, leadership development, succession planning, and workforce capability, the role partners closely with Plant Leadership, HR Business Partners, Functional Leaders, and Centre of Excellence (COE) teams to drive organisational effectiveness and support business growth.
This position plays a critical role in building a high-performing workforce by ensuring robust talent processes, effective learning programmes, leadership capability development, compliance training governance, and succession planning across all employee populations. The role serves as the primary escalation point for complex Talent Management and Learning matters and provides strategic consultation to business leaders while ensuring alignment with global HR strategies and local business needs.
How Will You Make an Impact?
Talent Management & Succession Planning
- Lead annual talent review, succession planning, and organisational capability assessment processes for the Ireland site.
- Partner with Plant Leadership and HR Business Partners to identify critical roles, succession risks, and talent pipeline requirements.
- Facilitate calibration discussions and talent reviews to ensure consistent assessment of performance and potential across functions.
- Develop and track talent action plans to accelerate readiness of key talent and strengthen succession bench strength.
- Provide insights and recommendations based on talent analytics, workforce data, and organisational trends.
Learning & Capability Development
- Own the site learning strategy and annual learning plan to support business priorities and workforce capability requirements.
- Identify capability gaps and partner with business leaders to design and implement targeted development solutions.
- Drive leadership development initiatives for frontline leaders, supervisors, managers, and functional leaders.
- Ensure effective deployment of global learning programmes, leadership curricula, and development frameworks.
- Evaluate learning effectiveness through metrics, learner feedback, business outcomes, and return-on-investment measures.
Organisational Development & Employee Growth
- Support organisational effectiveness initiatives, change management programmes, and workforce transformation projects.
- Drive employee development programmes, mentoring initiatives, career pathways, and internal mobility opportunities.
- Promote a culture of continuous learning and professional development across the site.
- Facilitate workshops, assessment centres, leadership programmes, and development interventions as required.
Stakeholder Partnership & Advisory
- Act as trusted advisor to Plant Leadership and people leaders on talent, leadership, learning, succession, and organisational effectiveness matters.
- Collaborate with EMEA and Global Talent Management COEs to ensure alignment with enterprise-wide initiatives.
- Provide expert consultation on performance management, career development, leadership capability, and employee development planning.
- Coach managers on talent identification, development planning, feedback, and performance conversations.
Systems, Reporting & Continuous Improvement
- Own talent and learning data integrity within Workday Learning, Talent Management modules, and associated HR systems.
- Develop dashboards and reporting to monitor learning effectiveness, succession readiness, leadership pipeline health, and talent metrics.
- Analyse workforce trends and provide actionable recommendations to improve capability and talent outcomes.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives to simplify processes, improve adoption, and enhance the employee experience.
- Manage relationships with external learning providers and vendors, ensuring quality delivery and achievement of contractual service levels.
Leadership & Governance
- Serve as the senior escalation point for complex Talent Management and Learning issues.
- Provide coaching, mentoring, and guidance to HR colleagues and local stakeholders on TM&L best practices.
- Support the implementation of global HR programmes while ensuring compliance with local employment practices and legislation.
- Lead or participate in site, regional, and global HR projects as required.
What You Will Need
- Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources, Business, Psychology, Learning & Development, Organisational Development, or related discipline.
- Minimum 5 years' progressive HR experience, including experience in Talent Management, Learning & Development, Leadership Development, or Organisational Development.
- Experience supporting manufacturing, medical device, pharmaceutical, life sciences, or highly regulated environments.
- Demonstrated experience leading talent review, succession planning, learning strategy, and leadership development initiatives.
- Experience influencing senior leaders and driving talent outcomes within a complex organisation.
- Strong project management and change management experience.
What Else We Look For?
- Expertise in Talent Management, Succession Planning, Leadership Development, and Learning Governance.
- Understanding of Irish employment legislation and learning compliance requirements.
- Experience working with Workday Learning, Talent, Performance, and Succession modules.
- Proven ability to use talent analytics and workforce data to influence business decisions.
- Experience managing external learning providers and training partners.
- Strong facilitation, presentation, and executive stakeholder management skills.
- Demonstrated capability to operate independently while influencing across multiple levels of the organisation.
- Excellent communication, coaching, and relationship-building skills.
- Strategic mindset combined with a hands-on approach to execution in a manufacturing environment.
- Strong continuous improvement orientation and ability to lead process optimisation initiatives.
- High level of professionalism, discretion, and ability to manage sensitive employee information.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's Degree in related field
- 5 years work experience in Human Resources managing HR processes for assigned function
- Experience with Microsoft tools and applications
- Experience in multiple HR Solutions pillars
- Experience supporting all levels of management
- Experience managing HR system data and processes
- Experience with HR enabling technologies (case management, employee and manager self-service)
- Experience with ServiceNow
- Experience with ERP system (Workday)
- Experience managing third-party providers and SLAs
- Continuous improvement experience (process improvement to reduce inquiry volume/turnaround)
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Customer-service orientation and professionalism
Edwards Lifesciences Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Edwards Lifesciences and has not been reviewed or approved by Edwards Lifesciences.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is considered strong, with multiple plan choices, HSA options, and fertility support, and the company highlights holistic well‑being programs.
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Retirement Support — A company 401(k) match and well‑regarded retirement offerings add clear long‑term value to total compensation.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — An Employee Stock Purchase Plan with a discount and look‑back feature makes equity ownership accessible and enhances the total rewards package.
Edwards Lifesciences Insights
What We Do
Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW), is the global leader in patient-focused medical innovations for structural heart disease, as well as critical care and surgical monitoring. We thrive on discovery and expanding the boundaries of medical technology, serving patients in 100+ countries, with the help of our employees in areas including Clinical Affairs, Quality Engineering, Research & Development, Regulatory Affairs, Sales & Marketing, corporate functions and more. Our roots date back to 1958 when Miles Lowell Edwards, a retired engineer with a background in hydraulics and fuel pump operations, set out to build the first artificial heart. Edwards believed the heart could be mechanized and was encouraged by Dr. Albert Starr to focus on developing an artificial heart valve. After just two years, the first Starr-Edwards mitral valve was developed and successfully placed in a patient. This innovation spawned Edwards Laboratories. Miles’ fascination with healing the heart and helping patients with heart disease stemmed from his own experience with rheumatic fever as a teenager and continues to fuel our patient-first culture today. Today, we are as passionate about providing innovative solutions for people fighting cardiovascular disease as we have ever been. It's our Credo. It takes integrity, collaboration, innovation, and focus. We are leaders in the design and manufacture of tissue replacement heart valves and repair products as well as advanced hemodynamic monitoring. We partner with physicians to innovate products designed to help patients live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. Our work is both rewarding and a privilege. The importance of what we do defines our approach. We work together to create an environment where ideas can flourish and we provide our people with the resources, expertise and support to bring those ideas to life. For our legal terms and trademarks, please visit: https://www.edwards.com/legal/legal-terms
