Talent Management Lead

About Us

Ektis is a boutique management consulting firm founded with heritage from the Big 4. We blend startup agility with world-class standards, delivering transformation, advisory, and execution excellence mainly across the Middle East banking sector. Our expertise covers strategy, operations, digital, and people, all rooted in trust-building and sustainable impact.

Since inception, the company has expanded to over 150 employees within one year, mainly centered in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a steadily growing regional footprint. We aim to significantly scale by 2027, enhancing both our capacities and coverage across the region.

As part of this growth, we prioritize our key asset—our people. Foundations laid now in HR, culture, and leadership will shape the experience and success of our workforce in the future. Joining Ektis means entering an ambitious and entrepreneurial environment where you influence both business outcomes and employee careers.

Role Purpose

The Talent Management Lead is responsible for overseeing how Ektis evaluates, develops, and advances its talent. The company has an established performance approach with an annual cycle and this role is critical both in managing the cycle effectively and elevating the standards within it.

This role partners closely with senior leadership, including the CEO and COO, project leaders, and mentors to ensure consistent assessments of performance and potential, early identification of issues, development of critical talent, and data-driven talent decisions that are defendable and transparent.

This is a hands-on role that requires maintaining strong operational control over the existing systems while continuously enhancing and scaling performance management and cultural initiatives as the firm grows.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the entire annual performance cycle: goal setting, ongoing check-ins, mid-year and year-end reviews, calibration, and development planning.
• Manage the performance calendar, governance, communications, and decisions to keep all stages on schedule.
• Ensure consistent application of goals, feedback, assessments, and ratings across various teams, grades, locations, and contract types.
• Review outcomes of each cycle and improve the framework and employee experience based on feedback and data.
• Utilize deep knowledge of consulting performance management involving multiple reviewers, project feedback, utilisation rates, promotion readiness, and cohort calibrations.
• Coordinate calibration discussions with leadership to ensure evidence-based, consistent, and properly documented decisions.
• Identify performance trends, risks, and needs for further investigation and challenge where fairness or consistency is threatened.
• Champion a culture where performance management is a reflection of company values and culture, not a mere administrative task.
• Improve the quality and timeliness of performance conversations across the firm.
• Maintain fairness and consistency among cohorts, grades, nationalities, and contract types; address any potential bias or inconsistent standards.
• Clarify and communicate progression criteria to ensure employees understand expectations for advancement.
• Address underperformance proactively with leaders, ensuring what is discussed in calibration is also communicated to individuals.
• Oversee the firmwide recognition program, manage its budget and align recognition with performance and company values.
• Lead engagement listening through pulse surveys, analysis, feedback sessions, and ensure follow-through actions are visible to employees.
• Manage the Experience Ambassador network and broader employee experience initiatives, coordinating with internal teams such as Marketing.
• Analyze engagement data in conjunction with performance metrics to highlight potential cultural gaps to leadership.
• Supervise probationary performance check-ins and early detection of performance issues.
• Guide leaders through structured performance improvement plans (PIPs), tracking objectives and progress with formal evaluation.
• Identify early warning signals for performance concerns and coordinate timely interventions with leaders.
• Collaborate with HR for formal employee relations support as needed.
• Develop and institutionalize talent and succession reviews, identifying critical roles, high-potential personnel, succession risks, and internal mobility.
• Maintain and refine career, grade, and progression frameworks to clarify expectations at each level.
• Ensure performance expectations align with competencies, promotion decisions, and career paths.
• Own promotion processes related to performance and talent, including readiness assessments and governance.
• Use talent insights to assist workforce and capability planning with business and people leaders.
• Enhance the performance-related components of the mentoring program including allocation, clarity, and effectiveness.
• Educate mentors, managers, and reviewers on their performance management responsibilities.
• Build reviewer skills through training and practical tools that improve goal setting and feedback quality.
• Work with L&D to address capability gaps identified through performance data analysis.
• Manage the in-house Ektis performance management platform, ensuring data accuracy, effective workflows, and continuous enhancements.
• Collaborate with technology providers and stakeholders to improve platform functionality and adoption.
• Produce insightful leadership reports covering performance, potential, succession, risk, and talent themes.
• Connect key metrics like performance, utilisation, progression, retention, and engagement to reveal trends and recommend actions.
• Maintain strict governance and data quality over performance and talent processes.
• Partner with HR, Reward, and leadership to align performance outcomes with progression and compensation.

Key Stakeholders

• CEO, COO, and senior leadership team
• Partners, Principals, and Directors
• Project leaders and performance reviewers
• Mentors
• Internal teams such as HR, Finance, Learning & Development, and Marketing

Experience and Skills

Required Background:

• Proven track record within management consulting, strategy consulting, Big 4 advisory, or similar project-driven professional services.
• Credibility and confidence to interact with senior consulting leaders and challenge when needed regarding fairness or consistency.
• Experience developing people frameworks to improve governance, consistency, adoption, technology use, and stakeholder capabilities.
• Strong organizational and project management skills managing multiple deadlines and stakeholders simultaneously.
• Excellent communication skills with ability to simplify complex processes for diverse audiences.
• Comfort in a dynamic organization where established processes evolve and hands-on decision making is essential.

Core competencies you'll be asked to demonstrate:

• Direct ownership or involvement in end-to-end performance cycles.
• Experience leading calibration or moderation meetings, managing disagreements on ratings and maintaining standards.
• Handling goal setting, project feedback, talent reviews, promotion processes, and development planning.
• Managing performance concerns or PIPs, with reflections on improvements.
• Translating performance and talent data into insights that impact leadership decisions.
• Collaborating with HR and technology teams to enhance performance processes with digital tools.

Differentiators:

• Treating performance management as a strategic cultural and commercial tool, not just HR admin.
• Understanding fairness challenges in a multinational, multi-location project-based workforce.
• Experience in succession planning, career frameworks, and facilitating internal mobility.
• Strong analytical skills to generate meaningful insights without relying only on commissioned reports.

Success Metrics

• Performance processes are confidently managed, punctual, continuously improving, and scale with organizational growth.
• Clear communication so employees know expectations, assessment methods, and progression pathways.
• Managers, reviewers, and mentors excel in their roles, leading to higher quality performance discussions and feedback.
• Performance ratings and progression decisions are consistent, documented, and trusted by employees.
• Underperformance is addressed earlier with transparency matching calibration and individual feedback.
• Leadership gains clear insights into performance, potential, succession planning, and talent risks.
• Talent pipelines and succession options strengthen for critical roles.
• Development resources are efficiently utilized based on actual capability needs.
• Recognition programs align visibly with company values and contributions.
• Employee engagement data reflects honest input and encourages participation through visible responsiveness.
• Talent and performance tools remain practical, trusted, well-adopted, and scalable during growth.

Role Focus

This position emphasizes the continuum from performance evaluation, potential identification, career progression, succession planning, development, and data-driven insight, with fairness and trust embedded at every stage.