About the Job:

The Principal, Talent Planning & Design leads the end-to-end design and continuous evolution of integrated workforce and talent ecosystem that help the enterprise anticipate future talent needs, understand talent supply, build critical skills, strengthen leadership pipelines and enable employee growth. The role connects Strategic Workforce Planning, skills, talent review, succession and career development to improve decisions about workforce capacity, talent readiness, development priorities and succession risk while creating clearer pathways for employees to grow and contribute.

This leader translates workforce and talent insights into practical, scalable processes, decision frameworks, governance, user experiences and enabling requirements that improve decisions about workforce capacity, skills, talent readiness, development priorities and succession risk.

Working across Talent, Finance, Technology, HR Technology, Talent Analytics, HR Business Partners and business leadership, the role translates complex workforce and talent needs into scalable, user-centered processes, decision frameworks and experiences. This is not a technology configuration role; its enduring purpose is to turn workforce insights into practical talent and workforce actions that strengthen organizational readiness.

Key outcomes driven by this role

• An integrated skills intelligence and workforce planning ecosystem in which internal and external talent-market signals inform scenario modeling, workforce investment decisions, and build, buy, borrow, redeploy and automate strategies.
• A clear, scalable Strategic Workforce Planning process and experience that supports enterprise strategy, operating and financial planning, scenario decisions and workforce investment tradeoffs.
• Modernized talent review and succession practices that use workforce demand, talent supply and skills data to improve visibility to critical roles, talent readiness, pipeline depth, development priorities and emerging talent risks.
• A skills-based talent experience that embeds skills into workforce planning, talent decisions, career growth and development, with measurable adoption by employees, leaders and HR.
• Career and development experiences that help employees explore opportunities, build relevant skills, create meaningful development plans and make progress in the flow of work.
• Consistent, data-informed and user-centered decisions supported by fit-for-purpose technology, clear governance, defined ownership and continuous improvement.

Primary Responsibilities

Strategic Workforce Planning

• Partner with Strategic Workforce Planning to design and continuously improve the processes, experiences, and enabling capabilities through which the enterprise SWP strategy is executed, connecting business strategy, operating plans, financial planning, workforce demand, talent supply, skills, capacity, cost, location, and timing.
• Translate workforce planning needs into practical process designs, planning activities, decision points, user journeys, governance routines, data and reporting requirements, and adoption plans.
• Design scenario-planning approaches and experience that enables leaders to assess workforce gaps and evaluate investment tradeoffs, including potential build, buy, borrow, redeploy, or automate actions.

Integrated Talent and Succession Planning

• Design how workforce demand, talent supply, skills, talent review, succession, and development practices work together to support enterprise talent decisions.
• Lead the design and continuous improvement of talent review, calibration, and succession processes, including approaches for identifying critical roles, evaluating readiness, assessing succession coverage (talent pools), and identifying talent risks.
• Translate succession insights into enterprise risk visibility, including critical role coverage, depth of successor pools, readiness gaps, mobility constraints, and exposure in business-critical leadership roles.

Skills, Career, and Development Experience Design

• Lead the integration and continuous evolution of skills across workforce planning and talent experiences, ensuring skills insights consistently inform talent decisions, career growth, internal mobility, and employee development.
• Lead the design and evolution of career and development experiences, including career exploration, career & development conversations, and visibility to internal opportunities.
• Translate employee and leader needs into requirements for enabling capabilities such as personalized learning suggestions, development plans, career navigation, opportunity marketplaces, gigs, internal networking, and other skills-enabled recommendations.
• Create mechanisms to identify, track, and activate enterprise talent across business units, ensuring high-potential and succession-critical talent is visible beyond current reporting lines.

Process, Experience, and Technology Enablement

• Apply user-centered design methods to understand business, employee, leader, and HR needs and translate them into scalable processes, decision frameworks, user experiences, and supporting resources.
• Partner with HR Engineering, HR Technology, Business Finance, and Strategic Workforce Planning teams to define business requirements & priorities, data needs & reporting expectations that informs decisions, and experience considerations needed to design SWP and talent solutions.
• Develop enablement, guidance, and adoption approaches that help users understand new processes and capabilities, incorporate them into their work, and apply them consistently.

Governance, Measurement, and Enterprise Partnership

• Establish governance models that clarify enterprise standards, ownership, decision rights, cross-functional handoffs, operating rhythms, and approaches for managing exceptions.
• Define success measures and use workforce data, experience insights, stakeholder feedback, and adoption indicators to identify friction, improve processes, and inform future design priorities.
• Facilitate cross-functional discovery and decision-making, advise senior stakeholders, and communicate complex workforce and talent concepts clearly across executive, business, HR, and technical audiences.

What Experience You'll Bring:

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, Finance, Strategy, Design, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in Strategic Workforce Planning, workforce strategy, talent management, succession, career development, skills strategy, organizational effectiveness, talent management experience design, HR or Talent consulting or related disciplines.
• Depth of experience in Strategic Workforce Planning, including scenario planning, talent demand and supply, workforce economics, skills-based planning, workforce strategy or labor investment decisions.
• Demonstrated experience in integrating talent review, succession planning, career development and skills-based talent practices with workforce data and planning insights, rather than managing them as separate processes.
• Demonstrated experience designing and evolving enterprise talent, workforce, organizational effectiveness, or planning solutions that are practical, scalable, user-centered, and connected to business outcomes.
• Experience translating business and user needs into requirements, use cases, process designs, governance models, data and reporting needs, adoption plans, and technology-enabled solutions.
• Experience partnering across Talent, Finance, Technology, HR Business Partners, Talent Analytics, HR Technology, and business stakeholder groups.
• Experience working in technology-enabled planning or talent environments preferred; familiarity with Strategic Workforce Planning platforms and HRIS technology is helpful but not required, and hands-on system configuration experience is not required.

#LI-Remote, #LI-Hybrid

Compensation Range:

Pay Range - Start:

$130,800.00

Pay Range - End:

$196,200.00

Geographic Specific Pay Structure:

Structure 110:

$143,920.00 USD - $215,880.00 USD

Structure 115:

$150,400.00 USD - $225,600.00 USD

We believe in fairness and transparency. It's why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you're living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more.

Job Posting End Date:

09/27/2027

The timeline for this job posting may be shortened or extended based on organizational needs.

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Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.