Learning & Development Manager

Permanent contract

Full time; 40 hours per week

Up to £45,000 per annum dependent on skills and experience

The Royal Ballet and Opera continues to lead the way in opera, ballet, music and dance both live on stage and through multiple digital platforms, from live streaming to worldwide cinema screenings. Our Covent Garden theatre has been at the heart of London and British cultural life for three centuries. We are home to two world-class Companies: The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera .

The Royal Opera House describes the place we work, not who we are. The whole is always more than the sum of its parts - we may be a House, but three quarters of our audiences experience what we do outside this building. While our Covent Garden theatre is the nerve centre, the impact and influence of the organisation can be felt in every corner of the country, and around the world.

People are centre stage of everything we do at RBO, and our Human Resources department work across the organisation, ensuring that in every department we have the right people in place who are supported to deliver their work to their fullest capacity.

We are seeking an experienced and dynamic L&D professional to join the RBO and feed into a culture of continuous improvement and learning. This role will lead on the L&D strategy for the organisation, covering the delivery of mandatory training but also evolving our offering for staff, driving our Leadership Development Programme forwards and helping to facilitate and mediate broader conversations about dynamics, coaching and upskilling the workforce.

To be successful in this role, you will have a strong training network, be well versed in handling difficult conversations and able to juggle a busy roster of programme delivery (supported by the L&D Coordinator) whilst looking for ways to respond to organisational priorities. Our ideal candidate will have:

Significant experience of managing a learning and development function, with Associate CIPD membership or equivalent level of practical experience. Demonstrable commitment to proactively promoting diversity and inclusion through learning and development. Excellent influencing and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively with a wide range of people within and outside the organisation. Strong numeracy with experience of analysing and reporting on complex data. Flexibility in dealing with changing priorities and the ability to pivot

Experience of coaching and facilitation is not essential but will be highly regarded so please do reference this in your application if applicable.

To submit your application, please provide a supporting statement that outlines how your skills and experience match the essential criteria listed above. We recommend drafting your response in a separate document and then copying the final version into the application form. Please note that as part of our commitment to anonymised shortlisting, panels do not view CVs during the recruitment process. If you choose to upload your CV, our system will automatically pull information from your CV into our application form.

The Royal Ballet and Opera is one of the UK's leading arts organisations and our aim is to inspire imagination, ignite emotion and make the extraordinary for everyone. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion underpin all that we do. We want our people to be representative of the diversity in the UK. We understand the creativity and innovation that diversity can bring and strive to create an inclusive environment in which everyone can thrive.

We encourage applications from people with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and skills to join our teams. We particularly welcome applications from those who are from a global majority background and/or those who are disabled, as they are under-represented within our organisation.

We are a Disability Confident Employer, which means that we are actively working to ensure that candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions feel supported, engaged and able to fulfil their potential in the workplace. We will endeavour to offer an interview to candidates who tell us they wish to participate in the scheme and who demonstrate in their application that they meet the essential criteria for the role, though sometimes due to the volume of qualified candidates with declarations this is not possible.

The RBO is also committed to safeguarding and protecting all children, young people, and adults and we implement robust safer recruitment practices. Due to our safeguarding promise, certain roles will be subject to a DBS check before commencing employment with us, which will be indicated in the advertising.

A full job description can be found here.

For more information about working with the Royal Ballet and Opera, please review the info pack here .

For a list of potential reasonable adjustments, please review this guidance document. If you have any access requirements for your application, please contact the RBO Recruitment Team on

Closing date for applications: Midnight, Monday 5th January 2026

Applicants must have work authorisation for the UK. No agencies.