Graduate Programme & Talent Development Manager

Job title/position\:

Graduate Programme & Talent Development Manager

Number of positions\:

1

Function and Business Unit\: Management Consulting

Description of the role and purpose of the job\:

The Graduate Programme & Talent Development Manager is responsible for designing, leading and continuously evolving KPMG’s flagship two-year graduate consulting programme.

This strategic role exists to attract, develop and retain exceptional graduate talent, ensuring KPMG is recognised as one of the leading destinations for aspiring consultants. The role combines graduate employer branding, university engagement, programme design, learning and development, rotation management and performance enablement to build a sustainable pipeline of high-performing consultants.

The role holder will partner closely with Consulting Leadership, Talent Acquisition, Resource Management and People teams to deliver a market-leading graduate experience that strengthens KPMG’s reputation, improves the quality of graduate hires and accelerates graduates into productive, client-ready consultants.

Beyond programme delivery, the role is responsible for continuously curating, modernising and improving the graduate programme to ensure it remains aligned with evolving consulting capabilities, emerging technologies such as AI, client expectations and future workforce needs.

Key responsibilities\:

Graduate Programme Strategy & Leadership

• Own the strategy, design and governance of KPMG’s two-year Graduate Consulting Programme.
• Develop a market-leading graduate proposition that differentiates KPMG from competing consulting firms.
• Continuously review, refresh and modernise the programme to ensure it remains innovative, commercially relevant and aligned with the firm’s strategic priorities.
• Define programme outcomes, competency frameworks and development milestones.
• Measure programme effectiveness and implement continuous improvements based on graduate feedback, business needs and market trends.

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Graduate Attraction & Employer Brand

• Develop initiatives that strengthen KPMG’s reputation as an employer of choice for graduates.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition to improve the quality and diversity of graduate applicants.
• Build strategic relationships with universities, faculties, student organisations and career offices.
• Represent KPMG at graduate recruitment events, career fairs and networking forums.
• Design and deliver campus engagement initiatives, case competitions, innovation challenges and consulting workshops.
• Develop graduate marketing campaigns, social media content and ambassador programmes.
• Benchmark KPMG’s graduate offering against leading consulting firms and continuously enhance the employee value proposition.

Graduate Recruitment Support

• Support graduate recruitment campaigns and assessment centres.
• Participate in interviews and selection activities.
• Assist in identifying high-potential candidates.
• Improve assessment methodologies and selection criteria.
• Monitor recruitment conversion and offer acceptance rates.

Graduate Learning & Capability Development

Design and manage the consulting curriculum across the two-year programme, including\:

• Structured problem solving
• Consulting fundamentals
• Client engagement
• Business writing
• Storytelling and presentations
• Commercial awareness
• Design Thinking
• Customer Transformation
• Data literacy
• AI-enabled consulting
• Digital consulting
• Financial modelling
• Proposal development
• Industry knowledge
• Leadership and professional skills

Coordinate internal facilitators, Partners, external providers and online learning platforms.

Graduate Rotation Management

Design, coordinate and manage the structured 24-month rotation programme.

Partner with Resource Management and Consulting Leadership to ensure graduates receive meaningful exposure across\:

• Service lines
• Pillars
• Industries
• Client environments
• Internal strategic initiatives
• Business development
• Innovation activities

Responsibilities include\:

• Annual rotation planning
• Placement coordination
• Rotation scheduling
• Project matching
• Skills mapping
• Rotation evaluations
• Transition management
• Performance reviews
• Development planning

Ensure every graduate experiences increasing responsibility throughout the programme while balancing commercial utilisation with development objectives.

Graduate Experience & Engagement

Create an exceptional graduate experience through\:

• Structured onboarding
• Graduate community events
• Partner engagement sessions
• Innovation days
• Consulting bootcamps
• Social learning
• Mentoring programmes
• Buddy programmes
• Networking events
• Recognition initiatives

Monitor graduate engagement and wellbeing throughout the programme.

Performance, Coaching & Career Development

• Develop individual development plans.
• Coordinate mentoring and coaching programmes.
• Conduct regular development reviews.
• Track competency progression.
• Support promotion readiness assessments.
• Provide career guidance and coaching.
• Identify high-potential graduates for accelerated development.

Stakeholder Management

Develop trusted relationships with\:

• Consulting Partners
• Directors
• Engagement Managers
• Resource Management
• Talent Acquisition
• People & Culture
• Learning & Development
• University partners
• Graduate ambassadors

Programme Analytics & Continuous Improvement

Develop executive dashboards covering\:

• Graduate recruitment metrics
• Candidate quality
• University performance
• Programme participation
• Learning completion
• Rotation completion
• Utilisation
• Graduate engagement
• Retention
• Promotion readiness
• Diversity metrics
• Programme ROI

Provide regular reporting to Consulting Leadership.

Skills

• Strong programme management capability.
• Experience designing learning and capability development programmes.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Strong understanding of graduate recruitment and employer branding.
• Knowledge of consulting career pathways and capability development.
• Excellent facilitation and presentation skills.
• Commercial awareness.
• Experience managing multiple stakeholders and priorities.
• Strong analytical and reporting capability.
• Experience using learning technologies and AI-enabled learning platforms.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong project management and organisational skills.

Personal attributes

• Passionate about developing people.
• Innovative and continuously curious.
• Strategic thinker with a growth mindset.
• Highly organised and execution focused.
• Strong relationship builder.
• Commercially aware.
• Collaborative leadership style.
• High levels of initiative and ownership.
• Adaptable and resilient.
• Credible communicator with senior stakeholders.
• Creative and willing to challenge traditional approaches.

Minimum requirements to apply for the role (including qualifications and experience)\:

Qualifications\:

• Relevant tertiary qualification in Human Resources, Organisational Psychology, Business, Learning & Development, Education, Management or a related discipline, or equivalent work experience
• Postgraduate qualification would be advantageous.
• Coaching, facilitation or learning certifications would be beneficial.

Experience

• Typically, 7–10 years’ experience in graduate programme management, learning and development, consulting capability development or talent management.
• Experience within a management consulting or professional services environment strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience designing structured learning programmes.
• Experience working with university recruitment and employer branding initiatives.
• Experience coordinating large development programmes across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Experience using analytics to measure programme performance and drive continuous improvement.

Key outcomes and success measures

• Increased quality and diversity of graduate applicants.
• Improved graduate employer brand and university reputation.
• Higher offer acceptance rates.
• Successful delivery of a market-leading two-year graduate programme.
• Increased graduate engagement and retention.
• High completion rates across learning and rotations.
• Improved consultant readiness and reduced time to productivity.
• Increased promotion rates from Graduate to Consultant.
• Strong stakeholder satisfaction from Partners and Engagement Managers.
• Positive graduate Net Promoter Score (NPS).
• Continuous enhancement of programme content aligned to future consulting capabilities, including AI, digital transformation and emerging business skills.
• A sustainable pipeline of high-performing consultants supporting the firm’s long-term growth strategy.